Institutional Cognition

When many people contribute to an institutional decision, the institution eventually faces a practical problem: plurality must somehow become an output. Opinions can be counted, preferences ranked, forecasts averaged, survey…

Institutions are often encouraged to broaden participation when confronting complex problems, and for good reason. Decisions can improve when they incorporate knowledge from people who experience a policy directly, specialists…

Meetings are usually treated as containers for institutional work. Decisions are made in them, information is exchanged through them, problems are discussed and responsibilities are assigned, but the meeting itself…

When an institution makes a serious mistake despite the involvement of many intelligent people, one explanation often appears quickly: groupthink. The term evokes a familiar picture in which individuals suppress…

Institutions often respond to disagreement by trying to eliminate it. Different departments use different concepts, professional communities interpret the same evidence differently, local offices describe problems in ways that do…

Governments rarely confront complex public problems using knowledge generated entirely within the public sector. Companies understand technologies and markets that regulators must oversee; universities and research organisations develop specialised expertise;…