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One of the strongest management fads of the past 30 years has been embracing teams in the workplace.

So popular has the idea of groups working together become that the phrase "not a team player" is now a significant slur.

Yet while teams are effective - perhaps even essential in some circumstances - uncritically embracing them as an organisational cure-all is unwise. For decades psychologists have known of negative consequences of team behaviour. One of the most insidious is called groupthink. It occurs when a team of people is so obsessed with reaching consensus that members fail to critically analyse the ideas and actions they endorse.

The Queen recently alluded to the problems of groupthink when during a briefing on the global economic crisis she asked the obvious question: why did nobody see it coming? Perhaps being a monarch allows her to think more easily outside the square.

Most of us experience and become involved in groupthink in the playground. We very quickly learn that resisting group consensus is not only useless but a passport to unpopularity and social exclusion. We soon grasp that things are easier for us if instead of criticising group direction we actively cheer for it.

As we become more savvy we find we are rewarded for saying "yes" and complying. We are rarely rewarded for saying "no". "Yes" normally precedes an action. It usually equates to compliance with the group's goals and is generally rewarded with a warm embrace. By contrast, "no" usually relates to inaction; it is used to defy the group and saying it can place us in a lonely, solitary place. "Yes" requires no effort, thought or purpose but only a person of thought and conviction can sustain a "no".

There are examples of groupthink all around us.

Just think of the last time at work you were compelled to go along with something that was just plain bloody stupid because all of your colleagues were committed to the idiotic action. You didn't point out that the strategy had a bigger hole in it than a Qantas fuselage. You just meekly went along with it, while fuming internally.

For some reason training courses can be a potent breeding ground of this kind of behaviour. The power vested in the trainer can, if not checked, encourage groupthink through coercion. Have you ever been compelled to hug or embrace the person sitting next to you in a training course? Have you seen what happens to the macho bloke who says no? He's dismissed as arrogant, or diagnosed with that damning condition: he is said to have issues.

Some researchers think groupthink is so widespread that it is in fact the glue that holds societies together. We band together out of fear of the unknown, opting for the uncritical acceptance of what is often sub-optimal in preference to the risk of branching out and trying new things.

That being the case, why not try saying "no" at work more often. You can take comfort from the fact you are broadening society's horizons and possibly even contributing to the well-being of mankind.

Jim Bright is professor of career education and development at ACU National and a partner at Bright and Associates, a career management consultancy. Email ladder@brightandassociates.com.au .