Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 492
An orderly meeting can skip the thinking
Functional Group Communication Theory evaluates decision quality through requisite communication functions rather than through one preferred meeting procedure
Premise
A disciplined meeting can still produce a weak decision. Functional Group Communication Theory shifts attention from whether a team followed an approved procedure to whether its communication accomplished the analytical work the decision required: understanding the problem, establishing criteria, developing alternatives, and examining consequences.
That distinction changes facilitation. Brainstorming, structured debate, expert briefings, informal conversation, or voting can all work if the requisite functions are satisfied. Conversely, a polished agenda can conceal a missing function. The executive review should therefore ask what the conversation achieved, not how professional the meeting looked.
What the model is: Functional Group Communication Theory in Knowledge →
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- FamilyModel
- CategoryTheories & Explanatory Models
- DomainGroups & Decisions
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Theories & Explanatory Models
Explains how or why a communication process works by relating mechanisms, conditions or variables. Its value is an account that can guide inquiry into what produces an outcome, rather than a name for the outcome alone.
- KnowledgeFunctional Group Communication Theory
- Related briefGroupthink: Protect the Decision From Premature Agreement
- Key conceptCounteractive communication