Counting sheep before sleep?

When the wise guy wrote "Too many cook spoil the broth", my guess is he himself probably wouldn't have been too assertive about the line. For, I suspect there wouldn't have been MBAs then. After spending about five months with groups on different occasions, one thing has cemented strongly within me: It's damn tough for a group of MBAs to work together to give the optimal output. We might think that if one guy is capable of doing a job in 5 minutes, a group of five would do 5 jobs in the same time. But in reality, this is just wishful thinking. I guess the phenomenon applies equally well to other groups as well, as long as it’s an intellectual group trying to solve a complex problem.

I'm not trying to say that there are inherent problems with the people in the groups. As far as I could see, it’s just that people don't tend to give the maximum in a group, thereby severely affecting the time and efficiency of the output. Most of the time, even if a group of 10 equally talented guys (theoretically, atleast) meet, it's only two or three who do the job. Some of them 'chill out’ while some of them just play the role of Devil's advocate. Again, I'm not trying to find fault with people. The problem is with the system called 'Group work'. Every time a group meeting is over, six of us would have wasted (yeah, wasted is the word) six hours for doing a job that would've taken 3 hours for a guy who works sincerely. Many a times, individuals feel that their points have lost in the phalanx of thoughts that originate in the meeting. Many others would’ve just been there in the chaos, which is mere waste of time considering that the world provides interesting things like movies and games to invest time on.

The problem with the group work could be due to 'social loafing'. For starters, it’s a phenomenon where people try to delegate the work to others and ‘chill out’, hoping that others would complete. Ego-clashes could also be a potential problem. Another behavioral theory says that ‘Abilene Paradox’ comes into effect, where people try not to displease others by contributing their controversial albeit constructive viewpoint. Whatever the reason is, I've come to believe that group work doesn't even come close to how we think it should ideally be. My views are shared by most of my batchmates, give or take one or two self-endorsed nerds.

Now, the most pertinent question is whether our behavior could be changed in an organizational setting after the learnings we go through. We've learned all about the behavior of humans at work, the different motivational and psychological theories. Do we really make sure that we apply them to make the world a better place? I personally don't see any positive change in any of the groups before and after the several ‘promising’ and positive sounding courses. So, if the answer is no, what is the real point in learning at all? What is the guarantee that we'd apply everything in the organizations to create a cozy atmosphere?

Nice questions to think while waiting to get into wonderland (sleep that is). A definite alternate to counting sheep!

A useless & admittedly nonsensical note: There is this competition called “The best Indian Business School Blog” that is conducted by ISB where yours truly would probably a participant. There are no rules or guidelines mentioned to become the Best Indian B-school blog. So, gimme some ideas, if any, to become the "best among the Indian Business school blogs" …