The danger of groupthink is not only that it suppresses the full range of options but also that unstated objections will come to the surface at some critical moment-usually at a time when aligned, cooperative action is essential to implementation. The leader of a large division of a fast-growing retailer learned this the hard way. He liked to work with a small subset of his senior team to generate options, evaluate the alternatives, and develop a plan of action, and then bring the proposal back to the full team for validation. At that point, his managers would feel they had been presented with a fait accompli and so would be reluctant to raise their concerns. A5 one of them put it "Because the meeting is the wrong place to object, we don't walk out of the room as a unified group;" Instead, they would reopen the debate during implementation, delaying important initiatives by many months.