Talk Is Not About Info
Tyler points us to a new J Applied Psych meta-analysis of team info sharing:
Meta-analytic results from 72 independent studies (total groups = 4,795; total N = 17,279) demonstrate the importance of information sharing to team performance, cohesion, decision satisfaction, and knowledge integration. Although moderators were identified, information sharing positively predicted team performance across all levels of moderators.
BUT:
Groups tend to spend most of their time discussing the information shared by members, which is therefore redundant, rather than discussing information known only to one or a minority of members. This is important because those groups that do share unique information tend to make better decisions. … Ironically, … groups that talked more tended to share less unique information.
Why? My guess: people know they are respected and liked more by other team members when they say things others already agree with. Saying something new may help the team, but it puts you at risk.
I'll just echo MrHen -- I think sharing non-redundant information can often increase the amount of work for a team -- which is a significant down side, especially if that information may/may not lead to a significantly better decision.
Although at the same time -- I think this is obviously the most useful type of information to share.
I tried to share some information on less wrong, but I was censored because it was from the wrong crazy fringe science. I've learned my lesson though, clearly only the crazy fringe sciences of yudkowsky and friends are legitimate and the others can eat a bucket of dicks.