Organizational Metathesiophobia and groupthink

Seth Godin posted the Top ways to defend the status quo.

If you've heard anything like what's on that list, your organization might suffer from metathesiophobia, the fear of changes, and be subject to groupthink.

What can you do to counteract this paralyzing groupthink behavior?

Bruce D. Watson of Heads Together writes of ways to prevent or combat groupthink , based on Janis Irving's work, who first developed groupthink theory.

Godin's list is quoted below for the reader's convenience:

1. 'That will never work.'
2. '... That said, the labor laws make it difficult for us to do a lot of
   the suggestions [you] put out. And we do live in a lawsuit oriented
   society.''
3. 'Can you show me some research that demonstrates that this will work?'
4. 'Well, if you had some real-world experience, then you would understand.'
5. 'I don't think our customers will go for that, and without them we'd never be able to afford to try this.'
6. 'It's fantastic, but the salesforce won't like it.'
7. 'The salesforce is willing to give it a try, but [major retailer] won't stock it.'
8. 'There are government regulations and this won't be permitted.'
9. 'Well, this might work for other people, but I think we'll stick with what we've got.'
10. 'We'll let someone else prove it works... it won't take long to catch up.'
11. 'Our team doesn't have the technical chops to do this.'
12. 'Maybe in the next budget cycle.'
13. 'We need to finish this initiative first.'
14. 'It's been done before.'
15. 'It's never been done before.'
16. 'We'll get back to you on this.'
17. 'We're already doing it.'