I was, in fact, talking about the phenomenon known as
Groupthink. Individual intelligence and creativity is often subsumed by the necessity of group coherence, it's an unconscious reacion to being part of a group.
Now, Akima makes a good point, great things have been done by large groups ogf people, but as Is it cold in here and peterh point out, these were directed groups brought together for that purpose; these things were all originally the thought of an individual who had the wherewithal (an emperor, pharoah, or other religious or political leader) to bring a large group to bear on a project.
And after that project is complete, the group is dissolved. Within that structure there's a great deal of room for individual creativeness to come through, as there are several problems that need to be solved by the group, and an individuals ideas can be brought to the fore, tested and adopted. But without the overarching architecture of the project, these ideas wouldn't even be necessary!
Your hospital has a charter, doesn't it? A guiding light, a purpose, a board of directors to make sure that purpose is fulfillied? And I've had a great deal of experiance with "wonderful" teaching hospitals in the last year. When faced with a "problem", they're as guilty of groupthink as the next mob! The show
House is a myth - even the best doctors fall victim to this problem, and in the larger ones, you have the added problem of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing. There's nothoing like a doctor admitting to you that they're not sure why they were even called in on your case!
Groups brought together for the purpose of leadership are a different matter, they tend to suffer from groupthink as much as most mobs do, but they have guidelines (e.g. Robert's rules of order) to keep things moving and get things done, whether they are well done or not.
And the internet is a different animal yet again! ARPANet was designed by some engineers for the simple purpose of academic communication, and it became a huge pile of unintended consequences...
Even this forum is a gathering of people brought together by the inspiration of one man's artistic endeavor, and his idea that "it might be neat to let people talk to each other about my comic".
And music, art, and god so many other things I'm sure he never thought would come up! Not to mention the need to lock threads and ban people...
All for the good of the group, of course.
So yes, I was using an oversimplified "soundbite". But not one without truth behind it!
TL;DR. You can get on with your lives, now.