Google and Intel get it. Good decisions come out of collaborative environments. And sometimes it’s more about the people who generate the ideas and how they are generated than the ideas themselves. This is according to a new book from Harvard Law professor, Cass Sunstein.

“A great idea isn’t sufficient for a smashing success and sometimes it’s not even necessary,” Sunstein says. Sunstein who studies behavioral economics says it’s about the process through which great ideas are created in his new book, “Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter.”

So why is it so difficult to make a decision in a group? Sunstein says it’s because we become different people in a group setting. For example, in a group setting, errors in judgment tend to be aggravated. We are more likely to go along with an idea because someone louder or seemingly more important suggested it-- not because it’s necessarily a great idea. Also in a group setting, members tend to become more polarized. Sunstein points to research that shows individuals tend to adopt more extreme positions held by one or two vocal members in a group than before entering that group. Sunstein also says people are often scared to speak up with new ideas because they don’t want to upset the boardroom status quo or be ostracized in the fallout of doing so.

Sunstein points to Google (GOOGL) and Intel (INTC) as well as The Vanguard Group and General Electric (GE) as companies who over the years have fostered good group decision-making environments. These companies, he says, have allowed creativity to blossom through collaboration.

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So what exactly are these companies doing and what can other business leaders learn from them? It’s about bringing in the right personalities. Sunstein says CEOs need to resist the desire to surround him or herself with “yes” people. “’You’re wrong’” is uncomfortable. Some people don’t like that,” says Sunstein. “Even if they don’t self-consciously surround themselves by ‘yes people,’ people become ‘yes people’ because they don’t want to discombobulate or discourage or irritate their boss,” he says.

It’s a rut many executives find themselves in. CEOs get the most out of their employees by developing a collaborative company but still leading. Call it “Leading from behind.” Sunstein says even if a leader has an idea that he or she is sure is a good one, “It’s smart to be quiet and to let innovation and creativity within the company emerge.” Sunstein says the best CEOs let the group share information and generate ideas, and then step in when big decisions need to be made.

Assigning roles to particular people is another strategy Sunstein recommends. Leaders can elicit diverse information and have individuals focus on certain problems. “Each person gets a job, and so if you know it’s your job to focus on that and then other people are saying other things, well, they have different jobs.” Collaboration comes more easily when employees know where their focus should rest.

Finally, leaders should create a culture of a team always willing to share new ideas and information no matter how they fit into the current conversation. Sunstein says, “People think to be a team player is not to smile necessarily and say that 'everything is going great.'" It should be about speaking one's mind and feeling confortable about doing so, he says.

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