Group decision making is supposed to provide a richer pool of knowledge and experience and therefore better choices.  Research has shown that groups that share unique information, that which is known only to a few members, rather than to discuss information shared by most or all of its members, tend to make better decisions.  Further groups that talk to each other more make better decisions.  Unfortunately, a meta-analysis of 72 studies, involving 4,795 groups and over 17,000 individuals showed that groups tend to spend most of their time discussing the redundant information shared by most members, rather than discussing information known only to one or a minority of members.  In addition, the analysis found that groups that talked more tended to share less unique information.  The problem seems particularly bad when groups seek a consensus opinion or judgment rather than solving a problem for which a correct answer exists.   There is good news however.  Groups benefitted improved both their unique information sharing and the range of discussions among group members  when the group was more focused and highly structured.  Such structure can be created when using a GDSS to manage the meeting.