You don’t need a crowd to have a good idea. You usually need some quiet.

Ideas do not generally arrive in a room full of people talking. Group settings are good for testing and building on something that already exists, and bad for the stage where a thought needs space to form. What looks like collaboration is often several people repeating the first suggestion. The quiet part cannot be skipped by adding more voices.

Before the next group meeting, spend fifteen minutes alone with the problem and write down your own thoughts. Bring them with you. You will notice the difference between contributing and agreeing, and so will everybody else.