The Abilene Paradox and Pharma India

Written By:?Vivek Hattangadi

The Abilene Paradox and Pharma India

On my birthday a couple of years back, I wanted to take my family out for dinner. I asked my wife where we can go. Knowing that I like Gujarati food, she immediately said: “Let’s go to Agashiye - The Terrace Restaurant.”

My son and daughter both nodded in agreement. On return my son said: “I wish Pappa had taken us to Mainland China – he loves Chinese food.” “Or at least to Shere-E-Punjab for the wonderful tandoori chicken” added my daughter. “Yes, I too would have loved to go Mainland China”, I said.

?My wife looked surprised: “But didn’t we all unanimously agree to go to Agashiye” she asked.

?I said sheepishly “I didn’t want you to feel bad.” And both my children nodded in agreement. Here were four people who of their own volition would not have gone to ‘Agashiye - The Terrace Restaurant, but collectively agreed to go there.

?This also happens in the corporate world. This is the Abilene Paradox. Prof. Jerry Harvey calls it “The Inability to Manage Agreement”.

?Abilene Paradox occurs when a group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is contrary to the preferences of many of the individuals in the group.

?Prof. Jerry B. Harvey states in his paper ‘The Abilene Paradox’: “Organizations frequently take actions in contradiction to what they really want to do and therefore defeat the very purpose they are trying to achieve”. This is the inability to manage agreement.

He adds: “The inability to manage agreement, not the inability to manage conflict, is the essential symptom that defines organizations caught in the web of the Abilene Paradox.”

And this applies to the corporate world across all industries, everywhere in the world, not just India?

In the pharma corporate world, when the entrepreneur (the owner of the firm) throws an idea, the group immediately agrees. This is because everyone in the group thinks he would look stupid if he disagrees with the entrepreneur. Standing out as a lone voice is very embarrassing.?

This leads the group to decide on ‘yes’ when ‘no’ would have been the personal (and the correct) response of the majority.

The 73-year old entrepreneur with a 1979 mindset says in a meeting with the brand managers, marketing managers that: “The idea of having a microsite for our new brand Newex seems to be absurd as no doctor would like visit the microsite. Nothing is better than the visual aid!”

The 47-year-old Sr. Vice President (Marketing) immediately nods his head in agreement, although he has recently done a 11-month course on digital. He says to himself: “I know that Old Man is wrong, but I do want to displease Old Man. My future depends on Him”.?

Both the millennial’s and Gen Z look at Old Man and the Sr. Vice President in surprise but all nod their heads in agreement.

And all know that importance of a microsite for Brand Newex and the futility of the obsolete Visual Aid.?

But none wants to displease Old Man, even though they know it would hurt Brand Newex. The Abilene Paradox in full action. ?The Abilene Paradox is a group dynamic where the collective agrees on a path of action that none of the individual members want to do.?

I love this from Ayn Rand:?“If we have an endless number of individual minds who are weak, meek, submissive and impotent – who renounce their creative supremacy for the sake of the “whole” and accept humbly the ‘whole’s verdict’ – we don’t get a collective super-brain. We get only the weak, meek, submissive and impotent collective mind.”

The `Abilene Paradox' plagues Pharma India too, severely.

A very strong leader with excellence in communication skills may also cause this to happen. Because the speaker is so convincing and his personality driving, voices of dissent are silenced. He may present his case so forcefully, that rather than be conspicuously different or cause difficulties; people decide to just go along with it. They are avoiding the anxiety of voicing a different viewpoint. This can lead to dangerous situations.?

Everyone will continue to say Yes' when they want to say No' for the fear of being isolated or labelled as a rebel.

This paradox can be pre-empted by true and authentic leadership. It requires a leader with a different calibre and courage to lead such a group into a different direction, where non-conformity is not acceptable. Such a leader will confront the group and even the person who throws the original idea, with what they have already agreed upon. This true leader will make people forget the previously agreed upon facts. Bringing these up causes people to reconsider, and could render the change in direction needed for a turnaround.

No CEO or am entrepreneur worth his salt wants his organization going the Abilene Paradox way. He knows that the Abilene Paradox can hurt his company.

[This blog is adapted from an idea by Prof. Jerry B. Harvey – which is an interesting quirk of group agreement. He called it “the Abilene paradox.” It describes?the tendency of people to go along with what they think the group wants to do — even when they themselves don't want to do it.]?

-?Vivek Hattangadi