Group management & 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. 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.”

In the corporate world, when the top boss throws an idea, the group immediately agrees. This is because everyone in the group thinks he would look stupid if he disagrees. 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.

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 almost all the industry even now, severely and invariably.

A very strong leader with excellence in communication skills may 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. Managers will continue to say `Yes' when they want to say `No' for the fear of being isolated or labeled as a rebel.

This paradox can be preempted by true and authentic leadership. It requires a leader with a different caliber 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 wants their organization going the Abilene Paradox way. They know that the Abilene Paradox can hurt his company, but can they control its toxic and devastating effects? Matter of a long debate!!!