There is a famous story (one of my favorites) in the leadership/management literature from a 1974 article written by Dr. Jerry Harvey, entitled "The Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement". Harvey is playing dominoes with his father-in-law, wife, and mother-in-law on a hot, dusty, summer day in Texas, when his father-in-law casually suggests that they all drive 53 miles to Abilene to eat dinner at a cafeteria there. The rest of the family agrees, and they all take a long drive through a Texas sandstorm in a car without a working air conditioner to eat a less-than-pleasing dinner at a run-down cafeteria in Abilene. After driving (again) through the sandstorm again back home to Coleman, Texas, the father-in-law makes some comment that he really didn't think that dinner was worth the trouble. When the rest of the family chimes in, they all wonder aloud why they even made the trip in the first place. As it turns out, Harvey's father-in-law didn't really want to go to Abilene either and had only suggested the drive because he thought everyone else was bored. In truth, no one really had wanted to go, but they were all just "going along" with the rest of the group.
On a personal level, I can think of a number of times when I have casually suggested "doing something" just because I thought that the rest of the group was bored (even if I was perfectly happy and content doing what we had been doing in the first place). I can remember many summer afternoons when I was growing up, sitting on the driveway or in the backyard, asking my friends "Do you want to do something?" (and then suggesting a litany of things that "we could do" that I didn't necessarily want to do - some times, "watching the grass grow" on a summer afternoon is perfectly fine).
How many times do organizations end up on the proverbial road to Abilene? As Harvey elaborates further in his article, the problem here is an inability to manage agreement. A suggestion or course of action is presented, and the rest of the leadership group follows along because they are all sure that everyone is in agreement (even if some of the members of the group don't agree at all). No one really wants to be the lone dissenting voice, which is unfortunate as in many cases, the dissenting voice is the true voice of reason.
On the face of it, the "Abilene Paradox" sounds a lot like "groupthink". The two concepts are different. Groups that find themselves on the road to Abilene do not agree that they should be heading towards Abilene, but no one is willing to speak up and be the dissenting voice. With cases of "groupthink", the leadership group has been right so many times in the past that they become overconfident and assume that they are "right" now. They may still be heading across a lonely desert through a sandstorm, but they are unanimously and confidently in agreement that through the desert they must go.
There are a number of suggestions that groups can follow to avoid "going to Abilene." As it turns out, a number of these suggestions can also mitigate against the effects of "groupthink."
1. Leaders should encourage debate - it may help to frame important issues as a choice between two or more alternatives ("Instead of going to Abilene for dinner, we could stay here at home and have a picnic dinner on the back porch.").
2. Leaders can assign roles - when debating an issue, someone should be assigned the role of the "devil's advocate" to argue the alternative viewpoint ("I don't think we should drive all that way to the cafeteria in Abilene - it's a long drive, it will be hot, and the food is really not that good.").
3. Leaders should empower the individuals in the group to be able to speak up. Reward and praise the individuals who call a spade a spade. Respectful disagreement and managed conflict can be a powerful tool ("I am glad that you spoke up about not going to Abilene - thank you.").
4. Leaders can use something that Gary Klein calls the "project premortem" - before embarking on a particular course of action, assume that the group has failed and then discuss why the project failed ("Wow, that trip to Abilene sure was miserable, and the food wasn't very good."
All of these tools can help steer a team away from heading to Abilene and getting back on track.
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