On a birthday, a family decided to go out for dinner. The husband asked wife, where to go. Thinking that he likes Gujarati food, she said, "Let's go to Agashiye - The Terrace Restaurant!"
Her son and daughter nodded in agreement.
On their return, the son remarked, "I wish Papa had taken us to Mainland China, as he loves China food". "Or at least to Sher-E-Punjab for the wonderful tandoori chicken", added his daughter.
"Yes, I too would have loved to go to Mainland China!" the man said.
Wife looked surprised, "But didn't we all unanimously agree to go to Agashiye?", she asked.
He said sheepishly, "I didn't want you to feel bad". And both 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'.
The Abilene Paradox occurs when a group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is contrary to the preferences of most of the individuals in the group.
Prof Harvey states in his paper, 'The Abilene Paradox', "Organisations 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 mange conflict is the essential symptom that defines organisations 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.
If the top boss always disagrees with the rest of the group then the organisation will never have the group giving honest opinion.
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 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 collection of minds".
Tailpiece.
Got up around a quarter past 6, opened up the house and put on the morning music. Murali had come by a half past 9 and had made good the defects, both electrical and plumbing. Again, it was bath after breakfast!
Spoke to quite a lot of friends and relatives. It rained off and on during the entire day. The triple lockdown of our panchayat is still continuing!
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