Are we on the road to Abilene?

My 3 and a half year old granddaughter Hayley, a perfect child in every way, wandered into the kitchen one morning and announced to her mother “I love God.” Her mother, not sure where this conversation was going, wisely nodded her head and said “That’s good.” “Well, that’s what He wants to hear,” Hayley shrugged, and wandered back out.

I’m not one to say something just because someone wants to hear it. But I have been in situations where I’ve been hesitant to speak up. What causes that? In my case, the leader was an overbearing jerk who would belittle anyone that spoke out against his ideas. It was simply less aggravation to keep quiet than to be the target of his insanity. But there was never a case where serious money or lives were in danger.

Jerry Harvey, professor of management at The George Washington University, has seen situations where “groupthink” has led to disaster. He calls it “The Abilene Paradox”, and raised the issue in his book “The Abilene Paradox and Other Meditations on Management”. Dr. Harvey begins by telling of a hot, dusty day at his in-laws in Coleman, Texas:

The family is comfortably playing dominoes on a porch, until the father-in-law suggests that they take a trip to Abilene [53 miles north] for dinner. Jerry’s wife says, "Sounds like a great idea." Jerry, despite having reservations because the drive is long and hot, thinks that his preferences must be out-of-step with the group and says, "Sounds good to me. I just hope your mother wants to go." The mother-in-law then says, "Of course I want to go. I haven't been to Abilene in a long time."

The drive is hot, dusty, and long. When they arrive at the cafeteria, the food is as bad. They arrive back home four hours later, exhausted.

Looking to spark some discussion, Jerry says, "It was a great trip, wasn't it." The mother-in-law says that, actually, she would rather have stayed home, but went along since the other three were so enthusiastic. Jerry says, "I wasn't delighted to be doing what we were doing. I only went to satisfy the rest of you." The wife says, "I just went along to keep you happy. I would have had to be crazy to want to go out in the heat like that." The father-in-law then says that he only suggested it because he thought the others might be bored.

The group sits back, perplexed that they together decided to take a trip which none of them wanted. They each would have preferred to sit comfortably, but did not admit to it when they still had time to enjoy the afternoon.

I heard Dr. Harvey speak on The Abilene Paradox in Columbus, OH a few years ago. He has a great Texas accent, and speaks in a down home, folksy sort of way. But his message is serious: Groups will take actions that contradict what individual members want to do or think is right. He suggests that managing “agreement” is a more serious issue that managing conflict.

At his Columbus lecture, he raised the account of the Challenger explosion. He had received a letter from someone on the launch committee detailing the process for the pre-launch meeting. He described how every person on the committee had the opportunity to stop the launch just by saying “We’re not ready.” And although the writer knew that there was an issue with the seals, he couldn’t go against the pressure of the group by being the one to stop the launch. By voicing agreement, he delivered the Challenger and its crew to its inevitable end.

Not many of us deal with life and death situations like that, but our fear to speak up can still have repercussions. One company where I worked, everyone spoke up against a project except the senior executives, and it ended up being a $4 million boondoggle. Saying “I told you so” wasn’t much consolation when the bonus checks were canceled.

One employer made “The Abilene Paradox” part of their management training. And anyone had the opportunity (duty?) to raise the flag if they thought the team was going in the wrong direction. All they had to do was ask the question “Are we on the road to Abilene?” Everyone knew the story, and it made the team stop of consider the actions they were taking. Many times I saw this simple technique cause a team to change or finesse its action plan. Many times, it saved the company thousands of dollars as suggestions from front line people were worked into the plan. Without knowing it, the company was really doing a kaizen style review of their processes and systems, eliminating waste before it was built into the system.

“Are we on the road to Abilene?” is a good question to ask whenever teams reach decisions. You don't want to make a decision based on what the leader wants to hear.