HRpedia: 'Abilene Paradox'
When supposed 'collaboration' goes wrong for everyone
Abilene paradox, n.
The Abilene paradox. Quite a cool one, although it definitely stems from the other side of the pond. The original story (paraphrased), from 1974, goes thus:
Four family members are sitting on the porch at midday – a husband and wife, and the wife’s parents. It is a scorching hot day and they are playing dominoes. Suddenly the father-in-law, sensing the others might be bored, suggests that they drive to Abilene (a city in Texas) for lunch. His wife agrees without thinking, and his daughter agrees too, not wanting to upset the applecart. Her husband is unsure because it’s a long way to drive for lunch, but acquiesces because he seems to be in the minority.
So they drive to Abilene. The air-con in the car is busted so the drive is hot and uncomfortable, and when they arrive the lunch is just as bad. They get back at four o’clock, with the afternoon wasted. One of them says that after all, they would have preferred to stay at home. Then, as it turns out, not a single one of them ever wanted to go to Abilene for lunch – not even the father-in-law.
The paradox lies in a string of assumptions as to the thoughts and intents of others. The father-in-law was simply concerned that the others didn’t enjoy dominoes as much as he did, and offered an alternative off the top of his head. His wife agreed because she wanted to make her husband happy, and then his daughter and her husband followed suit because it seemed like their parents wanted to go to Abilene.
In this way, a group of people can ‘go to Abilene’ even though not a single person in the group actually wants to go there. We have to assume here that Abilene is like the Hull of Texas.
It’s safe to say we’ve all been there (metaphorically). Family gatherings are especially bad culprits. However the worst you’ll suffer there is a three hour nativity play, or getting trapped in an infinite regression of “Let’s do X.” “No, I prefer Y.” “Well, how about X?” until it’s time to shut up and eat.
In a business, the paradox can be more insidious. Good ideas can be smothered, and off-the-cuff suggestions can end up being carried all the way into practice without oversight. To stop yourself ‘going to Abilene’, a management guidebook will probably tell you to not be afraid to voice dissension.
At HRVille, we’re not afraid of giving you the hard-hitting advice that you deserve. Whenever you sense the discussion going places it really shouldn’t, try putting on your best country western impression and starting singing “Is this the way to Amarillo?” Yeah, I’m retroactively making Abilene into Amarillo. Both in Texas, both begin with A. Close enough. People’ll know what you mean.
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