{"id":5185,"date":"2016-12-15T00:01:06","date_gmt":"2016-12-15T05:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/?p=5185"},"modified":"2026-04-21T13:26:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:26:46","slug":"abilene-paradox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/abilene-paradox\/","title":{"rendered":"Remember the Abilene Paradox and Avoid Absurdity While Facilitating"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Group decision-making, when not transparent or properly facilitated, can lead to awful decisions.\u00a0The Abilene Paradox captures why four intelligent adults would agree and decide to do something that none of them wanted to do in the first place.<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<h4>It may sound absurd that\u00a0four intelligent adults would agree and decide to do something that none of them wanted to do in the first place,\u00a0but\u00a0it is\u00a0effectively found\u00a0in a small but well-received story.\u00a0I first learned of Harvey&#8217;s article while receiving my MBA at Kellogg, and was\u00a0recently reminded of it during a discussion with a student after class, who was in the process of earning her own MBA.<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>The Abilene Paradox Background<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Based on a story that starts in the remote town of Coleman, Texas, four adults travel in a dust storm and 104 degrees (Fahrenheit) heat in an un-air-conditioned &#8217;58 Buick to a cafeteria in Abilene. After returning, the story covers their conversation which could be summed up with the comment \u201c I didn\u2019t want to go.\u201d Of course, none of them did, so why did they go?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2T148ku\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jerry B. Harvey\u2019s<\/a> Abilene Paradox tale can be found sourced in\u00a0the October issue of the Organizational Dynamics journal, 1985. Its message is timeless.\u00a0<strong>He identifies the inability to manage agreement as a major source of organizational dysfunction.<\/strong>\u00a0He never mentions the need or value of a professionally trained facilitator. Rather, he describes the caller of the meeting as the \u201cconfronter.\u201d A professionally trained facilitator\u00a0provides a\u00a0more effective term as they should challenge participants (rather than \u201cconfront\u201d them).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Therefore, in his article, Harvey\u00a0covers six issues.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Six Abilene Paradox Lessons<\/span><\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_5186\" style=\"width: 491px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img wpfc-lazyload-disable=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5186\" class=\"wp-image-5186 size-full\" title=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/15\/abilene-paradox\/\" src=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Abilene-Paradox.png\" alt=\"Remember the Abilene Paradox and Avoid Absurdity While Facilitating\" width=\"481\" height=\"465\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Abilene-Paradox.png 481w, https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Abilene-Paradox-300x290.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 481px) 100vw, 481px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-5186\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>The Abilene Paradox<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Symptoms of the paradox (arguably the most important of the six)<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">People in organizations shave private conversations . . .<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">. . . and make private agreements as to the steps to \u201ccope\u201d with the situation or problem they face.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">They fail to communicate their underlying desires or beliefs to one another leading to a misperception of the collective reality.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Members make collective decisions that lead them to take actions contrary to what they want to do, and thereby arrive at results that are counterproductive to the organization\u2019s intent and purposes . . .<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">. . . resulting in frustration, anger, irritation, and dissatisfaction with the organization that causes blame toward\u00a0\u201cother\u201d subgroups.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Since they are unable to manage agreements (rather than conflict), the cycle repeats itself with greater intensity.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">How they arise in organizations<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The underlying causal dynamics<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Implications for organizational behavior<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Recommendations<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Views toward the broader existential issue<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The Abilene Paradox provides fun and enjoyment because his thesis asserts that the failure to communicate effectively runs rampant throughout most large organizations. Facilitated decision-making provides a dependable answer or alternative to absurd decision-making. Why? Because people speak symptomatically. Without proper challenge, they do not think clearly nor do they articulate the driving cause or rationale behind\u00a0their beliefs.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The Watergate\u00a0Paradox<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Also citing the \u201cWatergate\u201d fiasco that brought down President Nixon, Harvey notes that . . .<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u201c . . . the central figures of the Watergate episode apparently knew that, for a variety of reasons, the plan to bug the Watergate did not make sense.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Avoid your own Watergate, or an exhausting 106-mile trek by embracing the value of a trained, professional facilitator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Remember that two people arguing about the spiciness of a chili or curry are both right. By title, they are called &#8216;subject(ive)&#8217; matter experts. Your role as the facilitator through the method of the challenge will get them to agree that regardless of spiciness, the chili or curry measures 1,400 Scoville Units.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>______<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Don\u2019t ruin your career by hosting <a href=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/bad-meetings\/\">bad meetings<\/a>. Sign up for a <a href=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/public-facilitation-training\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">workshop<\/a> or send this to someone who should. <em><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20260106090117\/https:\/\/mgrush.com\/\">MGR<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">USH<\/span><\/a><\/em> workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Group decision-making, when not transparent or properly facilitated, can lead to awful decisions.\u00a0The Abilene Paradox captures why four intelligent adults would agree and decide to do something that none of them wanted to do in the first place. It may sound absurd that\u00a0four intelligent adults would agree and decide to do something that none of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[453185953],"tags":[453191065,453192371],"class_list":["post-5185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-managing-conflict","tag-abilene-paradox","tag-coleman-texas-watergate"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.8 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Avoid Absurdity While Facilitating, Keep in Mind \u201cThe Abilene Paradox\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Abilene Paradox captures why four intelligent adults would agree and decide to do something that none of them wanted to do in the first place.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/abilene-paradox\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Avoid Absurdity While Facilitating, Keep in Mind \u201cThe Abilene Paradox\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Abilene Paradox captures why four intelligent adults would agree and decide to do something that none of them wanted to do in the first place.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/abilene-paradox\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MG RUSH Facilitation Best Practices Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FacilitationTraining\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FacilitationTraining\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-15T05:01:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-21T17:26:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Abilene-Paradox.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"481\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"465\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Facilitation Expert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Avoid Absurdity While Facilitating, Keep in Mind \u201cThe Abilene Paradox\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The Abilene Paradox captures why four intelligent adults would agree and decide to do something that none of them wanted to do in the first place.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TerrenceMetz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@terrencemetz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Facilitation Expert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mgrush.com\\\/blog\\\/abilene-paradox\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mgrush.com\\\/blog\\\/abilene-paradox\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Facilitation Expert\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mgrush.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/33b05e43036ff09de0ddfccfef9a4497\"},\"headline\":\"Remember the Abilene Paradox and Avoid Absurdity While Facilitating\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-15T05:01:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-21T17:26:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mgrush.com\\\/blog\\\/abilene-paradox\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":657,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mgrush.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mgrush.com\\\/blog\\\/abilene-paradox\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mgrush.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/12\\\/Abilene-Paradox.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Abilene Paradox\",\"Coleman Texas. 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