Absolutely fantastic read:
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a comment :-
We are all 'different' in our thinking and our
backgrounds. So, perhaps, it is inherently impossible for all to agree.
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*The Abilene Paradox*
On my birthday a couple of years back, I wanted
to take my family out for dinner. I asked my wife
where we can go. Knowing that I like Indian food,
she immediately said: "Let's go to Rajdhani - The Thali Restaurant."
My son and daughter both nodded in agreement. On
return my son said: "I wish Pappa had taken us to
Mainland China he loves Chinese food.." "Or at
least to Copper Chimney for the wonderful Punjabi
food" added my daughter. "Yes, I too would have
loved to go Mainland China" , I said.
My wife looked surprised: "But didn't we all
unanimously agree to go to Rajdhani" she asked.
I said sheepishly "I didn't want you to feel
bad." And both my children nodded in agreement.
Here were four people who of their own volition
would not have gone to 'Rajdhani - The Thali
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" .
Abilene Paradox occurs when a group of people
collectively decide on a course of action that is
contrary to the preferences of many of the individuals in the group.
Prof. Harvey states in his paper 'The Abilene
Paradox': "Organizations 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 manage agreement, not
the inability to manage conflict, is the
essential symptom that defines organizations
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.
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 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 collective mind."
Thinking:
the talking of the soul with itself. Plato
Good Morning
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Posted by: Murli dhar Gupta <mdguptabpl@gmail.com>
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