1/29/2005
The Abilene Paradox
Another term mentioned in Thursday’s project management class. Here are some links that I found on it:
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This is the first I’d heard of the Abiline Paradox, but I have seen it quite a few times in real life. It’s a tough one to manage because I will often make a decision based on what I think the other person actually wants, even though they may not have expressed their true preference.
The two things I do to try to keep the ’smooth the waters’ agreements to a minimum are to tell the truth about my true preferences as much as possible, and to encourage other people to express their true opinions as well. It seems to help, especially when with practice, I realize that the consequences of sharing my true preferences are more positive than negative. In general, I’ve found that being afraid of the truth will tend to promote this sort of ‘false concurrence’.
That Project Management class sounds interesting. I look forward to more of your posts.