AUTHOR: AARON MURAD

“In fact, to be more accurate, we'd done just the opposite of what we wanted to do. The whole situation simply didn't make sense.”

The Abilene Paradox, developed by Jerry B Harvey in 1974, refers to a situation where organizational groups frequently take a series of actions contrary to what they actually want to do and consequently work against their ultimate goal. Preventing being caught in "Abilene" requires honesty with yourself and open and honest communication with the individuals in the group.

Today, the proliferation of the internet, social media and other modern communication tools has virtualized the Abilene Paradox into a "Meta-Abilene" Paradox. One would think that digitally increasing the number of available communication platforms should make avoiding Abilene simpler. No individual in an organization could say that they are unaware of what the other person thinks or wants; if anything, ideas are over-communicated.

However, what has actually happened is that the same technology that eases communication has increased the organizational group size to a critical mass where social consensus rules. Thus, the original individualized purpose of the communicative tools are negated and a larger group is along for the ride to Abilene or in this case "Meta-Abilene."

The solution to avoiding Abilene is still the same in that the "truth will set you free," but avoiding Meta-Abilene requires that you put down the phone first.