Are we going to Ablene?

As a young reporter I covered hundreds of city council and public board meetings of different government agencies.

New taxes, no problem. New spending on an engineering study for a new subdivision? 

Ok. No discussion, no kidding. All the members agreed.

‘All those in favor raise your hand.’ Everyone in agreement, gavels come down, measure passes without a peep of debate.

 Whew. What was in that measure? How much did it cost? I asked my learned editor the reason behind these rubber stamp actions. “You know the law and how the government works. That’s the way things work. Those things are discussed behind closed doors or over coffee someplace else. They are on their way to Abilene.”

Abilene? Kansas or Texas? I thought we were in Missouri. 

Who approved that junket? 

“Go look it up but don’t miss that deadline.”

So off to the research bins I ran.

Author Jerry B. Harvey wrote a book called The Abilene Paradox (Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1996) focusing on explaining why groups of people agree to do something which contradicts what each member really wants to do or believes what is right.

As the story goes, Harvey’s family was relaxing on a hot afternoon in Coleman, Texas, sipping lemonade and playing dominoes. His father-in-law suggested that they drive 50 miles to Abilene for dinner at a cafeteria there. Harvey’s wife said it sounded like a good idea, and his mother-in-law agreed. 

So, as not to be disagreeable, Harvey pulled the 1958 unair-conditioned Buick around and the four of them drove through the heat and dust to Abilene, where they had a not-very-good meal. 

When they returned to Coleman over four hours later, hot and exhausted, they discussed the trip.

It became clear that no one had really wanted to go in the first place but they each had “gone along” because they felt that it was something that the others had wanted to do. 

They did just the opposite of what they had wanted to do. According to Harvey, “The whole situation simply didn’t make sense.” 

Harvey called this tendency for groups to embark on excursions that no one group member wants “the Abilene Paradox”.

We’ve all seen it or heard about it.

Dealing with conflict in groups is well documented but dealing with total agreement without discussion is often harder to pinpoint or diagnose.

This could be in a corporate board meeting or an engineering group trying to build a skyscraper. One person gives an idea and the entire group agrees with it without any discussion.

It may be a good decision.

But it may be a bad one.

Take the Congress for example.

Are our elected members going along with their leadership? 

Where’s the outrage from the voters? Don’t they work for us?

Here’s a couple of recent issues: Obama Care-“But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it – away from the fog of the controversy.” Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif).

Or, raising the debt ceiling again-House Speaker John Boehner conceded that, “our members are not crazy about voting to increase the debt ceiling.”

Do we stand by and let this continue? Do we vote them out?

Did anyone tell their representatives about these actions?

Abilene, Texas is a nice town, I was born and raised there.

Abilene, Kansas is also a nice place to visit.

But ‘Going to Abilene’ is not a good place to take our country.