Last week my blog post on our Bold Bee Consulting website was about the Abilene Paradox, which describes a situation in which a group of people go forward with something that no one in the group favors. I describe why and talk about some fairly simple ways to avoid it at www.boldbeeconsulting.com/blog.
We can see the Abilene Paradox at work in the workplace as well. For example a board of executives grasping for new revenue generators can decide to invest in a new project in which no one feels confident. Additionally, an office might throw a holiday party because it's viewed as something they're supposed to do even though no one there actually wants the party. On a smaller scale, we have probably all been in meetings that end with action items that don't seemed to be tied to any real objectives. And of course meetings just for the sake of meetings are a common culprit and time waster.