The Abilene Paradox

The Abilene Paradox, Jerry B. Harvey

ISBN 0-7879-0277-2 TheAbileneParadox and other meditations on management, Jerry B. Harvey gives "companionate insights into the craziness of organizational life". The title essay in this book describes the AbileneParadox, a form of GroupThink that is rather unconstructive, but very common in private life, as well as in organization, among teams... A bizarre book - sermons, parables and stories - about management.

Anti-patterns (the RuleOfThree is respected) referring to Eichmann and the Holocaust, Watergate, trips to Abilene - this is an idiom in American English is it? - "phrog"-farms (frogs and princesses kissing them). -- MartineDevos

I found this book curiously devoid of insight. The title essay is okay at identifying a problem (managing agreement can be harder than managing disagreement) but says very little to help me understand what to do about the problem. The rest of the book is just plain weird. The only part that stuck was his rules for grading tests for his biz-school students - you could bring any materials you wanted and work with anyone you wanted. Of course, this provoked howls of protest from the other professors, for interesting reasons that had nothing to do with the education of students. -- KentBeck

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