{"id":3930,"date":"2023-09-14T08:00:55","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T06:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/?p=3930"},"modified":"2022-12-26T14:34:26","modified_gmt":"2022-12-26T12:34:26","slug":"abilene-parable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/14\/abilene-parable\/","title":{"rendered":"Abilene Parable"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In his 1988 book, Professor Jerry Harvey of George Washington University developed a parable of real life to describe how people believe they have reached agreement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The story is about four adults – a married couple and the wife\u2019s parents \u2013 who are relaxing on a porch in 104 degree heat in the small town of Cole- man, Texas, around 53 miles from Abilene. They are relaxing, drinking lemonade, and occasionally playing a game of dominoes.<\/p>\n

The wife\u2019s father suggests they drive to Abilene to eat at the cafeteria. While the son-in-law thinks the idea is a crazy one, he goes along with it, as do the two women. They get in their car, which does not have air conditioning, and drive through a dust storm to Abilene.<\/p>\n

They eat a mediocre lunch and return to Coleman exhausted, hot, and generally unhappy with the experience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When they are home, it is revealed that none of them wanted to go to Abilene. Each of them was going along because they thought the others wanted to go.<\/p>\n

Again, this is a fascinating parable that illustrates UGRs that commonly exist in work environments.<\/p>\n

Translated into a work context, the following UGRs could be operating:<\/p>\n

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  • Around here, positive group dynamics are most important. Anyone who disagrees does not have the group\u2019s best interests at heart, and is trying to ruin positive group dynamics<\/li>\n
  • Around here, if the boss wants something done, it\u2019s best not to disagree<\/li>\n
  • Around here, action \u2013 any action \u2013 is better than nothing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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     <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In his 1988 book, Professor Jerry Harvey of George Washington University developed a parable of real life to describe how people believe they have reached agreement. The story is about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[83,81,87,88,82,89,90,80],"class_list":["post-3930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-workplace-culture","tag-corporate-culture","tag-culture","tag-leadership","tag-leading","tag-organisational-culture","tag-ugrs","tag-unwritten-ground-rules","tag-workplace-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3930"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3970,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions\/3970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefduplessis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}