The Management

of
Agreement:
The Problem of The Abilene Paradox

Rhoda Obeto
June 11, 2013
 Areas of Examination
• The Need for Teams
• Team Dynamics: Effect on Communication
• Communication and Team Performance
• Managing Agreement
• Conflict vs Agreement
• Communication Theories
• Barriers to communication
 Reason for Teams
• Complex task era
• Short term project based task era
 Types of Teams
• Virtual
• Problem Solving
• Self Managed
• Cross – functional
• Functional
 Why and When People Do Not
Communicate

• The Abilene paradox!

• Need to belong, get along with others:
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
• Fear of the known and unknown
• Happens mostly in collective cultures: Conflict
Avoidance
 The issue with agreements in teams
• Players agree the problem (privately)
• Players agree the coping mechanism (privately)
• Players communicate the wrong feeling/data
(openly)
• Team lead take action based on wrong data (openly)
• Wrong action leads to bad reaction/consequences
(openly)
• Reactions /consequences lead to more agreement
issues (privately) or disagreement / conflict (openly)
DATA vs RISK
 DATA
• Internal Data
• External Data
 Internal Data
• Truth – climatic condition ( temp)
• Motivation – we should be done soon
• Conflict – I did not want to make others
uncomfortable
• Uncertainty – I am the only one that cannot cope
with this?
• Support – ‘I will show care for Zainab by asking her
how she feels ’
• Honesty – I know the solution, ‘just open the
window!
 RISK
• Real Risk
- Justify risk with slogan: Higher risk, higher
profit
- Risk of labels and punishments
• Fear of Separation
- Humans have the intrinsic need to belong
- We want to make separation our choice
 RISK cont’d
• Action Anxiety
- Easier to be quite
- Easier to feel like a team player
• Negative fantasies
- Purges guilt
- Which is the lesser of the two evils?
- Act like a team player and be dishonest or don’t
be the team player and be honest to self?
 External Data
• Psychological reversal of risk and
certainty
• We do the opposite of what we feel
• Open agreement
• Our position is clear (body language and
verbal)
• Our worst fear becomes real!
 Contradiction of data

Choice (selection of the risk coefficient/best)

vs

Decision (Pronouncement)
 The Real Paradox

Teams frequently
take action based
on contradicting
data.
The Problem of Choice and Decision
Consequently, though we have learned the reality of
separation, we have not had the opportunity to learn the
reciprocal skills of connection, with the result that, like the
ancient dinosaurs, we are breeding organizations with self-
destructive decision – making proclivities.
Dr. Jerry Harvey

Although we fear involuntary separation, yet

we have not learnt the right communication
skills and as such we are breeding managers
with self destructive decision making
tendencies.
 Difficulty in Communication and the
Risk Involved

• Background
• Conflict Avoidance
• Fear
• Ostracism
 Nature of Conflict
• A process resulting from the tension between
team members because of real or perceived
differences
 A little conflict stimulates information
processing, but as conflict intensifies, the
cognitive system shuts down, information
processing is impeded, and team performance is
likely to suffer.
Carnevale & Probst (1998).
 Barriers to Communication (General)
• Lack of trust
• Lack of confidence
• Clashing perceptions
• Not trusting other(s) decision
• Territorialism
• Personal differences
 Barrier to communication
(Professional)
• Lack of awareness of education, KSA from other disciplines
• Hierarchy
• Culture and ethnicity
• Generational Differences e.g. Age
• Gender
• Historical interprofessional and intraprofessional rivalries
• Differences in requirements, regulations and norms or
professional education
• Fears of diluted professional identity
• Emphasis of rapid decision making
• Differences in accountability, payment and rewards
 The Flight Check
• The blame game
• The bandwagon effect: Groupthink!
• The boss is the fall guy
• Real conflict vs fake conflict
• Manage conflict or manage agreement
• Pluralistic ignorance
• The truth is hidden
 Technical Fault (Conflict)
• Will raise more questions and offer chance to
probe further before taking a decision.
• Checks for task conflict. Conflict about
distribution of resources, policies and
procedures, judgements and interpretation of
facts
(Often a functional conflict)
 Existential Fault

• Maintaining membership in your niche: about

surviving in the chosen hood
• Check for relationship conflict is about
interpersonal style, personal taste, political
preferences, and values
(Often characterised by a dysfunctional team)
 Remedies
• Style of communications
• Assign the devils advocate role
• Encourage openness, find a simple way: Balancing Advocacy
with Inquiry : finding the best line of reasoning
• Don’t shoot the messenger
• Build organizational pride
• Set and discuss team ground rules openly: set each reasoning
to team examination
• Project manager to be responsible for milestones and check
points
• Written down guideline and policies
• Back up dissent with data - clarifies thoughts and dislodges
assumptions
 Best Practice Advocacy and Inquiry
• State clearly your thoughts
• Invite criticisms
• Encourage differing opinions and the need to provide
alternative even if unavailable at the time
• Actively question differing opinions
• Name the differing views
• Don’t fake interest
• Don’t make ‘showing the idiocy’ of team mates your goal
• In doubt, take alternative e.g pilot scheme
• If the best phrase does not work still rephrase!
 Enabling Structure
• The appropriate data
• Built in control points
• Organizational policy and procedure and/or team ground
rules (standard set of behaviour policies)
• Whistle blowing security: Put systems in place that encourage
reporting unpleasant occurrences.
• Team is encouraged to maintain focus on objective
• Nature of performance and rewards structures are not
ambiguous
• Team leadership: Competence of team leader
• Always seek consensus openly
• Training programmes that are focused
• Communication champions
 Communication
Brings about:
• On time delivery: cuts down/ cuts out time wasting
• Reduced Stressors
• Dynamic change within the organization
• Team communication structure that delivers change
quickly
• Mutual understanding and performance even within
culturally diverse teams
 Effective Communication
Also offers:
• Job satisfaction and enhanced employee
morale
• Self efficacy: confident to give impute all the
time
• Effective information flow
• More effective interventions
• Improves safety
 Agree with Caution
Teams who use more collaborative
communication and less contentious
communication when expressing disagreement
are less likely to experience the negative effect
of conflict.

(Lovelace et al 2011)
Failure to manage agreement will lead to a
major disagreement.
 On a Final Note (of warning)!
With your client (team members) at your side,
you’ll always know where they are and
where you should be headed. With your client
(team members) traipsing behind, you may one
day turn around and find them gone, and the
road you’re traveling paved with fool’s gold all
the way to Abilene.

Phil Granof
CEO of Protobrand
Any Questions?
Thank You!