1. JR Joaquín Roca
The Abilene Paradox
Imagine this: Two engineers, Sarah and Ted, have decided to team up with two designers, Lisa and Frank, to form a
company called Oligopoly. They plan to create fun and educational videogames. The team members were well
known and respected before creating Oligopoly so they’re highly sought after for consulting projects. Recently, a
Fortune 50 company approached them about a project. If they take it on, they will be paid handsomely, however, it’ll
set their game development schedule back a full year.
Lisa doesn’t want to take on the project but she has a feeling Ted needs to earn a bit of money in the short term,
because he and his wife just had their first child. So, she suggests to the group that they consider the offer seriously
and reconvene in a week to talk it over.
Sarah and Lisa have had some friction recently, and Sarah wants to turn a new page in their relationship so she
supports Lisa’s suggestion. Frank is surprised that Sarah is so enthusiastic about the idea of working for a Fortune 50
company as he knows she left a well paying job at a similar company to start Oligopoly. He is starting to think Sarah
isn’t comfortable with the risk inherent in the long development process they have envisioned for their first release.
Sarah is very talented and, though he doesn’t want to postpone development of the game, Frank really wants to work
with her and thinks it would be worth a delay to keep her onboard in the long run.
Ted senses everyone’s enthusiasm for the contract and is pretty disappointed. He left a cushy job with great potential
for growth to join Oligopoly because he knew he wouldn’t be able to take another risk like this in five years. Right
now he can subsist for a year, but if Oligopoly isn’t successful in that timeframe, he’ll have to go back to working at
a large company since he and his wife are planning to have a second child. He doesn’t want to alienate the rest of the
group though, so at the next meeting he starts by listing the pros of the position hoping the others will shoot him
down.
Questions:
 What is the problem the group is having here?
 Have you ever experienced a similar situation?
 How can groups avoid this problem?
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