Abilene Paradox

Put simply: a group of people agrees to do something that not one of them actually wants. Each person stays quiet because each assumes the others are keen.

Here is the machinery, from the ground up. Human beings fear friction more than they fear a bad outcome. Saying "no" costs courage now; going along costs only comfort later. So everyone nods, everyone misreads the nodding, and the whole bus drives to a place nobody chose.

You have seen it at work. Six colleagues sit in a meeting. Nobody wants the new software. Everyone votes yes. Afterwards, in the corridor, each one confesses to another, one by one.

The cure is one plain question, asked person by person, in private: "Do you truly want this?" Silence is not consent. It is often just politeness wearing consent's coat.