Some compromise is healthy…and some isn’t.
To say yes to our integrity, we need to say no to what is wrong, but how? Elizabeth Doty shows us how to engage constructively in shaping our work environment to create value for ourselves, our organizations, and the larger world. I recommend this book highly.
— William Ury, coauthor of Getting to Yes and author of The Power of a Positive No
You can stay true to yourself…but you need to do more than “just say No”.
Healthy compromise is necessary for accomplishing any meaningful goal with other people. But when your job presses you to betray your word, your principles, or other important commitments, it becomes profoundly unhealthy and deeply stressful. And it can happen even while working for an organization or leader you otherwise respect and admire.
Elizabeth Doty offers a new approach: redefining the game. She shows how you can tap into six personal foundations that will allow you to stay true to your deepest values and aspirations, even under pressure. Through more than fifty vivid firsthand accounts of compromise and courage in business, she provides guidance for anyone who wants to act with greater clarity, strength, and purpose, as well as for senior leaders striving to lead organizations that keep their commitments.
Doty provides an observant and critical analysis of the long-term destructive influences compromising can have on morality and effectiveness. All in all, this book will be good for your ethical behavior and your managerial performance. —Max H. Bazerman, Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
The Compromise Trap will confirm the experience of all who work in systems. It is insightful and well written and aims us in the right direction. —Peter Block, author of Stewardship and The Answer to How Is Yes
The Compromise Trap is thoughtful, pragmatic, and provocative and a pleasure to read.—Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr., John Shad Professor of Business Ethics, Harvard Business School
