The Compromise Trap
How to Thrive at Work Without Selling Your Soul
By: Elizabeth Doty
Published: November 2009
Format: Paperback, 312 Pages
ISBN-13: 9781576755761
ISBN-10: 1576755762
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
"Unhealthy compromise so often comes with the option to avoid realizing that fact - to tune it out, rationalize it away, or change our standards. We don't have to see", writes President of WorkLore and leading consultant and educator in the field of organizational learning Elizabeth Doty, in her thought provoking and very candid book The Compromise Trap: How to Thrive at Work Without Selling Your Soul. The author invites business people to examine closely and honestly, the decisions they make, and if those choices compromise a person's core values and ethics.
Elizabeth Doty recognizes that some compromise is healthy and necessary for the advancement of the business, as well as for an individual's career. Not all compromise is good for the organization or for its stakeholders. This book describes bluntly how to recognize and avoid those small, incremental steps that lead to the selling of one's soul and ethical values. The author also shares strategies on how to avoid the many unethical traps awaiting to snare the unwary. Elizabeth Doty urges business people to use their peripheral vision to see the wider scope of the business, and what lies beyond one's own area of responsibility. Very often, unethical activity is demanded for carrying out an individual's responsibilities, in an unhealthy business culture. The author offers advice on how to change the game through redefining the rules while strengthening one's own personal convictions and integrity.
Elizabeth Doty (photo left) challenges the business person to look past what is thought to be reality, and to examine the true core of the business, its ideals, and the actions it takes. When a true and objective analysis of a company is undertaken, through the application of peripheral vision, not only are unethical compromise traps recognized, but opportunities for conducting business in a more authentic and principled manner can be discovered. Change for the good of all can replace the moral slippery slope of unhealthy compromise. Not only is integrity good for the organization, but is better for the mental and physical health of the employees as well. Moving beyond simply discussing ethics, Elizabeth Doty describes how these values affect not only the employees and the company, but also the wider community as well.
For me, the power of the book is how Elizabeth Doty combines the theory of moral and ethical behavior with practical, hands on advice for recognizing ethical traps and for creating a more integrity based organization. The book contains a series of case studies of ethical behavior gone wrong, and where changes were made that transformed organizational cultures from unhealthy compromise to strengthening their ethical standards. The author emphasizes the premise that when a person opens their eyes to what is happening around them, the true cost of unhealthy compromise can be seen clearly. At the same time, while examining the reality of the organization, hidden opportunities for positive change and ethical business practice that leads to both personal and organizational benefit can be recognized more fully. In the end, Elizabeth Doty helps the business person make choices that are in harmony with personal morality and integrity, and in avoiding the unhealthy compromises that slowly destroy a person's inner core values.
I highly recommend the insightful and must read book The Compromise Trap: How to Thrive at Work Without Selling Your Soul by Elizabeth Doty, to anyone seeking a more ethical approach to maintaining their own moral standards, and for avoiding the compromises that erode those valued inner principles. The six personal foundations, as presented by the author, will help you to remain true to those core values, without yielding them to unhealthy compromise.
Read the personal and business transformational book The Compromise Trap: How to Thrive at Work Without Selling Your Soul by Elizabeth Doty, and discover why it is not necessary to surrender your most cherished moral values to succeed in an organization. Instead, the author teaches how to become an agent for positive change that builds the ethical and moral values of the company, while remaining true to oneself.
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