EP 656 Avoiding Complicity in Wrongdoing

  Enron. Theranos. Purdue Pharma. Harvey Weinstein. The Nazis.  Awful behavior abounds.  The question is what do we do when we see it?  Do we become a whistleblower or an enabler?  Max Bazerman, a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and a behavorial ethicist, has written a new book entitled, “Complicit: How We Enable the Unethical and How to Stop.”  While it is easy to condemn obvious wrongdoers, his focus is on the many people around them who ignored or supported tacitly or actively the commission of unethical or criminal behaviors.  Let’s admit it.  We all have to one degree or another, either by acts of commission or omission.  In his book and on this podcast we take these issues on directly and he offers strategies for recognizing and avoiding the psychological and other traps that lead us to ignore, condone, or actively support wrongdoing in our businesses, organizations, communities and politics.  I share my own sense of complicity in a dubious personnel practice at one point in my career. If you have an ethical compass, this podcast will have you asking questions of yourself by the end.

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