Look the Other Way or Face Down the Corruption? : Part 1

The Book of Hard Choices: How to Make the Right Decisions at Work and Keep Your Self-Respect
by James A. Autry, Peter Roy

All of us like to think that, in any given situation, we'd act with integrity and do the right thing. But what happens when we get to work each morning? Do the same rules we follow in our personal lives apply to our work lives?

The lines between right and wrong become blurred when we must weigh our obligations to our employer against our own ideas about what is right and wrong. Should altruism trump profit, even to the detriment of the organization? When should you step in to protect an employee and when should the employee be left to take the heat? If the CEO is up to some unethical accounting, should you always risk your job-and the company's reputation-to sound the alarm?

These are the hard choices, the dilemmas that put your integrity to the test and require you to look beyond organizational policy and industry precedents to find an answer that reflects your personal sense of justice. The Book of Hard Choices goes to the heart of these difficult decisions. James Autry and Peter Roy, experienced executives themselves, interviewed numerous leaders about the tough decisions they've made on the job. They spoke with people like former Starbucks president Howard Behar, Iowa Cubs owner Michael Gartner, and Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa as well as entrepreneurs, military officials, members of the clergy, and a whole host of leaders. The authors dig into the thinking process these people went through, as well as the emotional strain, the self-doubt, and the fear of a wrong decision's impact on their business, family, or coworkers. Not everyone in this book made the right choice, but all of them were forced to examine their values and make decisions in complicated circumstances. The result is hard-won wisdom on how to navigate the ethical gray-areas of work life-from daily challenges to possible career ending choices-and make the best possible decisions in the most difficult situations.

Chapter 1

Is it true that nice guys always finish last?

IN 1972, DAVID Stein was enjoying a terrific career on the East Coast with the largest home-building company in the world. He was so successful at it, in fact, that he wasn't sure whether he was good or just lucky, so he decided to move to California.

"I liked the company I was with," David explains, "but frankly, it was the largest home builder in the world because it built houses the way Ford builds cars, mass-produced. I wanted to do something more creative. I chose California because it was, and probably still is, the leader in terms of planned community development and architectural and interior design."

He went to work as a project manager for ACDI, one of the largest planned community developers in the country. Probably the company's most important development was in Laguna Beach, a seven-thousand-acre planned community that stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the interstate highway that connects Los Angeles and San Diego. The prospect of working in this area seemed like a dream job for David, but he quickly realized that all was not well.

"Not only was the company not run the way my former company was," he recalls, "but I felt there was real corruption within the company and it was very disheartening for me."

David's concerns had to do with the process of getting projects approved. "It was clear that in order to get a project approved, it required political support, so the company's overriding concern was getting the support of politicians and not of the community."

David wanted to manage good projects, but he found that at this company it was less important to manage good projects and more important to manage projects that could get political approval. "The way to do that was support the campaigns of politicians. And what made this corrupt in my opinion was that the decisions were not to be made on the basis of the projects' merit but purely on political influence."

David made another uncomfortable discovery. ACDI had a terrible reputation in the community itself. "They used to say that ACDI is a four-letter word," he laughs. "It was clear to me that my first priority as a project manager was to build bridges with the community."

David felt, not only as a matter of personal principle but also in the interest of the business, that a company should strive to be a good citizen of the communities in which it operates, and he personally intended to be a good citizen of the community. He could not choose to compromise either his personal or his business principles.

He knew, however, that building bridges was not going to be easy. Before David arrived, the California legislature responded to concerns about development by passing the California Coastal Act, which established the California Coastal Commission to set up criteria for development.

David explains ACDI's response as the reason for community hostility toward the company: "ACDI had a huge property on the coast, so to beat the clock before the new law took effect, they started grading the property. They moved millions of yards of earth, and they did it in twenty-hour shifts, bringing in big spotlights so they could work night and day. There was also a piece of property on the sea that was a very popular surf spot. They cut off public access to it. They just seemed to do pretty much everything they could to piss off the people in the community.

"Even though I worked for the company, I came to feel that the bad reputation was deserved and that I should try to do something about it."

His bosses did not think it was necessary. The system was working for them because of the political influence they had garnered. Here's the process: First the project managers of the various companies presented their projects to a planning commission. Often, representatives of the community would oppose the projects before the commission. If the projects were then not approved by the commission, the companies were allowed to appeal this decision to the county board of supervisors, and, of course, if the companies had made the appropriate campaign contributions, they always won the appeal.

"But," David says, "there was more and more community resentment being built through these practices. It could not continue, and besides, I felt it was utterly corrupt to game the system in this way."

David began his own initiatives, meeting with community leaders and laying out his plans. They were suspicious. "First, I was with ACDI, which was bad enough, but there was also my own personal image problem. I came to one of the most conservative counties in the country, Orange County, with a George McGovern sticker on my car; I had long hair and a Fu Manchu mustache. The people I met with either had a flattop or a buzz cut. To say they were skeptical and suspicious is an understatement. But as I got to know them and convince them that I had the best interests of the community at heart, they put up with me.

"I had a lot of problems because my bosses thought I was an idiot. They said, 'This is not the way it's done.' I said yes it is, and eventually this is what will be our survival because the time will come when we're going to have a lot of problems getting projects approved."

Copyright © 2006 by James A. Autry.

About the Author

James A. Autry was the president of the magazine group for Meredith Corp., responsible for such publications as Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies Home Journal. He is the author of six books, including the top selling Love and Profit: The Art of Caring Leadership. He is currently a business consultant with top corporations and has an active speaking schedule. He lives in Des Moines with his wife Sally Perderson (who is lieutenant governor of Iowa) and his son.

Peter Roy is the former president of Whole Foods Market, which Fortune magazine first named one of the "Top Companies to Work For" during his tenure. He is currently a director of Avalon Natural Products, Traditional Medicinals and the Naked Juice Company as well as a trustee of the National Outdoor Leadership School. He lives on Pawle's Island, South Carolina.