Get the WorkLore Newsletter!  

Human nature has a strong compassionate, cooperative base that needs to be  rediscovered. Elizabeth Doty’s systemic and realistic approach provides guidance on how we can make the world a better place for everyone, not just for ourselves.
— Napier Collyns, cofounder, Global Business Network

Interview with Elizabeth Doty

Twin Arts of Apology and Compromise

CompromiseTrap-Effective Apology Books

 

Last month I had the good fortune to partner on a joint talk with John Kador, author of Effective Apology, to explore how compromise and apology might be linked.

What I learned is that the ability to apologize when an apology is due is a healthy compromise. It means giving up the need to be right, to reinforce some fantasy image of who we are, because we value our relationships more than our egos. It requires owning up to our blind spots, weaknesses, and bad habits, but brings us back in touch with reality and frees us from the compromise trap.

 
Read more...

Elizabeth Doty

Business storyteller in the trenches.

Elizabeth Doty is a consultant, coach, and facilitator specializing in how people participate in large organizations while staying true to themselves and being a positive force – however they define those.

Since earning her MBA from Harvard and joining a reengineering firm in 1991, she has both subscribed to the "official story" of business and lived through the contradictions and absurdities of everyday organizational life. Time in the trenches in a variety of industries, including 11 years in hospitality management, has allowed her to talk with over 400 people about the challenges, triumphs and dilemmas of doing work EDdoor06_180x258they are proud of.

In late 1993, she founded WorkLore, a consulting firm that uses story and systems thinking to help leaders resolve complex operational and leadership issues. Current and past clients include Intuit, Camp, Dresser, McKee, Stanford University, Skillsoft, Hewlett Packard, Archstone-Smith, and CTB/McGraw-Hill.

Ms. Doty has presented at Systems Thinking in Action, the Business Ethics Network, and the Bay Area Society for Organizational Learning, and been published in the Pfeiffer HRM Annual and Strategy + Business magazine. From 2004-2006, she assisted Dr. William Ury in researching examples for his book, “The Power of A Positive No”.