Complicit: How We Enable the Unethical and How to Stop

by Max H. Bazerman

What all of us can do to fight the pervasive human tendency to enable wrongdoing in the workplace, the community, politics, and beyond

It is easy to condemn obvious wrongdoers such as Elizabeth Holmes, Adam Neumann, Harvey Weinstein, and the Sackler family. But we rarely think about the many people who supported their unethical or criminal behavior. In each case there was a supporting cast of complicitors: business partners, employees, investors, news organizations, and others. And, whether we're aware of it or not, almost all of us have been complicit in the unethical behavior of others. In Complicit, Harvard Business School professor Max Bazerman confronts our complicity head-on and 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, politics, and more.

Complicit tells compelling stories of those who enabled the Theranos and WeWork scandals, the opioid crisis, the sexual abuse that led to the #MeToo movement, and the January 6th U.S. Capitol attack. The book describes seven different behavioral profiles that can lead to complicity in wrongdoing, ranging from true partners to those who unknowingly benefit from systemic privilege, including white privilege, and it tells the story of Bazerman's own brushes with complicity. Complicit also offers concrete and detailed solutions, describing how individuals, leaders, and organizations can more effectively prevent complicity.

By challenging the notion that a few bad apples are responsible for society's ills, Complicit implicates us all--and offers a path for creating a more ethical world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Audiobook, Psychology, Politics

237 pages, Hardcover

Published November 15, 2022

About the author

Max H. Bazerman is the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and the Co-Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. Max's research focuses on decision making, negotiation, and ethics. He is the author, co-author, or co-editor of twenty books and over 200 research articles and chapters. His latest book, The Power of Noticing: What the Best Leader See, is now available from Simon and Schuster.

Reviews

[Chris Boutté · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a phenomenal book and a must-read. I read a book by Bazerman years ago, and then I saw he had a new one out, so I wanted to give it a read. I’m always blown away at how so many people are complicit when terrible things are going on, and Bazerman specializes in business ethics. The book discusses a ton of different situations where people are complicit while using famous stories we’re all familiar with like WeWork, Theranos, the BP oil spill, the Jim Jones cult and much more.

Bazerman also does a ton of self-reflection in this book. I had no clue he was part of the study that got Dan Ariely in trouble due to bad research. Bazerman also discusses how he was unknowingly complicit in racial biases in his field of work. This self-awareness has moved him toward change, which inspires the reader to do the same and to speak out so we aren’t complicit when something wrong is going on.

I loved this book and really hope a ton of people read it.

[Niek · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I respect Bazerman's expertise a lot - his Blind Spots book is required reading for those interested in business ethics, I was underwhelmed by Complicit. I am not sure what its intended audience is, but I found the content so general and so broad that it contains few insights that will be worthwhile for most readers. The books mixes personal accounts (of which Bazerman's reflections of the data fraud by Dan Ariely was the most interesting ) with mainly ideas that other academics have written about more elaborately and more interestingly. That also applies to most of the cases of fraud and unethical behavior Bazerman discusses in the book. Oh, and of course the invisible gorilla, trolley problem and Asch's Line experiment make a cameo. Meh.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, we are all complicit in the bad behavior of other people, some of us more than others, and some of us are in businesses where complicity is almost impossible to avoid. I have generally tried to stay away from clients who are bad people and from helping people who are not so bad to do bad things. I have not always been successful though I do keep trying, and I try to lead by example. I thought that this book might have some interesting ideas for spotting troublesome situations in advance and for deftly dealing with them when they inevitably arise. It didn't. Pretty much everything in this book is obvious and easier said than done. Mr. Bazerman tells us to look for early danger signs, to act quickly when morally ambiguous situations loom and to not be afraid of speaking up. I didn't need a book to tell me that.

[Dolly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Provocative and convincing take from one of the world's leading ethics researchers, Harvard Business School professor Max Bazerman. Bazerman has written many excellent books. This is his most powerful and personal yet.

[Elena · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although the content is interesting and intended to provide a helpful commentary on how to reduce moral failures, the authors high opinion of himself and belief in his own political superiority was a real distraction.

[Adriyana Grotseva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I expected more “tips and tricks” from the book but they were mainly general knowledge: speak up, stand your ground, back up so you don’t have much to lose when you speak up, etc. Though those aren’t always applicable, eg in the Theranos case the whistleblowers not only could lose their job, reputation, not to be able to be hired around but also there were the mental and emotional threats and bullying, fear for one’s life. So speaking up when you see wrongdoing is not always so easy and definitely the people, who do it, deserve all the respect. On the other hand, the book helps us see how we are all complicit even by not doing anything. The book also reviews why some people support the wrongdoers: benefiting for themselves, believing in a false prophet, due to authority and loyalty you feel obliged to obey, trusting the relationship you have with the person (eg because they are fellow scientists they must have thoroughly checked the data so no need I to check it too), creating and accepting unethical organizational systems. In the book there are also discussed multiple examples: WeWork, Theranos, Hitler, Trump, the BP oil spill, doctors and pharma companies in the US, the author’s own retrospection of his work and especially a paper he wrote with Dan Ariely and a couple of more scientists, that turned into a scandal due to not clean data (data fraud). I liked that Max Bazerman discussed also the single-source blame - the tendency that news, senior managers, people tend to blame only one reason , person, factor for the bad thing that happened. When in reality there is always multitude of factors, leading to the event. Eg Theranos didn’t happen only because of Elizabeth Holmes but also thanks to all the VCs, banks, people, who didn’t do proper due diligence and supported her (of course there are also other factors too). Overall it is pretty light and interesting read.

I would like to share from the book the action steps to prepare how to be courageous, deliberate, inclusive, persistent, effective and less complicit:
1. Reduce the risk of speaking up - develop appealing alternatives to your job so you are comfortable to speak up and not afraid of losing it. Or you can become high valued team member so your colleagues are more tolerant to your views and more willing to listen. But you would need to chose your battles.
2. Make sure to document any questionable incidents that you have observed.
3. You can compare notes with other team members that want to do the right thing. Teaming up with somebody else helps you support each other and the chance to speak up increases.
4. Deliberate in advance - do your research, commit to yourself to act ethically rather than become complicit, think about your personal moral code - consider which values are most important to you, acknowledge your blind spots, don’t single-source a blame but consider who else might be a wrongdoer or what other factors might have contributed.
5. Enlarge your circle of concern and don’t stay in your own bubble of likeminded people.
When something is wrong, we must not accept the easiest explanation. We need to be persistent until we fully understand what’s going on.

[Sean Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be pretty underwhelming. At times it was pretty powerful. It had some compelling arguments about the need to focus on those who enable evil people, which I thought was well argued. But a surprising amount of this book was Bazerman seeming to try to make himself look good. Whether it's about how he's dealt with diversity issues in his work or how it wasn't really his fault that his co-authors fabricated data, the personal accounts seemed unrelated to the rest of the book and didn't add any value.

[Christopher Allen-Poole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book, but I found it very much an elongated "mea culpa" for the author's participation in Dan Ariely's fraudulent study of behavior in 2012. The parts which tread on this topic seem very much to be "I accuse myself", wailing in loud cries, but ultimately with little benefit. If fellow academics no longer trust him, that's his issue, but it doesn't strike me as something worth its comparable percentage of the book.

[Andrew Breza · Rating 4 out of 5]

An OK book about a critically important topic. The central thesis makes Complicit important reading for everybody in the business world, especially people who can't imagine themselves ever becoming involved with the next Theranos or FTX. Unfortunately, it drags at times, and some chapters can be safely skimmed (did we really need yet another detailed retelling of the WeWork collapse?).

[Nav · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author may be an academic but this should be easy reading for everybody. And despite the title of "we" this book focuses not just on what individuals do/can do but also how institutions can enable bad behavior.

[PixieART · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommend for everyone to read at one point in their life. It's more complicated than you would think to understand why people support bad behavior from others but still considering themselves good people who make smart decisions.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excerpt -- On Deterring Evil
We may not know how to deter the truly evil from engaging in their actions, but -- by stopping those around them from enabling and participating -- we can halt their actions. Those who create great harm always depend on the complicity of ordinary people

[Doug Cornelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

How do bad people get bad things done? Complicity.

[Ayesha Mian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great reminder for how knowingly or unknowingly we support unethical behaviors. This can help us be more mindful of living a life of integrity.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

audio

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readable. Good reminder to stay vigilant against complicity.

[Wade Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book is heavy on anecdotes. I don't think I learned anything but I did enjoy the drama story of academic misconduct.

[Nick Heim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty biased but still pretty good. It treads real close to moral relativism at points

[Vi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Epitome of Harvard Business School bs.

[Amir Fathi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked the direct, no bs tone of the book on how all of us enable wrong doings.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was disappointing-basically an overly detailed description of cases we already know with little nuance or useful advice.