Defining Moments

2

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Right versus Right

T

HIS CHAPTER INTRODUCES THREE MANAGERS

and the right-

versus-right conflicts they faced. Each is drawn from actual

experience. Taken together, they illustrate the basic types

of right-versus-right dilemma. The three cases also reveal the basic

elements of the problem Rebecca Dennet confronted, and which

other managers often must resolve.

Although the three cases differ in important ways, they all illus-

trate a dramatic statement made by Oliver Wendell Holmes, one

of the most distinguished American Supreme Court justices. Holmes

wrote, ‘‘I do not give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complex-

ity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side

of complexity.’’

All three of the managers described here would have ...