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<br />It's difficult to know when to compromise, especially if you feel <br />strongly about a situation. <br /> <br />For some people compromise is controversial or a sign of weakness. <br />For example, "It is the weak man who urges compromise--never the <br />strong one," says Elbert Hubbard. <br /> <br />However, Edmund Burke wrote that "All government, indeed every <br />human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is <br />founded on compromise and barter." And Eleanor Roosevelt believed <br />that "We must be willing to learn the lesson that cooperation may <br />imply compromise, but if it brings a world advance it is a gain for <br />each individual nation." <br /> <br />Compromise is part of what it means to cooperate. And cooperation <br />is one of the important ways a group of different people - such as a <br />city council or a citizens' advisory commission - can achieve agree- <br />ment. Nothing much is ever going to be accomplished if every indi- <br />vidual member of a council or commission insists that group deci- <br />sions must play out exactly as he <br />or she prefers and in no other <br />way. <br /> <br />Nothing much is ever going <br />to be accomplished if individ- <br />ual members of a council or <br />commission insist that group <br />decisions must play out ex- <br />actly as he or she prefers and <br />in no other way. <br /> <br />Therefore, don't just argue for <br />your position. Try to find ways of <br />combining your ideas with other <br />views. Try to incorporate <br />constructive criticism of your <br />ideas into your position. Conversely, try to show your colleagues <br />how your constructive criticism of their views can be incorporated <br />into their ideas. <br /> <br />We seem to underestimate the cost to ourselves if mutual agreement <br />is not reached. Perhaps we believe that if we are just adamant about <br /> <br />25 <br />