Nonprofit organisations generally have communication and social media policies to guide their spokespeople and staff on acceptable practices. Despite this, mis-communications and other communication problems occur, especially where social media is involved.
Most of the tensions within our communities are fuelled by words. Words used to label, blame, shame, or cancel people. Legitimate protests can be raised in response to egregious harms caused by the behaviours of individuals, groups, organisations, or governments. However, those circumstances do not excuse us from the obligation to promote positive outcomes.
Each of us has the opportunity to consider whether what we say or post on social media helps or harms. Where nonprofit organisations are involved, rather than thinking about this purely from a compliance angle, it may be helpful to approach communication governance and management from an ethical perspective.
Ethical speech
Ethical speech guidance has been available to us for centuries, indeed, for millennia in some cultures.
The Buddhist tradition encourages the use of ‘right speech’. This involves both abstaining from certain forms of speech, and ensuring that before speaking, we ask several questions focussed on ensuring that our intended message is timely, true, gentle, beneficial, and motivated by goodwill.
The Sufi tradition offers a similar set of tests, with its injunctions that before speaking we let our words pass through three gates:
- Is it true?
- Is it necessary?
- Is it kind?
An updated version of this is illustrated below using a pseudocode algorithm format, for readers who have begun thinking about everything from an AI perspective.
Around the same time as the Sufi community was adopting its three gates approach, an almost identical triple filter test for ethical speech (attributed to Socrates) was devised in Greece, . The following chart illustrates this.
Principles and Credos
Contemporary recommendations on ethical communication are often expressed in the form of a set of principles, such as those proposed by a UK communications consultancy in the next chart.
The National Communication Association (US) has adopted a Credo which articulates a commendable set of nine commitments that members agree to adhere to.
Nonprofit boards looking for ideas by which to enhance communication policies and guidelines may wish to borrow from these exemplars.
Policy and Practice
The words recorded in communication policies and guidelines will be ’empty rhetoric’ unless they are reflected in the actions of those who are charged with representing our organisation. The communication behaviours of everyone working in or for the organisation are able to help or harm. Consequently, consideration must be given to what is acceptable, and what is not, even where private social media posts are involved.
Often, the simplest message is the most effective. In this case, the t.h.i.n.k. framework highlighted in the header image above may be the easiest one to recall when staff and volunteers are speaking or writing on our behalf.
See also:
The Skilful Uses of Silence
Discourse (Rhetoric) at work
The choice between insightful and inciteful words
