What you say matters

An outcome, no matter how desirable or apparently good, cannot be achieved ‘at any cost’. In a time of moral outrage, leaders should encourage a return to moral imagination to ensure ethical outcomes.

The events over the last two weeks in the US is perhaps evidence enough that we live in a time of heightened agitation. A time of hearing without listening. A time of looking without seeing. A time of disagreement without debate. It is what Dov Seidman refers to as a period of moral outrage.

The Scottish philosopher David Hume stated 'the moral imagination diminishes with distance'. That is to say that the closer we are to others, the more we are required to think about things, confront differences and tinker with our moral reasoning. Moral imagination fosters debate, understanding and ultimately a relatively robust overlapping consensus of what is considered good and just in society.

Moral imagination has seen the abolition of slavery and Apartheid, ensured voting rights to minorities and females, strengthened the call for equality, seen the disarmament of rogue states, and favoured diplomacy over war.

Technology has done much to bring us closer together and contributed to our moral imaginations being stimulated. It has made us aware of things beyond our immediate experience. Yet, perhaps we have reached a tipping point.

What we have seen during the financial crisis in 2008 and now with the pandemic is that the world has gone beyond being interconnected. The world has become interdependent: An earthquake in Asia disrupts the supply of vehicles in the UK. A housing bubble in the US leads to a global financial crisis. And the same applies to morality. Pictures of poverty, hunger, genocide, racism or mere rudeness are quickly distributed globally. Injustices are brought into our living rooms and pockets with the click of a button – at an increasing pace and volume. Some of this can lead to good outcomes. For example, source your cocoa from farms that use child labour and your customers will stop buying your product. But what we are also seeing is an increase in activism, protest and extremism. We have overloaded our moral imaginations and what we are left with is moral outrage. A social tinderbox waiting for a flame.

That is why leaders must know that the words we use matter. It could be a politician telling his supporters to ‘fight’ or that the outcome of legal processes will be a ‘trial by combat’. Or simply a manager telling an employee to ‘just get it done’. These messages can and do get taken seriously – regardless of its intended meaning.

As President-elect of the USA Joe Biden stated, “At their best the words of a president can inspire. At their worst they can incite”. We saw this in Washington and I have seen this play out in numerous interviews with employees involved in illegal and unethical conduct in public and private companies.

In a business environment, pressure to meet KPIs, boost profits, increase sales or meet carbon emission standards linked with a statement as apparently benign as ‘just get it done’ is dangerous. It allows for a contextualised interpretation of the intended message, which may be used to justify a multitude of behaviours.

Words – and especially those from people in power - have an even greater power in times of moral outrage. So, what is required is a move beyond moral outrage. Meaning and truth can only be found once our moral imaginations have been ignited.

An outcome, no matter how profound, desirable or apparently good, cannot be achieved ‘at any cost’. How we behave matters. What we say matters. How we win or lose matters. What remains of our most cherished norms, values, and institutions after we act matters.

Sources:

Seidman, D. 2007. How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything … in Business (and in Life). John Wiley & Sons.

Seidman, D. 2011. HOW Matters More Than Ever. Forbes.com article. 10 October 2011. [Online] Available: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dovseidman/2011/10/10/how-matter-more-than-ever/?sh=28cc46eb6ab8

Friedman, T. L. 2016. Moral outrage should be employed wisely. The Columbus Dispatch commentary. 14 January 2016. [Online] Available: https://www.dispatch.com/article/20160114/OPINION/301149719