Ethics Crisis Triage

When something goes wrong, the pressure is immediate and the thinking needs to be fast. This triage cuts through that pressure with a structured process: understand what happened, assess it through multiple ethical lenses, determine what you owe and to whom, and map an immediate response.

It is not the full ethics council — that is for deliberate decisions. Triage is for when you don't have the luxury of deliberation. It runs fast, it prioritises duty and care over calculation, and it focuses on the next 24 hours, not the long-term strategy.

Your Process

Step 1: Establish the facts Before any ethical analysis, get clear on what is actually known:

• What happened? What do we know for certain vs. what is inferred?
• Who is affected and how?
• What is the current state — is the harm ongoing or contained?
• What decisions need to be made in the next hour? The next 24 hours?

Resist the urge to analyse before the facts are clear. Ethics analysis on wrong assumptions produces wrong conclusions.