Vignette

As the head of speaker curation for TEDxGLIMChennai, my first task was to select the theme. We
went through a fair process of theme selection-doing a mass vote to select the final theme. The
caveat was that there was close competition between the top two themes- one which I had come
up with and the other a junior had come up with. Ultimately, my theme won the vote of the
majority. Post this, we had to finalize the tagline for the theme; however, to my dismay, I realized
that the junior became unresponsive to any tasks pertaining to the selected theme. Realizing his
intentions, I developed a dislike towards him and did not entertain his opinions pertaining to other
aspects of the event as well. Also, we had to select speakers for our theme. I found an extremely
good speaker, who had won world championships in public speaking. We confirmed him as a
speaker and as the next step as per TED guidelines, I requested him to share his draft speech with
me, which he vehemently refused saying that he knew how to deliver a TED talk having already
competed at very high levels. The dilemma for me was whether to buck the rules of TEDx for this
speaker, since he was an eloquent speaker. Additionally, the event was fast approaching, so finding
another speaker this late would be a huge challenge. I did have a backup speaker in mind, but I knew
that he was not up to standard of TEDx.

Analysis
Behavioural Unethicality: The junior’s reluctance to work on theme related aspects was
behaviourally unethical as his decision stemmed from envy and egotism. Rather than assisting-he
became disruptive because his chosen theme was not selected.

Categorical Imperative (1): My dislike for the junior led me delving into double standards. I
penalized him much more for not performing as opposed to others.

The Golden Rule: The curt that I gave to the junior was not something I would want my seniors to
bestow upon me.

Categorical Imperative (2): Even though the selected speaker was extremely eloquent-we cannot
forgo TEDx rules for him. Given the fact that the event is fast approaching-listening to his whims and
fancies was an easier choice as opposed to finding another TEDx quality speaker; in principle we
must strictly adhere to the TEDx guidelines and not accept speakers who don’t respect these
guidelines (Universalizability). Additionally, if I were a mentor for TEDx- I wouldn’t have wanted the
organizers to give in to such demands of a speaker (Reversibility).

The Disclosure Rule: If it were to come to the knowledge of the official TED organizers, that we had
let a speaker speak without reviewing his content, I would be extremely uncomfortable with my
decision of keeping this speaker on board.

Dilemma Unethicality: Proceeding further with a speaker who refuses to adhere TEDx rules or with a
backup speaker, who is not at the standard required for TEDx is an example of dilemma unethicality.