John Sturrock KC

At the Scottish Mediation conference, we heard from Samantha Hardy, director of The Conflict Management Academy in Australia. Her topic was ‘aspirational ethics’. Her opening theme was that we are living in a moment where “the centre of society feels like it’s cracking”. One example is that “people feel the legal system is inaccessible to them: too expensive, too slow, too confusing”. Business as usual is not enough, she said.

She challenged the audience to consider the character and integrity that is needed of professionals in these troubling times. While her talk was directed at mediators, her words have wider relevance. Rules, disciplinary processes and professional conduct standards alone are insufficient, she suggested. The main ethical risk is not intentional wrongdoing but complacency. The bar is too low if our only professional ambition is not to end up in court or in front of a complaints panel.

What we need, she argued, is “radical transparency”. And trust, not just in a process but in the person delivering the service, who aspires to more than merely avoiding legal liability or punishment for infringing professional rules. Aspirational ethics are founded not in mere compliance as in “What must I avoid doing?” but more in: “Who am I seeking to be as a practitioner?” Rather than asking: “What does the rule say?”, the emphasis becomes “What would a wise and ethical practitioner do in this situation?”

Hardy describes aspirational ethics as “not about what we must do, it’s about who we must become.” This entails asking several questions: Why am I doing this work? What are my personal values and how do they show up in the work that I do? Do I use my influence wisely? Do I act in a way I would stand by if it were visible to the world? And, perhaps most critically, what is it about my character that contributes to my ability to do this work well?

Aspirational ethics requires us to engage in constant critical reflection, about our practice and about the things we take for granted in how we conduct ourselves. It is, Hardy suggests, a form of artistry. “Artistry is rare because it requires vulnerability. You cannot develop artistry while clinging to the illusion that you already know enough. Vulnerability is what opens the door to growth. And it is growth that allows aspirational ethics to take shape in real, everyday practice.” At the turn of the year, there is much food for thought in these words.

The second event marked ten years of Edinburgh University’s excellent Global Compassion and Empathy Initiative. The central theme was similar to Hardy’s: we are living in an ‘Age of Fracture’. We heard from the outgoing University Chaplain, Harriet Harris, about the importance of compassion in our work. Distinguishing compassion and empathy, we know that compassion comes from the Latin ‘to suffer with’. As Harris put it: “noticing, feeling, making sense of and responding to suffering”, the opposite of indifference. Compassion can be an antidote to the win/lose zero sum paradigm which is increasingly prevalent these days and indeed can boost cognitive capacity in situations which might otherwise be threatening. Compassion enhances creativity and collaboration, cultivating a sense of ‘enoughness’. Again, something for practitioners to ponder.

In 2026, let’s hope that character, integrity and compassion can guide professional practice.

John Sturrock KC is a mediator. This article first appeared in The Scotsman.