The communication needs to be: EA was defrauded by SBF. He has done us massive harm. We want to make sure nobody will ever do that to EA again. We need to ensure that any public communication puts SBF on one side, and EA on the other side, a victim of his crimes just like the millions of investors.
Upvoted.
But a problem is: I don’t think many people outside of EA believe that, nor will they believe it merely because EA sources self-interestedly repeat it. They do not have priors to believe EA was not somehow responsible for what happened, and the publicly-available evidence (mainly the Time article) points in the direction of at least some degree of responsibility. The more EA proclaims its innocence without coughing up evidence that is credible to the broader world, the more guilty it looks.
But I’ve worked for 20 years in a multinational and I know how companies deal with potential reputational damage, and I think we need to at least ask ourselves if it would be wise for us to do differently.
Consistency in Following the Usual Playbook
The usual playbook, as I see it, includes shutting up and hope that people lose interest and move on. I accept that there’s a reasonable case for deploying the usual playbook. But I don’t think you can really pick and choose elements out of that playbook.
For example, one of the standard plays is to quickly throw out most people in the splash zone of the scandal without any real adjudication of their culpability. This serves in part as propitiation to the masses, as well as a legible signal that you’re taking the whole thing seriously. It obviates some of the need for a publicly-credible investigation, because you’ve already expelled anyone for whom there is a reasonable basis to believe culpability might exist. This is true even though the organization knows there is a substantial possibility that the sacrificed individuals were not culpable, or at least not culpable enough to warrant their termination/removal.
Under the standard playbook, at least Will and Nick would be rendered personae non grata very early in the story. Their work is thrown down the memory hole, and neither is spoken of positively for at least several years. None of that is particularly fair or truth-seeking, of course. But I don’t think you get to have it both ways—you can’t credibly decline to follow the playbook because it is not truth-seeking and is unfair to certain insiders, and then reject calls for a legible, truth-seeking investigation because it doesn’t line up with the playbook. Although people have resigned from boards, and the extent of their “soft power” has been diminished, I don’t think EA has followed the standard crisis-management playbook in this regard.
Who Judges the Organization’s Crisis Response?
For non-profits, often the judge of the organization’s crisis response is the donor base. In most cases, that donor base is much more diverse and less intertwined than it is at (say) EVF. Although donors are not necessarily well-aligned to broader public concerns, the practical requirement that organizations satisfy concerns of their donor base means that the standard playbook includes at least a proxy for taking actions to address public concerns. EVF has had, as far as I can tell, exactly one systematically important donor and that donor is also ~an insider. Compare to, e.g., universities facing heat over alleged antisemitism from various billionaire donors. There’s no suggestion that Ackman, Lauder, et al. are in an insider relationship to Penn, MIT, etc. in the same way Open Phil is to EVF. Thus, the standard playbook is generally used under circumstances where there is an baseline business requirement to be somewhat willing to take actions to address a proxy for public concerns.
As I see it, at least some (but not all) of the calls for transparency and investigation are related to a desire for some sort of broader accountability that most non-profits face much more than EA organizations. As far as I can tell, the most suitable analogue to “a medium-size group of donors” for other nonprofits may be “the EA community, many members of which are making large indirect donations in terms of salary sacrifice.” The challenge is that discussions with the EA community are public in a way that communications with a group of a few dozen key donors are not for many non-profits.
Upvoted.
But a problem is: I don’t think many people outside of EA believe that, nor will they believe it merely because EA sources self-interestedly repeat it. They do not have priors to believe EA was not somehow responsible for what happened, and the publicly-available evidence (mainly the Time article) points in the direction of at least some degree of responsibility. The more EA proclaims its innocence without coughing up evidence that is credible to the broader world, the more guilty it looks.
Consistency in Following the Usual Playbook
The usual playbook, as I see it, includes shutting up and hope that people lose interest and move on. I accept that there’s a reasonable case for deploying the usual playbook. But I don’t think you can really pick and choose elements out of that playbook.
For example, one of the standard plays is to quickly throw out most people in the splash zone of the scandal without any real adjudication of their culpability. This serves in part as propitiation to the masses, as well as a legible signal that you’re taking the whole thing seriously. It obviates some of the need for a publicly-credible investigation, because you’ve already expelled anyone for whom there is a reasonable basis to believe culpability might exist. This is true even though the organization knows there is a substantial possibility that the sacrificed individuals were not culpable, or at least not culpable enough to warrant their termination/removal.
Under the standard playbook, at least Will and Nick would be rendered personae non grata very early in the story. Their work is thrown down the memory hole, and neither is spoken of positively for at least several years. None of that is particularly fair or truth-seeking, of course. But I don’t think you get to have it both ways—you can’t credibly decline to follow the playbook because it is not truth-seeking and is unfair to certain insiders, and then reject calls for a legible, truth-seeking investigation because it doesn’t line up with the playbook. Although people have resigned from boards, and the extent of their “soft power” has been diminished, I don’t think EA has followed the standard crisis-management playbook in this regard.
Who Judges the Organization’s Crisis Response?
For non-profits, often the judge of the organization’s crisis response is the donor base. In most cases, that donor base is much more diverse and less intertwined than it is at (say) EVF. Although donors are not necessarily well-aligned to broader public concerns, the practical requirement that organizations satisfy concerns of their donor base means that the standard playbook includes at least a proxy for taking actions to address public concerns. EVF has had, as far as I can tell, exactly one systematically important donor and that donor is also ~an insider. Compare to, e.g., universities facing heat over alleged antisemitism from various billionaire donors. There’s no suggestion that Ackman, Lauder, et al. are in an insider relationship to Penn, MIT, etc. in the same way Open Phil is to EVF. Thus, the standard playbook is generally used under circumstances where there is an baseline business requirement to be somewhat willing to take actions to address a proxy for public concerns.
As I see it, at least some (but not all) of the calls for transparency and investigation are related to a desire for some sort of broader accountability that most non-profits face much more than EA organizations. As far as I can tell, the most suitable analogue to “a medium-size group of donors” for other nonprofits may be “the EA community, many members of which are making large indirect donations in terms of salary sacrifice.” The challenge is that discussions with the EA community are public in a way that communications with a group of a few dozen key donors are not for many non-profits.