Ethical Pauses: Why and How to Run Them

A fast, focused method to assess the potential impact of our work so we can do what is within our power to reduce harm.

Photo by Elijah Mears on Unsplash

What’s an Ethical Pause?

The Ethical Pause is a short, intentional break in business-as-usual. It’s a structured opportunity to ask:

Should we build this—not just can we?
Who benefits, who’s harmed, and how do we know?
Are we aligned with our values and responsibilities?
How are we taking care of ourselves and each other in this work?

Despite the name, we’re not stopping all work—we’re creating a moment of reflection that fits into your existing schedule. This two step process should take no more than 90 minutes total for any individual team member (15–30 minutes solo reflection, 60 minutes group discussion).

It’s not a compliance exercise. It’s a gut check and a team check, before harm happens.

When to Run One

Before building a major feature or launching a product
When something feels ethically murky—or you’re moving fast and something doesn’t sit right
After tough feedback from users, partners, or peers
When policy changes or you’re asked to build something that feels misaligned

Who Should Participate

Core team members (design, research, policy, engineering, product)
Ideally at least 3 people for a range of perspectives
Invite a partner or reviewer if you want outside perspective (this can be extremely helpful for seeing things you’d otherwise miss but is also a great way to conduct co-design activities for maximum human-centeredness!)

Step 1: Ethics Self-Check Survey (15–30 min)

Each person reflects and fills out a short, anonymous ethics self-check survey (see the Ethics Self-Check Survey Template below) before the session.

This includes prompts like:

What’s the intended impact of this work?
Who might be unintentionally harmed?
What assumptions are we making about users, data, or policy?

You can use a shared doc or form to collect responses. This doesn’t need to be fancy—what matters is honesty and reflection.

Step 2: 60-Minute Team Debrief

This is the heart of the pause. Keep it focused, but don’t rush.

Part 1: Review survey insights (15 min)

Read through anonymized responses together.
What surprised us? What patterns are emerging?

Part 2: Run a brief Premortem or Risk Mitigation activity (30–40 min)

Choose one based on your stage:

🔮 Premortem (early stage work):

“Imagine this project fails in 6 months. What went wrong?”

Everyone lists 2–3 reasons.
Discuss themes, root causes, and what’s avoidable.

🔥 Risk Mitigation (mid/late stage work):

List the current risks.
Sort them by impact and control on a 2×2 grid.
Identify actions to take, defer, or escalate, as well as what you’re willing to accept/let go of.

An example 2×2 grid for mapping risks by “impact” and “control”

Part 3: Identify actions and owners (5–10 min)

What changes or follow-ups are needed?
Who’s accountable for each, and by what date will they follow up with the team?
Do we need to escalate or document anything?

Values to Keep Front and Center

Transparency over optics
Harm reduction over harm deflection (”just following orders”)
Care over speed

This isn’t about proving you’re “ethical” or just checking a box—it’s about doing the next right thing, together.

Ethics Self-Check Survey Template

INSTRUCTIONS: Use the text below as a jumping off point to create a simple survey in whatever tool you prefer (e.g. Google Forms, a carrier pigeon, etc.) You should edit the questions as appropriate to be more relevant for your team’s work. Responses should be anonymous.

Title: Ethical Pause: Self-Check Survey

Intro text:

You’re receiving this form as part of an ethical pause—a moment for us to reflect before we move forward with a feature, product, or decision. This shouldn’t take more than 15–30 minutes.

There are no wrong answers. Please be honest and candid. Your response will be shared anonymously with the team to support a group discussion.

Example questions + description text

1. What are we building or deciding on?

Briefly describe the product, feature, or decision this ethical pause is focused on. A sentence or two is enough—just enough to center the conversation.

2. What is the intended impact of this work?

What’s the desired outcome? Who is it meant to help, and how?

3. Who could be unintentionally harmed by this work?

Think about who might be excluded, misunderstood, overburdened, or negatively affected—even if they’re not the intended users.

4. What assumptions are we making?

Are we assuming anything about people’s behavior, needs, access, identity, or beliefs? About what’s “neutral,” “standard,” or “universal”?

5. Are there any signals or gut feelings that something’s off?

Is there anything that feels ethically uncomfortable, risky, or hard to talk about? Anything giving you pause?

6. What external pressures or incentives might be shaping our decisions?

Consider deadlines, partner expectations, politics, funding, or other forces that may be influencing the work more than we realize.

7. What feels in our control to change right now?

Are there areas where we could pause, revise, challenge, or push for better outcomes—even in small ways?

8. How might this work affect us personally?

Is this work likely to create moral distress, emotional burden, or values friction for anyone on the team? Do we need to make space or plans to care for ourselves or each other?

9. What would help you feel proud of this work?

What needs to be true—for the product, the process, or your own role—for you to feel good about the outcome?

Source: Digital Service Development Needs an Ethical Pause

Gratitude & Acknowledgements

The Ethical Pause, as I practice and share it today, wouldn’t exist without the wisdom and generosity of others.

I was first introduced to the concept by Professor Anne L. Washington’s Digital Interests Ethics Lab at NYU, who facilitated a version of the activity for my team. Their framing and care made it possible for us to slow down, ask harder questions, and start building an ethical reflex into our work culture.

Special thanks to Andreen Soley, who made that connection happen in the first place. Her quiet brilliance and deep commitment to public interest tech has shaped this work in more ways than she knows.

This resource is an adaptation of what they taught me—designed to meet the pace and pressures of civic tech work, without losing sight of the people at the center of it.

Last updated by Kit Miklik on April 23, 2025