What Spread Harmony Commits To
1. Purpose of the Charter
This Charter describes what Spread Harmony commits to do and how it intends to operate in
pursuit of its purpose.
The Charter translates the principles expressed in the Founding Framework into
organisational commitments.
It should be read together with the Founding Framework, the Declaration, and the
Participation & Stewardship Framework.
2. The Purpose We Serve
Spread Harmony exists to contribute to a more harmonious world by helping create
conditions in which human beings can develop and live with greater love, compassion,
kindness and gratitude.
We do not claim that Spread Harmony alone can create harmony.
We seek to make a useful contribution by providing potentially useful resources, information,
skills, perspectives, connections and environments that people may use as they consider
appropriate to allow emergence of a harmonious world.
3. Purpose Is Larger Than the Organisation
The purpose and intention of Spread Harmony are larger than the organisation and the
people involved in it.
Spread Harmony is a means of serving that purpose.
The organisation’s growth, reputation, continuation or prominence should never become
more important than what best serves the purpose.
4. Provide Resources and Support, Not Destinations
Spread Harmony commits to providing potentially useful resources and support, including
information, skills, guidance, connections and opportunities.
We may:
- provide information;
- develop or share skills;
- make potentially useful resources available;
- provide opportunities;
- facilitate connections;
- create environments for learning and reflection;
- identify possibilities and alternative approaches;
- and make relevant knowledge and experience more accessible.
5. Guide Like a Lighthouse, not a Captain
Spread Harmony will seek to guide like a lighthouse, not act as a captain.
We may illuminate:
- potential opportunities;
- risks and boundaries;
- different pathways;
- available resources;
- difficult conditions;
- and potentially useful directions.
People retain agency over their own choices.
6. Encourage and Respect Human Agency
Spread Harmony will encourage and respect human agency.
We will seek to provide people with sufficient information, resources and opportunities to
make their own informed choices.
We will not assume that Spread Harmony knows what is best for every person or
circumstance. We do not seek to prescribe a single destination for humanity or for
individuals. People remain free to determine what is appropriate for themselves and what
direction they wish to take.
7. Make Potentially Useful Resources Available
Spread Harmony will seek to identify, develop, organise and make available resources that
may potentially help people.
Resources may include:
- information;
- educational material;
- skills;
- tools;
- practical guidance; connections;
- examples;
- opportunities;
- and access to other potentially useful resources.
We do not expect every resource to be appropriate for everyone.
People decide what is useful to them.
8. Do Not Claim to Provide All the Answers
Spread Harmony is not purposed to provide all the answers.
We will seek to acknowledge uncertainty where it exists.
We will remain open to the possibility that others may know, understand or discover
something that we do not.
Where appropriate, we will direct people towards other sources, organisations, experts or
resources rather than attempting to answer everything ourselves.
9. Truth
Spread Harmony will respect truth wherever it is found.
We will seek to:
- distinguish evidence from assumption;
- acknowledge uncertainty;
- correct errors when identified;
- listen to views that challenge our understanding;
- and avoid presenting opinion as established truth.
We are ready to embrace even difficult truths.
10. Learning Before Certainty
Spread Harmony will remain open to learning and refinement.
Our methods, resources and approaches may change as our understanding develops.
We will welcome constructive questioning of our conclusions and operations.
Feedback is always welcomed and can help refinement.
Suggestions and recommendations for improving Spread Harmony are welcomed.
11. Compassion, Kindness and Gratitude Spread Harmony will seek to encourage environments and resources that support:
- love;
- compassion;
- kindness;
- gratitude;
- understanding;
- respectful relationships;
- and human flourishing.
We will not attempt to impose a single interpretation of how these qualities must be
expressed.
12. Respect Before Judgement
Spread Harmony will encourage people to:
Ask and try to understand before judging.
We will seek to understand circumstances, experiences and intentions while remaining
willing to acknowledge harmful behaviour and maintain appropriate accountability.
13. Participation Without Hierarchy
Anyone may participate in Spread Harmony in a manner consistent with its purpose and
principles.
Participation does not create a hierarchy of human worth.
Some people may accept greater responsibility for particular activities or areas.
Greater responsibility creates greater accountability, not greater human status.
14. Harmony Supporters, Hosts and Stewards
Spread Harmony may recognise different forms of participation:
Harmony Supporters
People who support the purpose and intention of Spread Harmony.
Harmony Hosts
People who actively help create environments, opportunities or pathways through which
others can participate or access potentially useful resources.
Harmony Stewards
Hosts who accept additional responsibility and accountability for specific tasks or areas of
Spread Harmony. These descriptions reflect participation and responsibility, not personal status.
15. Participation With Agency
Participation in Spread Harmony does not require people to surrender independent thought
or judgement.
Participants remain free to:
- question;
- disagree;
- suggest alternatives;
- leave;
- or pursue different approaches.
Participation should strengthen human agency rather than diminish it.
16. Disagreement Is Not Disharmony
Spread Harmony will not treat respectful disagreement as disloyalty or as disharmony.
Constructive disagreement can help reveal weaknesses, improve decisions and expose
perspectives that may otherwise be missed.
Participants should be encouraged to question ideas while respecting people.
17. Accountability
Spread Harmony will maintain appropriate accountability for its activities.
Those accepting responsibilities within the organisation will be accountable for how those
responsibilities are exercised.
Formal roles may exist where required for governance, legal or regulatory purposes.
Such roles should not become a basis for unnecessary status or hierarchy.
18. Integrity of Intent
Spread Harmony will continually examine the intentions behind its activities.
Before undertaking significant activity, we should ask:
Why are we doing this?
We will seek to ensure that activity remains connected to the purpose rather than becoming
driven by:
- financial gain;
- personal recognition; influence;
- status;
- power;
- organisational self-interest;
- or ego.
19. Financial Integrity
Financial gain is not part of the purpose of Spread Harmony.
Spread Harmony will not operate for personal financial or material enrichment.
Where financial resources arise legitimately, they will be handled consistently with the
purpose, applicable law and the organisation’s obligations.
Any work towards personal financial or material gain contrary to the purpose is
unacceptable.
Where opportunities generate proceeds that can appropriately be directed towards
charitable purposes, doing so should be consistent with this principle.
20. Action Before Announcement
Spread Harmony will favour:
Action Before Announcement.
Announcements, plans and aspirations should not substitute for useful action.
Where practical and appropriate, we should seek to accomplish useful work before
publicising it.
Public communication remains appropriate where it genuinely serves the purpose.
21. Quiet Achievement
Spread Harmony will seek achievement rather than recognition.
The value of an action does not depend upon who performed it or whether anyone knows
who performed it.
We will therefore be comfortable with work that produces worthwhile outcomes without
attracting attention to the organisation or individuals involved.
22. We Do Not Seek to Own Outcomes
Spread Harmony is purposed for worthwhile outcomes but is not purposed to claim credit for
them. If another person or organisation uses something associated with Spread Harmony and
achieves a positive result, the result does not become the property or achievement of
Spread Harmony.
Our interest should be in useful outcomes occurring, not in establishing ownership of them.
23. One Person Helped Is Worthwhile
Spread Harmony will value concrete useful action.
Helping one person genuinely can be more worthwhile than using substantial resources to
design an elaborate scheme intended to potentially help many people without producing
meaningful action.
At the same time, where larger-scale action can genuinely help more people without
compromising integrity, we should remain open to it.
24. Effectiveness Without Ego
Spread Harmony will seek to operate effectively.
But effectiveness, achievement or recognition must not become sources of ego.
We should be willing to learn from success without becoming attached to it.
25. Measurement as Feedback
Spread Harmony may use measurement, evidence and feedback to understand:
- whether an activity is useful;
- what needs may exist;
- what can be improved;
- and where resources may be better directed.
Measurement is a tool.
It is not the purpose.
We will not allow metrics to become substitutes for judgement or reasons to pursue
impressive numbers rather than worthwhile action.
26. Publicity to Serve Purpose
Publicity and promotion will be used only where they serve the purpose.
Publicity may help:
- make resources discoverable;
- enable participation;
- communicate useful information;
- attract appropriate assistance;
- facilitate collaboration;
- or meet legitimate accountability requirements.
Publicity should not become an objective in itself.
27. Organisation Promotion
Spread Harmony will not seek organisational prominence for its own sake.
We may communicate what Spread Harmony does where doing so serves the purpose.
The organisation should not become the subject of the work when the purpose should be the
focus of attention.
28. Purpose Is Never About Promoting Any Individual
Spread Harmony will not operate for the promotion of individuals.
People may be acknowledged where appropriate, but personal recognition, status or
prominence must not become an objective of the organisation.
29. Legal and Regulatory Integrity
Spread Harmony will comply with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
Appropriate records, formal positions, governance structures and processes may be
maintained where necessary.
Compliance should not be confused with personal status.
Legal accountability is non-negotiable.
30. Responsible Use of Resources
Spread Harmony will seek to use its resources responsibly.
Resources include:
- money;
- time;
- knowledge;
- technology;
- relationships;
- people’s effort;
- organisational attention;
- and opportunities.
We should continually consider whether the resources entrusted to us are being used in
ways that best serve the purpose.
31. Openness to Other Approaches
Spread Harmony will not assume that its own methods are always the best methods.
Where another person, organisation, resource or approach can better serve the purpose, we
should be willing to recognise and use it where appropriate.
Collaboration should be preferred over unnecessary duplication or competition.
32. Respect for Other Organisations
Spread Harmony will seek to work respectfully with other organisations, communities and
individuals whose activities may contribute to harmonious human life.
We do not need to own an idea to support it.
We do not need to lead an activity to help it succeed.
We do not need to receive recognition for contributing to worthwhile work.
33. Continuity with Flexibility
Spread Harmony should be capable of changing its:
- methods;
- structures;
- technology;
- programs;
- resources;
- and even organisational form
when doing so better serves the purpose.
Continuity of purpose is more important than continuity of structures, methods, or programs.
34. Feedback, Concerns and Suggestions
Spread Harmony will provide an accessible means for people to communicate:
- feedback;
- suggestions;
- recommendations;
- concerns;
- and complaints.
Such communications will be welcomed and considered appropriately.
Where they identify genuine opportunities for improvement, Spread Harmony will seek to
learn from them.
35. Accountability
Spread Harmony will remain responsible and accountable for its activities and will maintain
all records in accordance with the regulatory requirements.
Information should be made public where required by law, regulation, legitimate
accountability, or whenever doing so serves the purpose.
Transparency should not become another form of self-promotion.
36. Purpose Is Primary
The purpose of Spread Harmony is primary.
The organisation, its structures, resources, activities and people exist to serve that purpose.
When interests conflict, the purpose should guide the choice.
37. What We Will Not Become
Spread Harmony will guard against becoming:
- personality driven;
- recognition driven;
- financially driven;
- power driven;
- publicity driven;
- metric driven;
- or organisation driven.
It should remain:
Purpose driven.
38. The Charter Is Not the Purpose
This Charter is a means of expressing and safeguarding commitments. It is not itself the purpose of Spread Harmony.
The Charter may be questioned and refined when doing so better protects the purpose.
A concise Charter statement
If someone asked, “What does Spread Harmony actually commit to?”, I think the entire
Charter can ultimately be distilled to this:
Spread Harmony commits to creating conditions, providing potentially useful
resources, encouraging human agency, supporting learning and connection, and
helping make constructive possibilities more accessible—without claiming to have all
the answers or seeking to control the destinations people choose.
It commits to operating with integrity, accountability, financial and ethical discipline,
quiet achievement, openness to truth, willingness to learn, and respect for people and
their agency.
It commits to keeping its purpose larger than its organisation, its service more
important than its recognition, and its outcomes more important than its ownership or
credit.