Kindness-Love-Service Conduct Check
Test conduct against three simple values before following the noise
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 93%
While discussing polarized culture, Brand proposes what he calls Sesame Street values: kindness, love, and service. His mechanism is a short behavioural audit. Instead of becoming absorbed in the surrounding phenomena, ask whether the action is kind and whether it serves anyone beyond the actor's impulse or status. A failed answer means the conduct has gone off track and should be changed. The framework is intentionally simple and self-directed: Brand says his morality concerns his own conduct rather than imposing a path on everyone else. It can interrupt contempt, impulsive reactions, and ideological rationalization, but it is not a complete ethical theory. Complex decisions still require evidence, boundaries, expertise, and attention to unintended harm.
Origin
Russell Brand introduced these as simple “Sesame Street values” during The Diary of a CEO.
Core principles
- 01Simple values can cut through distracting arguments
- 02Morality begins with examining your own conduct
- 03Kindness and service provide observable behavioural tests
- 04Going off track is a cue to correct course rather than defend the behaviour
- 05Values matter only when translated into action
How to run it
- 1
Pause the phenomena
Step back from labels, factions, and distracting details long enough to identify the conduct you are about to choose.
Pro tip Describe the action in plain language without naming the opposing group.
Watch out A simple description should not erase relevant power, safety, or legal context.
- 2
Run the kindness test
Ask whether the action treats the people affected with basic human regard, including when you disagree with them.
Pro tip Test tone and likely impact, not only your stated intention.
Watch out Kindness does not prohibit firm boundaries or accountability.
- 3
Run the love test
Ask whether the action is compatible with care and recognition of shared humanity rather than contempt or dehumanization.
Watch out Do not use the language of love to pressure someone into unsafe contact or forgiveness.
- 4
Run the service test
Identify who benefits and whether the action contributes to a real need rather than merely feeding preference, status, or anger.
Pro tip Name the beneficiary and the concrete benefit.
- 5
Correct the course
If the action fails one of the checks, revise it, delay it, or choose a different response that better expresses the values.
Pro tip Repeat the check when the conversation becomes more heated.
In the wild
A person is preparing a contemptuous reply to someone from an opposing political group. Applying Brand's check, they notice that the message is neither kind nor of service and rewrites it to challenge the claim without attacking the person's humanity.
→ The disagreement remains clear while the conduct moves closer to the values the person says they hold.
Common mistakes
Using kindness to avoid boundaries
Kindness can shape how a boundary is communicated without requiring the boundary to disappear.
Judging everyone except yourself
Brand explicitly frames morality here as a test of his own conduct, not a licence to police everyone else's path.
Is it for you?
Best for
Everyday choices and disagreements where someone wants a quick check on whether their own behaviour matches their stated values.
Not ideal for
Complex safeguarding, legal, clinical, or policy decisions where kindness alone cannot replace evidence, expertise, rights, and accountability.
From the transcript
“If you have a set of values that are pretty simple, I call them Sesame Street values. Kindness, love, service”
“Are you being kind right now? No. You have gone off track, mate.”
“Are you being of service? No.”
From the episode
Russell Brand FINALLY Opens Up: Escaping A Lifetime Of Anxiety, Addiction & Finding Love!