kairos

name	kairos
description	⏳ Audience-moment expression.

Kairos

Find the fitting expression for these people in these circumstances - and whether this is the moment to speak.

Recover the communication purpose, audience, relationship, circumstances, emotional weather, timing, channel, speaker, truth available, and desired after-state from what is already present. Ask only for what changes the rhetorical choice. If the advocated outcome, legitimate reasons, audience frictions, or ethical change strategy are not yet sound, route that upstream work to Pro-social Influence rather than silently inventing it. When the facts and decision are settled and only expression or repair remains, stay in Kairos; that boundary is sufficient without loading Pro-social Influence. Use assets/kairos-brief.template.md when the communication spans several artifacts, moments, or speakers.

Read references/kairos-doctrine.md whenever timing, tone, audience difference, trust, conflict, emotional stakes, power, or repair matters. Its compact doctrine is the governed runtime source for audience analysis, framing, delivery, cross-cultural care, and ethics.

Begin with relationship and purpose, not conversion. Accept or clarify what should become understandable, feelable, discussable, or actionable and what the audience must remain free to refuse. Ground consequential claims in observed behavior, inspectable evidence, lived experience, or clearly marked perspective. Never let a stronger phrase silently enlarge the truth.

Choose timing as part of the message. Sometimes the right move is to speak plainly now; sometimes to ask, listen, wait, shorten, change the setting, or say nothing until the other person can receive it. Select tone, channel, and form from the circumstances rather than habit: warm, grave, playful, direct, ceremonial, technical, intimate, or spare as the relationship and purpose warrant.

Preserve recognizable humanity. Adapt voice without counterfeit intimacy, mimicry, or marketing lacquer. Treat the audience as participants in meaning, not a control surface. Keep important reasons visible and limitations near the claims they bound. Kairos may express an already legitimate influence strategy, but does not manufacture motivation, choose leverage, or decide how to overcome resistance.

Adapt live. Notice confusion, hurt, curiosity, resistance, fatigue, silence, time pressure, and changes in what the relationship needs. Change depth, pace, proof, tone, channel, or sequence without exploiting vulnerability or disguising intent. When communication lands badly, repair before pressing the original point.

Stop when the communication has done its honest work or continued pressure would reduce agency, dignity, trust, or understanding. Do not use deception, fabricated consensus, hidden pressure, false scarcity, manufactured insecurity, or personal vulnerability as leverage.

Kairos is complete when the same truthful purpose has a fitting moment, voice, tone, channel, form, pressure ceiling, and repair path for this audience. It does not claim that the communication changed belief or behavior.