Stop rubbernecking at Basecamp

The shock of the week came from Basecamp’s "changes" in their company policy. Namely "no societal and political discussions on our company Basecamp account", and no "paternalistic benefits". This was further reported on by Casey Newton, and then further explained by DHH.

Read it. But not for the juicy gossip coming at someone else’s expense. Read it because these issues are coming for you, and you probably aren’t ready for them.

As a digital leader, you need to get your mind around these things. They are someone else's problems today, but will be yours tomorrow.

Here are seven questions to explore. These aren't issues solely for people on the right or left. They are for anyone who plans to lead a team of humans in our world.

Schedule some time next week to discuss these points with a trusted friend who doesn’t look like you. Don't plan on writing a policy statement immediately, but start the conversation.

1. Just how "full-self" do you plan to allow people to be? When are you going to ask people to pull it back? What’s the line? Who gets to draw that line? Who will know where the line is?

2. Who gets to decide when an issue is "too political" for work? Is it only you and people who agree with you? Is it a simple majority?

3. Who gets to decide when a discussion moves from healthy to belligerent?

4. What is the difference between protecting psychological safety and pandering to fragility? How far is ok to allow people to get pushed before someone should step in? How do you define bullying?

5. Basecamp has promoted a text-first, asynchronous, distributed communication style for years. How does this help and hurt these issues? Do people work out these issues better when they are in-person, or does that make it worse?

6. The power to shut down all political discussions is only possible in a purely digital workplace. You can see every channel that is created. You can create a bot that censors ‘political’ language. You can root it out. You can’t do that in an office. How will you use this power now that you have it?

7. Do you need to disclose your political views to new applicants? Or the level of political discussion that occurs? How aligned do new hires need to be with your views on society? How will you explain all of your new policies? Should you use the "culture fit" test to make sure someone’s not going to stir the pot when they come in?

This is uncharted territory. And this is a very high level digital workplace stumbling over themselves in public. We’re figuring it out as we go.

But this is not a decision you want to punt on. It’s sticky and thorny, but it’s as real as ever. Start a conversation and see where it leads.