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if you’re a leader, and you aren’t analyzing how you would act, and why, in the situation at basecamp, you’re missing a golden opportunity. Every step offers a gold mine of introspection.
How not to roll out policy changes? Check. Why you never bundle things together? Check. Public airing of dirty laundry? Check.
I like to believe I would’ve killed the names list the moment I saw it. In 2009 it wouldn’t have been because I thought it was racist (tho I see that it is now), but because you cannot have disdain for the people you serve.
One other observation - sometimes the job of a leader is to shut the fuck up and eat it. It doesn’t always matter what you think. Why run off about escalating? Why not just recognize that the list caused problems, acknowledge it, acknowledge the obvious complicity, and move on?
The answer is because some times it’s easy to forget that being the leader (sometimes) means suffering for the good of the organization. Basecamp has always been clear that it’s about the founders happiness.
It’s what they want, the way they want it. He didn’t need to poke that employee in the eye. He just needed to shut up, close a door, and talk to a therapist about his feelings. So everyone could heal.
He didn’t need to be right. He didn’t need them to agree. He needed everyone to put down the toxic rod. That starts with *him*, because he’s the only one with positional power.
By writing that reply to the employee, he prolonged the suffering. To no fruitful end! The list was going to be gone either way! All he had to do in that moment was not care about being right, and not need to be understood. He just needed to do the right thing in the moment.
So take it from me and from DHH - if you’re in leadership, and shits toxic, you have to drop the toxic thing, and then make space for people to heal - which probably means suffering yourself in private a little. It’s a small price to pay.
So I’m not misunderstood - “drop the toxic thing” - means acknowledging its toxicity, acknowledging your role in it, addressing what will happen next, following through consistently, and allowing people to vent and grieve. Except the leaders: they need to grieve in private!
Because pouring their own grief out, combined with their positional authority, only makes less space for the people who work for you to do the same. I’m not advocating total silence, or false appeasement.
But if you know it’s bad, and I know it’s bad, and we’re dropping the bad thing, that’s it for leadership. You *never* get to kick that shit down, or ask your employees to eat it for your comfort. Your job is to sit in the discomfort, and lead your people through their grief.
