The how, where, why, and when we communicate. Long form asynchronous? Real-time chat? In-person? Video? Verbal? Written? Via email? In Basecamp? How do we keep everyone in the loop without everyone getting tangled in everyone else’s business? It’s all in here.

An unsurprisingly blunt, plain language set of guidelines from the Basecamp team. Useful as a guide for other teams looking to build or improve upon their internal communication habits.

Add a reacji (emoji reaction) to a message to send it zipping through the microscopic pipelines inside Slack, popping out into another channel—where the right people can see and act upon it.

Found this useful Slack integration via Mina Markham’s tweet:

Protip: I have a channel in my work Slack (or Slack’s Slack, if you will) that catalogs anything with my custom :mina: reacji.

Definitely came in handy during promo cycle :thumbsup:

Jordan shared this Harvard Business Review article on Twitter recently. There’s a lot of great advice that leaders within organizations should take to heart.

This particular passage hit really close to home:

Problem spotters don’t especially enjoy bearing bad news, but they do it to advance the organization. To help you, the leader. Maybe it’s because they have a different perspective, or a fresh take based on that spot in the world where only they stand. Maybe it’s that they are better at expressing the issue, where others struggle. Stop making it so hard on them to help you.

Address the message not the messenger.

In this article, Code for America founder Jen Pahlka expertly captures many of the reasons I have for choosing to serve our country in tumultuous times.

But sometimes [leaving the federal government] is a luxury. The veteran to whom we’ve promised benefits after she served our country does not have the luxury of choosing to opt out of the federal government; she needs processes to work for her to access benefits. About 75 million people in our country rely on Medicaid; they don’t have the luxury of opting out, either. If the people who administer these and other services walk away and others don’t come to replace them, that choice will be made for them, with devastating consequences.

Earlier this year, I willingly ran into the burning building with a goal of helping as many of my fellow Americans as possible. Six months in, I’m proud to say that—in spite of the three-ring circus at 1600 Pennsylvania—my work continues apace.

Champion good ideas.

It’s one of LivingSocial’s company values and it’s what I’m here to do today. The idea? Creating the kind of environment where your team is comfortable asking questions & thinking out loud.

My brilliant co-worker Sara on the importance of asking questions and thinking aloud. Few things are more devastating to a company’s culture—and detrimental to the organization’s success—than making team members feel they can’t speak up or ask questions.