1. Codes of Conduct
Conducting yourself and your organization with good character
Daniel Norman
CTO and Co-Founder, güdTECH
DanielNorman.com/coc
Twitter @DreamingInCode
2. A meditation
The best gift you could give to the world is to learn to be truly
comfortable in your own skin, free of the burden of proving
your validity.
4. Goals of this talk
● Convince you that it’s not just boilerplate
● Encourage you to scrutinize your biases
● Motivate you to post your Code of Conduct prominently
5. Overview
● Does my organization need an official code of conduct?
● Some popular features
● Case Study
● Explore your biases
● Discuss
12. What is your perspective?
Gender roles Jockularity Appearance Encouragement
“Smile more”
Physical Contact
13. What are our choices?
Allow “Common sense” to reign
Ad-hoc Evangelism of your perspective
Make an explicit social contract
Your team may not be as aligned as you think
No forewarning. No accountability. Selective enforcement
No surprises. Enables accountability and consistency
14. I need a minute
Objective Common Sense is not a thing.
Stop pretending it’s a thing.
Common Sense is subjective.
Press Enter to return to presentation
Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart your perspective
15. An official Code of Conduct enables accountability
● Enable accountability through clarity
● Flush out toxic actors who cannot abide
● Discuss with your tribe, and modify via consensus
● ALL organizations need a Code of Conduct
● Systematize your system of conduct
● Good character is efficient
19. Some popular features
Synopsis, list protected groups
Reporting Procedure
Be explicit
Clearly articulate your values and priorities
20. Some popular features
● Short version
● Mission Statement
● Affirmation of good character
● Positivity, Safety, or anti-harassment language
● Enumerate protected groups
21. Some popular features
● Clearly articulate your values
● Reporting procedure
● Incident response procedure
● URL for full policy
23. Case Study - PyCon 2013 – The “Forking and Dongles” incident
● Two male employees of Play Haven made a
sexual joke about “dongles” and “forking” in a
public space.
● Adria Richards from SendGrid tweeted a picture of
them.
● PyCon staffers pulled them aside to speak with
them and returned them to their seats
● The tweet went viral
● Next day: Play Haven fired one of them, and the
internet exploded
● SendGrid got DDos’ed, and fired Adria
● Adria got death threats and a storm of harassment
24. The “Forking and Dongles” incident - PyCon 2013 Excerpt - PyCon 2013 Code of conduct
Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, sexual
orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion,
sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking,
following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of
talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome
sexual attention.
Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply
immediately.
Exhibitors in the expo hall, sponsor or vendor booths, or similar activities
are also subject to the anti-harassment policy. In particular, exhibitors
should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material. Booth staff
(including volunteers) should not use sexualized
clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise create a sexualized environment.
Be careful in the words that you choose. Remember that sexist, racist, and
other exclusionary jokes can be offensive to those around you. Excessive
swearing and offensive jokes are not appropriate for PyCon.
If a participant engages in behavior that violates this code of conduct, the
conference organizers may take any action they deem appropriate,
including warning the offender or expulsion from the conference with no
refund.
25. PyCon 2013 Learnings
● The answer to harassment is not harassment
● Organizers must take incident response seriously, use proportionate measures.
● Participants should take grievances public as a last resort – calculate
blowback potential.
● Clear photography policies – Lanyard Color
26. In Adria’s own words
It takes three words to make a difference:
“That’s not cool.”
PyCon 2013 Learnings
36. Grace Hopper
Computing pioneer
Mother of COBOL
Rear Admiral, USN
Fred Astaire
Dancer, Singer,
Actor
Hedy Lamarr
Actress and Inventor
Invented frequency
hopping technology
What does an engineer look like?
37. Grace Hopper at the console of
UNIVAC I, 1960
What
does an
engineer
look
like?
41. Language Shapes Thought
● Say Folks, People, Y’all, Human Units
● Make assertive statements “I feel” statements instead
● Refer to people the way they present. He, She, Ze, They, Them, etc
● How many mentors from other backgrounds do you have?
42. Mentors
● How many female mentors do you have?
● How many mentors of color do you have?
● How many mentors from different backgrounds do you have?
43. Character builds outcomes
● Clarity fosters Alignment
● Success requires Empathy
● Strength through Diversity
● Common Sense is Uncommon
44. Try it out, it’s easy :)
Code of Conduct Generator
Go to: danielnorman.com/coc
46. Extra Credit: The “what-if” game
● An employee posts pictures of their bare ass on twitter.
● A 47 year old male staffer calls a 25 year old female staffer “sweetheart”
● An employee experienced a personal loss, and you touch them for three seconds on the shoulder to
comfort them.