Appt PupilWhy DAOs Should Prize Resonance Over Consensus
While I have lauded consensus as one of the three composable building blocks of decision success, a recent podcast shifted my thinking on the topic. One of my favorite podcast hosts, Daniel Thorson, conducted an interview with teacher and artist David Sauvage on a recent episode of his Emerge: Making Sense of What’s Next podcast. David was discussing decision making within political structures such as Occupy Wall Street, and it inspired the following thought.In an Impact DAO, resonance with t...
Appt PupilA Useful Way to Assess the Health of Governance in a DAO: 0. Overview
The series:Accountability - Value, Coordination, and ExecutionParticipation - Decision Process and RolesPredictability - Expectations, Feedback, and ConsequencesTransparency - Packaging, Channels, and FrequencyHow do we assess the health of governance within a DAO? The conversations I have had on this topic with members of many DAOs indicate that existing approaches fall short of what is needed. The ability to do this in tradorgs isn't much better, frankly. I’ve observed that the tendenc...
Appt PupilA Useful Way of Thinking for Governing a DAO: 3. Scaling vs Reproduction
The evidence is in - scaling as an approach to growing an organization doesn't work. Anyone in a tradorg that has grown knows that an 8 person organization can't function the same way an 800 person organization does. An insect scaled up to human size would collapse under its exoskeleton. The 50 foot woman literally couldn't be human at that size - her bone density would not support her body. Geoffrey West's book Scale includes many great examples of these challenges. We of...
A student of governance applying what I've learned from other domains to Web3.
Appt PupilWhy DAOs Should Prize Resonance Over Consensus
While I have lauded consensus as one of the three composable building blocks of decision success, a recent podcast shifted my thinking on the topic. One of my favorite podcast hosts, Daniel Thorson, conducted an interview with teacher and artist David Sauvage on a recent episode of his Emerge: Making Sense of What’s Next podcast. David was discussing decision making within political structures such as Occupy Wall Street, and it inspired the following thought.In an Impact DAO, resonance with t...
Appt PupilA Useful Way to Assess the Health of Governance in a DAO: 0. Overview
The series:Accountability - Value, Coordination, and ExecutionParticipation - Decision Process and RolesPredictability - Expectations, Feedback, and ConsequencesTransparency - Packaging, Channels, and FrequencyHow do we assess the health of governance within a DAO? The conversations I have had on this topic with members of many DAOs indicate that existing approaches fall short of what is needed. The ability to do this in tradorgs isn't much better, frankly. I’ve observed that the tendenc...
Appt PupilA Useful Way of Thinking for Governing a DAO: 3. Scaling vs Reproduction
The evidence is in - scaling as an approach to growing an organization doesn't work. Anyone in a tradorg that has grown knows that an 8 person organization can't function the same way an 800 person organization does. An insect scaled up to human size would collapse under its exoskeleton. The 50 foot woman literally couldn't be human at that size - her bone density would not support her body. Geoffrey West's book Scale includes many great examples of these challenges. We of...
A student of governance applying what I've learned from other domains to Web3.
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Is there an inherent conflict between DAOs and composability?
One enduring observation in traditional organizations is a concept known as Conway's Law. It's often colloquially referred to as "you ship your organization design".
For instance, if you have four teams that are collaborating on a messaging app, it's likely that the messaging app will have four main components. This is because the build approach will likely involve dividing the work into four pieces and having each team work on one, then integrating the pieces to form the app.
One of the promises of web3 is that the products built will be composable. Each of them will be self-contained and can be easily used as building blocks for any other product. The promise, among others, is that we can get the benefits of scale while still maintaining a high degree of flexibility.
If we want products that are composable, though, then Conway's Law implies that the organizations creating those products also need to be composable. But the concept of DAOs for many people are that they obliterate boundaries and that everyone can (and should!) participate in as much or as little of the DAO's activities as they want. Quite the conflict!
This is another reason why the pod concept resonates. Pods offer a primitive that could be used to help DAOs be as composable as the products that web3 demands. Of course, just throwing a bunch of pods at a DAO isn't going to make it composable. We have to design (and redesign) the structure of the pods in a way that supports the adventure-vision.
We also need to ensure an ability for DAOs to identify when they are better served by separating into multiple DAOs that can coordinate as needed, as well as forming partnerships with other DAOs that can help us be successful. This was one of many considerations when I designed the playbook - beating this paradox is vital for Web3 to achieve its full potential!
** This post is heavily based on a series of messages I originally posted in the Orca Protocol Discord server on 2021-11-25, with modifications to improve clarity and reflect (hopefully!) improved thinking since then. Thanks to all in the Orca Protocol (now Metropolis) community who provided input, feedback, and support regarding these concepts.
Is there an inherent conflict between DAOs and composability?
One enduring observation in traditional organizations is a concept known as Conway's Law. It's often colloquially referred to as "you ship your organization design".
For instance, if you have four teams that are collaborating on a messaging app, it's likely that the messaging app will have four main components. This is because the build approach will likely involve dividing the work into four pieces and having each team work on one, then integrating the pieces to form the app.
One of the promises of web3 is that the products built will be composable. Each of them will be self-contained and can be easily used as building blocks for any other product. The promise, among others, is that we can get the benefits of scale while still maintaining a high degree of flexibility.
If we want products that are composable, though, then Conway's Law implies that the organizations creating those products also need to be composable. But the concept of DAOs for many people are that they obliterate boundaries and that everyone can (and should!) participate in as much or as little of the DAO's activities as they want. Quite the conflict!
This is another reason why the pod concept resonates. Pods offer a primitive that could be used to help DAOs be as composable as the products that web3 demands. Of course, just throwing a bunch of pods at a DAO isn't going to make it composable. We have to design (and redesign) the structure of the pods in a way that supports the adventure-vision.
We also need to ensure an ability for DAOs to identify when they are better served by separating into multiple DAOs that can coordinate as needed, as well as forming partnerships with other DAOs that can help us be successful. This was one of many considerations when I designed the playbook - beating this paradox is vital for Web3 to achieve its full potential!
** This post is heavily based on a series of messages I originally posted in the Orca Protocol Discord server on 2021-11-25, with modifications to improve clarity and reflect (hopefully!) improved thinking since then. Thanks to all in the Orca Protocol (now Metropolis) community who provided input, feedback, and support regarding these concepts.
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