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...

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...

How do we increase the ability of DAOs (and pods within DAOs) to coordinate effectively? Traditional firms address coordination in many ways. There's what's known as "command and control" by a leader in a hierarchy, there's process design and workflows, as well as service and product focused models, as well as others. All of these, though, eventually rely on being able to put obligations on others, and deliver rewards or consequences based on perceived fulfillment of those obli...

How do we increase the ability of DAOs (and pods within DAOs) to coordinate effectively? Traditional firms address coordination in many ways. There's what's known as "command and control" by a leader in a hierarchy, there's process design and workflows, as well as service and product focused models, as well as others. All of these, though, eventually rely on being able to put obligations on others, and deliver rewards or consequences based on perceived fulfillment of those obli...

I recently joined ACRE DAOs to discuss the playbook and answer questions to help them with testing out its use within their DAOs. Feel free to check out the recording below. Time stamp of topics:What inspired the playbook and a bit of how it is envisioned to make a difference (2:45)A high level summary of the timeline of using the playbook within an Impact DAO (6:15)Community thoughts on key elements of the playbook (12:30)How to approach defining the adventure-vision, and why DAOs should act...

I recently joined ACRE DAOs to discuss the playbook and answer questions to help them with testing out its use within their DAOs. Feel free to check out the recording below. Time stamp of topics:What inspired the playbook and a bit of how it is envisioned to make a difference (2:45)A high level summary of the timeline of using the playbook within an Impact DAO (6:15)Community thoughts on key elements of the playbook (12:30)How to approach defining the adventure-vision, and why DAOs should act...

Coherent actions towards an adventure-vision take the form of missions. Yes, mission statements are terrible, but the concept as Tom Graves describes it is helpful. A DAO's mission(s) are the capabilities and services it intends to create and maintain to fulfill its role(s) in service to the adventure-vision. This creation is guided by goals. A goal in Graves' approach is a project - a set of deliverables with a target date for completion. As goals are accomplished, they create serv...

Coherent actions towards an adventure-vision take the form of missions. Yes, mission statements are terrible, but the concept as Tom Graves describes it is helpful. A DAO's mission(s) are the capabilities and services it intends to create and maintain to fulfill its role(s) in service to the adventure-vision. This creation is guided by goals. A goal in Graves' approach is a project - a set of deliverables with a target date for completion. As goals are accomplished, they create serv...

The third element of predictability is one that DAOs should be well-positioned to address. That's what a smart contract is intended to provide, after all. When I talk about predictability for a DAO, I mean that there needs to be clarity in three areas amongst all members.What is expected of each memberHow their efforts against those expectations will be measuredWhat the DAO will do based on results of their efforts compared to expectationsEven in a DAO, doing this is definitely more of a...

The third element of predictability is one that DAOs should be well-positioned to address. That's what a smart contract is intended to provide, after all. When I talk about predictability for a DAO, I mean that there needs to be clarity in three areas amongst all members.What is expected of each memberHow their efforts against those expectations will be measuredWhat the DAO will do based on results of their efforts compared to expectationsEven in a DAO, doing this is definitely more of a...

The core of good governance is effective decision making. Many equate this with “choosing’, but they are not the same. This is why John Boyd described decision making as the OODA (observe, orient, decide, act) loop. Our orientation towards internal and external stimuli, what we observe and neglect, how we choose from the options perceived, and execution of that choice all factor into decision quality. What makes for a good decision? Well, that's a value question, so we can use BCR to ans...

The core of good governance is effective decision making. Many equate this with “choosing’, but they are not the same. This is why John Boyd described decision making as the OODA (observe, orient, decide, act) loop. Our orientation towards internal and external stimuli, what we observe and neglect, how we choose from the options perceived, and execution of that choice all factor into decision quality. What makes for a good decision? Well, that's a value question, so we can use BCR to ans...

Decision making capacity is limited. Tradorgs tend to forget this, which is why in large orgs executives spend all of their time in meetings (governance and otherwise). Unless they carve out time for strategy and planning, executives fall into reactive mode. It's frankly remarkable that tradorgs work as well as they do given this reality, but it leaves a lot of potential on the table. DAOs can make this much better - or much worse. If everyone has to vote on everything, members have to c...

Decision making capacity is limited. Tradorgs tend to forget this, which is why in large orgs executives spend all of their time in meetings (governance and otherwise). Unless they carve out time for strategy and planning, executives fall into reactive mode. It's frankly remarkable that tradorgs work as well as they do given this reality, but it leaves a lot of potential on the table. DAOs can make this much better - or much worse. If everyone has to vote on everything, members have to c...

Tokens and money screw up a lot of thinking about DAOs. The word “value” gets hijacked to equate success with “token goes up”. For DAOs to realize their potential, they must move past this to identify what value truly means to its members. To make value clear, a notion from Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey is useful - the call to adventure. The best way to get to a common view of value in a DAO is to have a shared vision that guides everything the DAO does. But if we want this to sc...

Tokens and money screw up a lot of thinking about DAOs. The word “value” gets hijacked to equate success with “token goes up”. For DAOs to realize their potential, they must move past this to identify what value truly means to its members. To make value clear, a notion from Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey is useful - the call to adventure. The best way to get to a common view of value in a DAO is to have a shared vision that guides everything the DAO does. But if we want this to sc...

When I talk about accountability for a DAO, I mean it literally in the sense of “whose account (story)” justifies our current state and where we are going. For instance, in a tradorg, the CEO is accountable for allocating capital. If the board no longer believes the story the CEO is telling to justify those decisions, the CEO is toast. Accountability for a DAO is needed in three areas:Getting the intended value. Are we taking the best path towards the adventure-vision that we could be? Are we...

When I talk about accountability for a DAO, I mean it literally in the sense of “whose account (story)” justifies our current state and where we are going. For instance, in a tradorg, the CEO is accountable for allocating capital. If the board no longer believes the story the CEO is telling to justify those decisions, the CEO is toast. Accountability for a DAO is needed in three areas:Getting the intended value. Are we taking the best path towards the adventure-vision that we could be? Are we...

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...

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...

Like predictability, transparency should be a strength of DAOs due to the natural consequences of blockchains. When I talk about transparency, I mean that the right entities have enough visibility into information about the DAO to maximize their contribution towards the adventure-vision. Can we easily see who is accountable for what and how that has been working out for us? Are we actually adhering to our decision flows? Are consequences being delivered in line with expectations? Two common m...

Like predictability, transparency should be a strength of DAOs due to the natural consequences of blockchains. When I talk about transparency, I mean that the right entities have enough visibility into information about the DAO to maximize their contribution towards the adventure-vision. Can we easily see who is accountable for what and how that has been working out for us? Are we actually adhering to our decision flows? Are consequences being delivered in line with expectations? Two common m...

The second element is participation. I've seen several members of Orca Protocol (now Metropolis) highlight this as a concern, which was yet another reason I wanted to get more involved with them. Others have talked about it too, of course, and rightly so. When I talk about participation for a DAO, it's primarily focused on the decisions being made within the DAO. Are the people that should be participating involved? Are we minimizing involvement of people who should not be participa...

The second element is participation. I've seen several members of Orca Protocol (now Metropolis) highlight this as a concern, which was yet another reason I wanted to get more involved with them. Others have talked about it too, of course, and rightly so. When I talk about participation for a DAO, it's primarily focused on the decisions being made within the DAO. Are the people that should be participating involved? Are we minimizing involvement of people who should not be participa...