Provocative Observation
All the things being discussed in Tracer Drops etc about DAO-employment, DAO-Contribution, Dao-Work, DAO-blahblah - misses a critical point.
They are too Project Focused , too Outcome Focused. It has an outcome, and then it dies. What about ongoing accountabilities? Activities versus Outcomes. Infinite Game stuff. Look I understand that the nerds at Mycelium and RMIT are “project” or “publication” focused, but this is not how long term sustainable organisations work. @SincDavidson talks a big game about Gig economy being the solution, but has that ever worked in any industry other than the (project orientated) creative spaces? Hollywood organises itself around a blockbuster movie, around a screenwriting project, around a TV series - fine but its finite.
Operations are forever (hopefully) and the dynamics are vastly different from the Project (or Publication) mindset. @Jasonpotts defines out the problem space well: as a DAO Worker Candidate - how can you trust me at a very low cost. There is a simple answer - you don’t have to reinvent just for the sake of reinvention. Proof of Performance. Some of the largest well-run organisations have identified that the best indicator of future performance is previous performance. Search, and Select people who can perform, and then incentivise performance to stay and expand the performance. Or Attract, and Acknowledge people who contribute (ala @Bob_Boyle_1662 - sorry Bob you have become part of my signature ), and then again incentive performance to stay around long term.
When someone leaves the pool of committed action takers - the intangible loss to the organisation is huge. The connections, the intrinsic understanding of how the business works, the neural networks of value which has been laid down and reinforced, is a massive value which automation, systematisation, decentralisation can not compete with when it comes to the Exceptions. And Exceptions always happen and are always at the bottom of organisation failure.
Why is there this focus on gig workers? My view is there is a preciousness around Relative Power - where the people have associated long term work as being “under the thumb” of the establishment. A lack of freedom, a lack of self-determination. {DAO Culture is attractive for people with similar beliefs.} So people went out and started their own business - and found out how Bloody Hard (all capitalised words are technical definitions) running your own business was, so they ended up working part-time for their old employer, or a series of employers. Thus was born part of the gig economy (in the modern context). [I lived in Phuket and Chiang Mai for 12 years - and endured several generations of Digital Nomads/DigiX - kinda feel like I have a solid perspective on some of the angles].
Committed actors in Tracer DAO (any DAO) has this weird multidimensional participation in ALL (and none) of the following roles*:
- Organisational Ownership
- Organisational Directorship
- Organisational Trusteeship
- Organisational Custodianship
- Organisational Leadership
- Organisational Management
- Organisational Coordination
- Organisational Participation
- Organisational Membership
- Organisational Belongingness
[*replaceable terms=Organisation:Association:Commons:Nation State]
This, I say, makes incentivisation of long term participation even more important. I am not saying reliant on long term participants, I am saying served by long term participation. I was watching a movie last night [nope - TV series - Endgame] and a character says “if you want to know what is really going on within a family, ask the grandmother”. Wisdom belongs to the aged for a reason.
Who is actually going to do the work in the long term. Once Mycelium leaves? Once RMIT Leaves? Once XYZ leaves? Will a GIG WORKER replace the role these guys are filling?
Are these questions too early to be asking?
I don’t think so. Personally speaking; Origin Stories are DeFining. Directional momentum is sourced in beginnings. Ask any superhero. I have a saying “the road to my successes is littered with the burning hulks of my failures” and god I know the sky is bright with the flames behind me. But how I have turned the lessons of those failures into value, has been by integrating the knowledge into my “wisdom”, my “experience” and so avoiding the cost of those mistakes again in the future, and synthesising the lessons into an operating awareness. You lose this when you lose a long term active participant in a community.
Challenge:
We do not have an organisational structure. There is no long term plan in place, no succession planning. What are the plans to renumerate and to retain knowledge, to retain cultural knowledge, vision holders. Why would I want to buy and hold Tracer Token if none of this is in place. Will Tracer survive the Bus Test? If the obvious leader of the day gets hit by a bus, does Tracer survive?
What do we need to do to ensure that Tracer DAO is playing an infinite game, incentivising participants in a way which supports infinite outcomes?