Culture

Atmospheric

“How’s the weather?”

Who cares! Why do we talk about the weather? When there’s nothing else, the weather offers an early bond between strangers. This is because everyone has experience, and can therefore relate to different atmospheric conditions.

The weather is always changing and may be one of the easiest forms of small talk, but it’s just so boring. We can’t change it, so what does it matter? If you’re catching up with someone you already know, talk of the weather is even more pointless! Besides meaningful topics like climate change, the danger of severe weather, and the impact our environment has on shared activities, I propose we skip all the weather talk.

Next time you’re asked about the weather, breeze past the status quo. Make it rain with thoughtful questions to forecast more compelling bonds that last.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Permeability

We don’t have many 40 year careers anymore.

With talent in high demand, but often on the move, abundance can be overshadowed by scarcity when it comes to talent retention. We survey meaningless metrics, count the keystrokes, and try to pay people just enough not to leave. What if instead of trapping talent, we create purposeful jobs in an inclusive environment that gives agency to team members eager to keep a promise?

In his new book, The Song of Significance, Seth Godin argues (among other things) how enrollment can last when we invite people to leave. Instead of fighting to keep people in place, what if we optimize onboarding and welcome turnover, while creating conditions to make this the best job someone has ever had? When people are invited to be a linchpin, they feel significant and the team will be led by those who aren’t just collecting rent for their time.

As Seth talks about in this conversation with Tim Ferris, when we create a gratifying, but more porous environment, listen to stay in-tune with gyration. When departures occur, don’t blame the individual. Consider the conditions that contributed to such a decision and work harder to nurture a performance-based culture that’s made to stay.

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When you dance on the edge of infinity, there’s always enough… because you aren’t taking opportunity from anyone else, you’re creating it. -Seth Godin

By Ben McDougal, ago

Landing

Arriving at your destination took work, but the task is not complete until you stick the landing.

As I enjoyed the serenity of birding on a morning walk, I noticed how birds are quick to take off and fly around with ease, but there’s definitely a final moment of attention required to land.

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In the midst of a transition? Stay golden!

The excitement of new is easy to like. The forever dance of enjoying a hobby or building a business then takes persistence. As momentum creates ease, it can be easy for attention to slip. Whether it’s a small task or an epic exit, pushing toward a strong finish can actually be more challenging than everything leading up to it.

When it’s time to finish strong, make no assumptions. Stay detail oriented to complete the sequence. With another successful landing under your wings, let the experience inspire fresh vitality as you shift gears and remain open to next.

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Every moment is the end of something.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Organizational Shift

DAOs are a revolutionary way for connected humans to organize, coordinate, and pool resources without the need for centralized authorities or intermediaries.

These community-led groups transparently establish operating agreements and manage a shared treasury. By leveraging smart contracts, all decisions made by a DAO (“Decentralized Autonomous Organization”) are recorded on an immutable blockchain and governance tokens are used for gathering consensus.

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This caffeinated contribution was written by Alex Myers. This certified futurist is a DAO Agility Coach at Aragon, a web3 platform for building DAOs on open-source infrastructure with governance plugins. Alex is also a web3dsm organizer who believes the more we teach, the more we learn.

There are over 11,000 DAO’s in operation, encompassing $11B+ in treasuries, varying widely in size, scope, and AUM (“assets under management”). All of DeFi utilizes DAOs to govern their treasuries, yet many are simply small groups of like-minded individuals who want to quickly gather, pool capital, and make decisions. 

DAOs, like companies, come in many forms. Venture funds, investment groups, grant committees, philanthropy, media, and more. Here are the world’s largest DAOs and here are different types of DAOs.

Besides a wallet and owning cryptocurrency, no technical skills are required to create a DAO. Several no-code operating systems (Aragon, Tally, Colony, DAOHaus, and others) enable anyone to create a DAO in minutes by simply selecting governance capabilities, funding options, and voting requirements. Given many DAO operating systems are open-source, custom smart contracts and powerful plugins can add tailored functionality without additional cost as well.

To join a DAO, new members go through an onboarding process. Once confirmed, members can be given a digit asset, such as an NFT, to verify the details of their participation. Members are then granted access to a communication tool (like Discord, Telegram, or Slack) to collaborate with other members as decisions are made on which projects to pursue.

DAOs are different from traditional companies in that there is no hierarchy and decision-making is done through pre-set protocols and smart contracts. This decentralizes power and allows for more operational versatility. Members can work from anywhere and focus on work management rather than people management. Contributors can work in multiple DAOs and choose to remain anonymous or more identifiable within the group.

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Cheers to this web3 series brewing on the future of how we connect, communicate, and collaborate online!

As hype cycles and funding began to deteriorate in 2022, due to (mostly) macroeconomic forces, DAOs realized that community over performance was unsustainable. Today, sustainable DAOs utilize battle-hardened methodologies like Agile and KPIs to enhance coordination and productivity, while still maintaining a sense of community.

While all DAOs use crypto-assets to establish themselves, the size and scale of a DAO can impact its operations. Larger DAOs require more planning and coordination around governance optimization, commonly breaking into smaller, goal-oriented teams to define their own budget proposals, objectives, and success metrics. Since treasuries are often much more significant, DAOs members expect historical performance and analytics before voting to allocate funding.

DAOs are built on open, borderless, neutral, and censorship-resistant blockchains. This distribution is paradigm-shifting and a big reason for DAO growth. However, such dispersion also exposes DAOs to legal ambiguity. Since DAOs aren’t beholden to country-specific laws backed by traditional business structures (LLC’s, S-corps, C-corps, etc.), they must consider incorporation to minimize liability for members. Smaller DAOs with reduced financial capital are not as complex and more nimble, which allows them to define budgets, proposals, and goals with less effort.

Depending on the size, composition, ongoing activity, and how a treasury is funded (seed funding, ICOs, airdrops, grants, etc.), taxation and regulatory compliance is another presiding element for DAOs. This is especially true if a DAO is generating revenue by charging fees and distributing them back to token holders, as they could be redefined as securities and create taxable events. In short, the larger a DAO becomes, the more professional legal support, financial strategy, administrative attention, and overall leadership is required.

As we consider the future of work, DAOs have the potential to revolutionize the way organizations are structured and operated. DAOs re-imagine human coordination to be more equitable and transparent. With exponentially improving blockchain technology, alongside network effects, joining and contributing to DAOs will become a self-sustaining cycle of growth. As the world digitizes and becomes more decentralized, DAOs are poised to become a powerful force for change, disrupting traditional institutions and fostering a new era of innovation.

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You’re now ahead of the curve! Welcome to Web3 is a shareable reference and follow the Web3 tag for more reflections flavored in futurism.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Intrinsic

We all have bad days. When they string together, the stress gets heavy. This mental weight becomes especially unwieldy when the cause is unclear. After a couple down days, I went searching for the origin of my cloudy mood.

Along with insight on entrepreneurship, venture capital, and community building, Brad Feld talks a lot about mental fitness. The entrepreneurial lifestyle is a lonely roller coaster and I’m thankful for leaders like Brad (and many others), who have helped destigmatize the complex circuitry between leadership and mental health.

I found this entrepreneurship & mental health series from Techstars helpful, then wove in this 2015 interview to translate my temporary despair. Brad talked about how he’s gone through serious bouts with depression and through those challenging times, he’s been able to identify one of his intrinsic motivations to be perpetual learning. He went on to describe how even when he was busy and perceived to be successful, if boredom began to set in, an isolating absent of joy may soon follow.

This gave me clarity. I realized that one layer of my own intrinsic motivation is also learning. I like being in situations where I’m exposed to new things, thinking about fresh ideas, solving interesting problems, hearing stories from different people, and building into things I really care about. When there’s a lull in the action, it’s easy to think the ride is over. While this thought is misguided and untrue, it’s still disheartening. Mental fitness means something different for everyone, but here are a few exercises I plan to maintain within my practice.

  • Link learning with teaching.
  • Recognize that the storm will pass.
  • Find trusted peers to release tension.
  • Use this stimuli of stress to focus.

Adam Grant reminds us that strength does not come from ignoring pain. It stems from knowing that your past self has hurt and your future self will heal. Within the crucible of entrepreneurship, hardship is inevitable. Radical self inquiry keeps leaders aware of their mental fortitude. Such awareness then helps us maintain and uncover new stepping stones that illuminate our own path to thrive beyond momentary setbacks.

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Calm is one of my favorite apps. The guided meditations and sleep stories are a healthy aspect of my daily routine. Here are 10 ways to boost your mental fitness, a mental fitness training guide, and free mindfulness resources from these focused friends.

By Ben McDougal, ago