Potential in the ebb and the flaw

Conflict is an opportunity and we might even need metrics for it

I was in Amsterdam for a week attending everything DAOist GGG, devconnect, ethamsterdam, DeSCI Day and meeting the fabulous wholesome people of web3.  

I live for the moments, those moments that one dives deep and comes up with pearls of insights and shares with the rest. And I was gifted plenty of those pearls last week.

Let me share one.

It was day 1 of DAOist GGG, an unconference for the DAO humans and humans from DAOs, I was pulled by Jeremy and Leen for a “Regen meetings“  workshop, a way to meet in a more human way. It must have worked as I met someone who inspired me. I met Juan Carlos Bell who works in conflict management in DAOs (token engineering commons and Gravity DAO) and I understood through his words how a conflict is a beautiful thing.

Well, now I admit. It was impactful to me because I am one of those who prefer no friction whenever possible. I will always flow to the least friction path if leading to the same point. But was I losing out on opportunities?

Here comes a new lens. Conflict arises when there is diversity.

Later in the day, I get to opportunity to listen to Juan’s talk about conflict management and their work in Gravity DAO where they help individuals to equip themselves with conflict management tools. I am definitely going to learn more. Here is also an OG in conflict management Juan introduced, J P Lederach. Here is an article he wrote changing resolution to conflict transformation.

Follow Gravity DAO for the 3rd cohort opening. https://token-engineering-commons.gitbook.io/tec-source/working-groups/gravity-wg

However, the conflict trip was not finished yet. On Daoist GGG second day when it was open to public attendance, I was listening to Chris Eberle from yearn.fi , He shared their governance journey and in the end, the learnings of governing yearn finance. They nailed it for a longer duration than many. One of his takeaways was that the turning points. They coincided with conflict or friction moments and he highlighted his luck to be working with the most courageous and clever people who never shy away. They are transparent and voice the areas when things are not working. That way they remained alive, successful and grew better.

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At this point, I am reflecting on why companies do not have KPI and metrics that address the number of conflicts arised and resolved. What an essential factor? How many times there was an opportunity to make it better, more inclusive, and how many times the individuals in it embarked on the opportunity to resolve the conflict.  Maybe that is the right lens to look at growth.

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DAOs and conflict management goes hand in hand. The situation arises naturally as there are no established power set ups, hierarchies and anything of that ilk. Aragon was the first DAO tooling entity to address this and reward dispute resolution with Aragon court, launching a specific token for the court as well.

DAOist was the event that kept on giving. The closing panel was on collaborator experience and flow attendance of Leen Schelfhout from all4climateDAO and Vengist from Raidguild.  The insight was you can design think the best collaborator experience for a group of people at a point in time, and there will still be people who will be left behind. Whenever one more person joins everything changes, and your design might not be relevant anymore.  

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Let me opinion plug ( I have written before about how in evolutionary systems,  design thinking does not cut it. Do you know the quote “ we have word only for things that are dead in us”. I think the same for evolutionary systems. The moment you have a design, the system is already changed. You can not design think a DAO. You might ask what then? I try to stick with ecosystem mapping that I had to create for working with complex systems and products)

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So, what does the panel think about what is required?

Leen drops the gem. The tools should enable continuous communication, and whenever there is conflict, an eager way to resolve it.

👏

In the panel, there was also tension about some background I did not know about, it was something to do with the ENS domains delegate system and decision making. Obviously, the tension was not resolved and seeped into the physical space long after it happened. The panel and the audience settled on utilising the 101 DAO approach. If something is not working for you, everyone can propose. Simona Pop from gitcoin and ENS said it is not always the flow, and there is opportunity in the ebb and the flaw. Love it. Ebb and the flaw is a part of the flow.

Was this the end? Not yet. I was staying with a dear childhood friend of mine who has two kids, and she is so into psychology and child development. She read books and researched intensively, all while raising reasoning and communicating little cuties. Without even knowing my unexpected journey of the week in conflict management, she mentioned over coffee… When there is a difference between what the child and parent want, (oh, here comes conflict again), the only tool to hold is communication until a peaceful state is reached. She said if you do it another way, i,e “that is what I say”,  play the parent card, or impose authority,  the kid will change their behaviour in many ways that you do not expect and destructive.  So she took the long path every opportunity on consensus making, with the littlest kids.

In a span of a week, why was I gifted the same insight into conflict management with very different contexts and so much love? I think the hint is we collectively are transitioning from a parent and child archetype to adulthood. There are no managers to parent you into the work, and there are fewer influencers, and there are fewer followers. All that is left are nodes in a decentralised way where each node has to negotiate, communicate, and harmonise, including conflict resolution.  Be it individuals, technology, collective, or organisations. And when we are conducting business we might need a metric for this.

From now on, I will shift with these learnings. Whenever there is a conflict, I will embrace the opportunity. That also does not mean trying to solve everything ( I know I know… I am guilty of it too dear fellow problem solver! ) Only if it is on the path you want to lead, for you.

Another word magik from Daoist, snap from Felipe Duarte.

“As a guest, be a host.”

Did you ever think that we are collectively maturing? And That is why maybe we can now think and build with decentralisation?