Summary
The authors request funding of $16,500 equivalent USDC as per budget to bootstrap a three-month project called the Umbrella proposal (that was previously discussed in this forum) to pay for GravityDAO services, establish a team to act as a first point of contact for conflicts and problems, and document associated policies.
In addition to these reactive measures, the proposal aims to improve communication, error, and conflict culture to which we commit ourselves already in our Community Guidelines and that pose foundational pillars of human-centeric DAOs and.
Funding is requested to deliver the following objectives:
- Fund mediation-as-a-service by GravityDAO for an period of 3 months
- 5 interactive training sessions with 2x dates each (to account for different timezones) run by GravityDAO
- Elaboration of
- organisational policy regarding mediation processes and for specific conflicts types through GravityDAO consultancy
- practical communication, error and conflict guidelines as part of the onboarding GitBook
- Kickstart of the umbrella team. Find ~2 members in the first Gravity training sessions to work for setting up the team (part time with a few hours per week or via bounties)
- organisational, research, and cultural work as well as networking with other DAO communities
- documentation of the results of 3.
- knowledge exchange with other DAO communities and participation in advanced training
Situation/Rationale
Conflicts between persons or groups occur naturally - like bad weather. They affect all kinds of organizations, where they cause strong emotions or reactions and are often related to
- scarcity of resources
- division of functions and tasks
- power relations or
- the role of the organization
Especially in remote-working environments and DAOs conflicts can happen easily with different gravity
An anonymous survey clearly showed that this is also the case in the Aragon Network.
Instead of stigmatizing conflicts or pretending that they are not there, we should allocate time and resources to actively care about and solve them so that everyone feels well and likes spending time here. This will help us to ‘Govern Better, Together’ and establish some of the cultural mandates and a solid foundation from which to grow the Aragon network.
GravityDAO offered their help and services to support this proposal. Their track record speaks for themselves: of the 35 complaints received in the TEC
- 50% settled by just listening to the parties and giving advice
- 18 cases went into a mediation process
- 17 of them were successful in overcoming the conflict
- Only in one case, one of the parties rage quitted the call
Pricing is affordable relative to the impact of escalating conflict or losing valuable contributors.
GravityDAO Mediation Services | Price / $ | Note |
---|---|---|
Setting up organizational Gravity | 6.000 | setting organisational policies for specific conflict situations |
Tailored Graviton training | 3.000 | 10 sessions, Goal: having competent people being access points |
Gravity Monthly safety net | 1.000 | per organization, covers support in all conflicts that may arise |
Management per 1 case to an external organization | 800 | |
Rewards for Gravitons on managing a case | 300 | 200 $ for a secondary mediator |
Availability of time and additional hours | 400 |
We have selected options 1-3 for this initial proposal with 4-6 remaining available as required or subject to further funding. They are also retained here to provide guidance as to guild contributor rewards for future mediations.
Limitations & Risks
- As cultural change and individual awareness requires time, a possible limitation is results might not immediately visible or take longer than the period for which this proposal seeks funding for. We should not be shy of allocating further budget to this cause and can become self-sufficient with in-house mediators in the Umbrella team in the future.
- A risk could be people being averse to participate in the change or mediation processes, or actively questioning their legitimacy. This risk can be considered low, as a great deal of support for this topic has already been expressed in Discord and the forum. Recent prominent events in the Ethereum ecosystem (SushiSwap, ENS) further show the importance of such a cultural build.
Furthermore, we will make sure to always seek legitimacy by a range of measures (voting, safe exploration via anonymous polling and feedback, open discussion rounds). To mitigate the risk of unwillingness to participate in constructive and restorative conflict-resolution processes and in relation to the gravity of the conflict or violation, graduated sanctions in line with the community guidelines will be embedded in the organisational policies and can be applied carefully.
What impact will this project have?
As outlined in the collective drafting phase, the proposal aims to strengthen our social layer and establish preventative and restorative measures regarding conflicts, which will positively impact the sense of community and attractiveness of the Aragon Network as a working environment.
Moreover, a good communication, error, and conflict culture is the foundation for all governance processes.
We believe that funding the collaborative development of this proposal is mission-critical to the ongoing operations and strategic growth efforts of the Aragon Network to secure and retain
key talent and aligning each one of us on a shared vision.
Ultimately, this will allow us to help other communities to build sustainable, active Aragon DAOs, thus increasing their number.
In terms of strategic alignment, stakeholders from both the AA and AN DAO have had an opportunity since January to provide feedback in the formulation of this proposal. Other works on strategic alignment includes a forum post, community poll and workshop. Our understanding is that the project is widely supported throughout the Aragon Network (Aragon team, community, Ambassadors).
This proposal also represents an opportunity for collaboration with the TEC, from which GravityDAO emerged, and which is another key player working on the advancements of human-centeric DAOs.
Duration, deliverable/s, and expected outcomes:
Duration
12-week initiative starting within a fortnight of an approved proposal during which we will establish the umbrella team in parallel to the GravityDAO services and trainings.
Deliverables
- Immediate ability to arbitrate arising conflicts and having a team acting as a first point of contact for all kinds of problems.
- Documentation
- containing our organisational policy regarding mediation processes
- explaining a practical communication, error and conflict mindset as part of the onboarding Gitbook (legitimated through our network)
- 5 interactive training sessions with 2x dates each (to account for different timezones)
- recordings of the sessions
- delivery of POAPs as proof of attendance that can serve as a reference to apply for important roles in the network.
Expected Outcomes
We expect to define and strengthen our culture, and establish preventative and restorative measures. As a subjective measure of success, we propose running an anonymous feedback round again at the end of the program to assess whether contributor sentiment has improved.
Funding only as and when required makes for a self-sustaining resource with the future potential (aim) to provide professional mediation services to other DAO within the Aragon Network and incorporate learnings into our human-centric product stack.
Team Members
AA Stewards:
- Michael Heuer (Governance Research Engineer)
- Ben Perez (Head of Talent & HR)
External contributor:
- Juan Carlos Bell, founder of Gravity DAO. Juan is a conflict resolution expert, a magister in political sciences specialized in conflict management. He is a community steward of the TEC and has offered to help us to set up o our cultural build, providing mediators as a service, and training our own mediators.
Potential community contributors:
- Mattia (AcidCavin#8307) studied social sciences (philosophy and anthropology) and works as a social worker in a co-operative. He offered to help within his availabilities.
- Mia (adorable_leaflet#4604) focusses on paradigm language and conflict resolution. She runs non-profit political organization with a system-based focus and functionalist approach regarding accessibility, transparency, accountability, and sustainability of the government process. Mia asked if she can be helpful to this project and we hope to have her on the proposal.
If you would be interested in volunteering for the gravity training please leave a comment. A community-wide call for volunteers will be posted in the Discord.
How will you interface with the community?
- Discord #umbrella-team created on approval of the funding request
- 5x2 Gravity training workshops with claimable POAPs in which everyone can participate
- A shared Notion document recording our work results and allowing for comments and contributions.
- Monthly community calls and forum posts
Request for Funding: 12000 USDC + $4500 in ANT equivalents
One-time costs
- 6000 USDC consultancy fee to GravityDAO to establish organisational policy
- 3000 USDC service fee to GravityDAO to provide training
Running costs
- 3000 USDC for 3 months of Mediation service
- this covers all mediations cases that may arise
- $4500 in ANT equivalents for smaller bounties and paying ~2 Aragon umbrella team contributors over 2 months (part time) for being a point of contact for the community and organisational, research, cultural work, and networking with other DAO communities
- Documentation of organizational policies
- Transcription of literature sources and workshop results related to a practical communication, error and conflict mindset into our onboarding documents.
- Knowledge exchange with other DAO communities and participation in advanced training
Additional Note:
- Michael offers to contribute to this project outside his working hours without compensation
- Paying GravityDAO:
- pay 6k USDC immediately
- pay the remaining 6k after organisational policy has been delivered
- The funds will be held in the operational multi-sig. If desired by the community or GravityDAO, an escrow contract can be used.
We the authors are committed to The Aragon Network Agreement, The Aragon Manifesto, The Community Guidelines, Aragon Governance Proposal Process.
Lastly, the authors would like to thank Renee Maria Lee for her help and support with the formalities of creating this funding request.
Receiving Addresses
The USDC payments to GravityDAO shall be send to the GravityDAO multisig address 0xfFbD35255008F86322051F2313D4b343540e0e00 .