DAOs as Playgrounds for Growth and Development

Culture is important. Culture is built on values. It shapes beliefs and actions. You need language, symbols, and social dynamics for the community to thrive. Culture can shift our posture, the way we greet each other and the way we work together. Without having to be spoken, culture says, "This is what we do around here."

Lessons from MMORPGS: You define your role. You are responsible for creating your own adventure and customizing your role. In these games, players assume an identity, which in DAOs means carving out and defining your role and its responsibilities.

Create rewards and incentives. All games have rewards and incentives. In DAOs these are not only financial incentives, but also social, cultural, intellectual, and even spiritual incentives.

DAOs can play a key role in writing the story of a new economy, one built around well-being and human flourishing. Building cohort-based learning courses and facilitating project-based learning can amplify leadership skills and create a space for ideas to be explored in a community of builders. As we see more success stories in DAOs, there will be ... See more

Regenerative Games: Regenerative games are designed to regrow, renew, or restore systems, especially those that are damaged or lost like the environment, financial systems, and the well being of society. Regenerative initiatives are frequently designed for environmental and biological systems, but can also occur at the individual and organizational... See more

Send them on quests. Quests are skills challenges with a problem to solve. For DAOs this could be completing a task like writing or designing, voting on Snapshot, commenting on a proposal, voting in a poll, writing a proposal, forming a team around an idea, or joining a multi-sig. Some quests focus on strengthening skills, while others are about fi... See more

You may be familiar with MMORPGs, or massively multi-player online role-playing games, like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy. These games usually involve groups of people working together to complete a quest, which often requires leveling up their skills, collaborating with teams to build trust, and coordinating with others to accomplish their mi... See more

There is power in sending people on quests, learning in groups, and developing a body of people that moves together. This is how you create a regenerative community that amplifies human potential and creates a path towards solving our most challenging problems.

While online courses can promote and encourage growth-mindset-type learning, they fall short for developing soft skills that are required for human flourishing and development. This is the hard work of leading, sharing an idea, collaborating with others, building a team, and showing up with preparedness and readiness. DAOs are the ultimate playgrou... See more