Implementation Guide for Operational Governance

Aug 11, 202520 min read

Implementation Guide for Operational Governance Using the DAO Primitives Framework

Introduction

Crypto primitives give us the opportunity to fundamentally redesign organizational and financial models in ways that are better for individuals, communities and society. This opportunity to reimagine organizations brings with it complexity, as structures and practices that were once fixed become flexible and adaptable. As a result, we need to lean on primitives, and patterns for combining these primitives, that we can use to reliably produce organizational structures with the features we want.

At SuperBenefit we have developed the DAO primitives framework to provide a set of primitives and patterns with which these new organizational structures can be composed.

We have identified and experimented with using the DAO primitives framework to produce governance systems based on 3 interlocking governance structures: Community Governance, Operational Governance and Multi-Stakeholder Governance.

Guides to setting up these 3 interlocking governance structures can be found here:

<<<<<<<< HEAD:artifacts/guides/dao-primitives-framework/dao-primitives-implemention/implementation-guide-operational-governance.md

6d1abc90f8826bfd258c7e0563cd4536a5f09d86:notes/dao-primitives/implementation/guides/governance/implementation-guide-operational-governance.md

This guide focuses on setting up an Operational Governance structure. This approach can be used both as part of the above layered governance system, outlined above, or alternatively, this guide can be used to create an operational structure to interface with different approaches to community and multi-stakeholder governance.

Creating an operational governance structure is not a simple task. We recommend getting support from an experienced facilitator to help you through this process.

Note: this implementation guide follows the structure outlined in the DAO Primitives group-facilitation process. It outlines specific steps for the Design and Implementation steps in this process. It assumes that at least an early version of community governance has been implemented and therefore core network purpose and high-level goals have been established and that the network is ready to commence with designing its operational governance structure.

Context & Orientation

Problem Space This Governance Structure Addresses

Traditional operational structures tend to be created as rigid hierarchies that are “managed” on behalf of capital holders. This creates linear decision flows, rigid rule-sets and a strong focus on extracting more and more efficiency. As a result, traditional operational structures tend to become fixed and static, squandering the creativity and intelligence latent in the people they employ. This tendency coincides with a period of human history when complexity is exploding and we need to level up the level sophistication of our responses.

Intended Audience and Prerequisites

This guide is intended for:

  • Organization builders
  • DAO contributors working to create more effective coordination systems
  • Traditional organizations exploring web3-enabled governance models

Prerequisites:

  • Basic familiarity with decentralized organizations and web3 concepts
  • A defined community purpose and goals for the operational structure to execute on
  • Stakeholders willing to experiment with new operational approaches

Fundamental Principles Informing This Approach

The DAO primitives framework is designed to allow us to compose governance systems that produce purpose-aligned networks of small autonomous teams with powerful organizational dynamics, making these networks effective in solving important problems.

Key principles and concepts include: Organizational Dynamics

  • Decentralized decision-making
  • Autonomy
  • Creative innovation
  • Economies of scale
  • Permissionless innovation
  • Flexibility/adaptability
  • Aligned incentives
  • Fractal scaling

System Properties

  • Collective/network intelligence
  • Evolving/adapting systems
  • Regenerative economics
  • System level impact

DAO Primitives Framework

The DAO primitives framework provides 4 fundamental building blocks for creating effective decentralized organizations:

  1. DAOs - the larger constituency scale community container that the operational governance operates inside
  2. Cells - the basic operational unit in a DAO - a small autonomous team
  3. Roles - which contain and manage specific responsibilities and sets of permissions
  4. Tasks - which are defined pieces of work/deliverable that individuals or teams can commit to delivering

The framework considers three dimensions:

The goal of the DAO primitives framework is to allow us to compose governance systems that can produce purpose aligned networks of small autonomous teams that have powerful organizational dynamics making these networks effective in solving important problems.

To do this we compose together organizational infrastructures (social and technical) with the goal of producing positive organizational dynamics that will in turn produce powerful system properties (outlined above). These are the powerful forces that will allow us to solve complex problems and build a more resilient world.

Infrastructure

  • Social
    • Social primitives, protocols and practices
  • Technical
    • Immutable/open ledgers (permissionless blockchains)
    • Tokenized value flows (tokens)
    • Digital identity (wallets)
    • Trustful computation (smart contracts)
    • Privacy preserving technology (ZK)

Operational Governance Overview: Three-Layer Structure

Using the DAO primitives framework to create a purpose aligned network of small autonomous teams, there tend to be three facets of governance structure.

  1. Community Governance: constituency scale governance that guides and protects the network
  2. Operational Governance: coordination and collaboration scale governance that effectively executes on the purpose and goals of the community governance
  3. Multi-Stakeholder Governance: the mechanism by which the network can connect to and partner with other organizations and networks (network scale)

The operational governance model forms the coordinating backbone of a DAO network, translating community-defined purpose into effective execution through autonomous teams. It operates at the coordination and collaboration scales, creating the organizational infrastructure that enables small autonomous teams to work together coherently while maintaining the flexibility and innovation that comes from decentralized decision-making.

Operational governance bridges the gap between high-level community direction and ground-level execution by creating coordinating structures that can derive strategy from feedback loops coming from the smallest scales of the network while incorporating direction from the community governance layer.

The operational governance model consists of three interconnected layers:

  1. Community Interface Layer: The mechanisms by which operational governance receives direction, resources, and accountability oversight from community governance, ensuring operational activities remain aligned with network purpose and values.
  2. Coordination: The network of coordinating structures that enable Cells to work together, share resources, develop strategy, and maintain coherence across the operational network while preserving Cell autonomy.
  3. Cell-Level Governance: Individual autonomous small teams (Cells) that have the freedom to determine how they execute their work, make local decisions, and coordinate directly with other Cells as needed for their specific functions.

This three-layer approach creates clear boundaries between community stewardship and operational execution while maintaining accountability relationships, enabling both strategic coherence and tactical flexibility throughout the network.

Designing Your Operational Governance Structure

There are many ways to use the DAO primitives to compose a network of operational teams. The particular system you create will reflect the specific needs of the work your community wants to engage in.

1. Define Purpose and High-Level Goals

Activity: Purpose Statement Development

Gather key stakeholders and address these questions:

  1. What is the essential purpose of your operational network?
  2. How does this purpose connect to the broader community governance?
  3. What values must your operational governance uphold?
  4. What specific operational functions are most critical for your context?

Document the results in a concise purpose statement that can guide governance design decisions.

Community Purpose Considerations

Creating a fit-for-purpose structure requires understanding what the community is trying to achieve and how it wants to achieve it:

  • If you have an existing community that already has a clear purpose, high-level principles, goals, and vision, you can jump straight into designing your operational governance model
  • If the community is nascent or not yet coherent in its purpose, you will need to go through a community sense-making process first

Impact Model

You may want to or have already created an impact model (or theory of change) to describe the way you want your network to have positive impact on the world. It is not necessary to do this right away, as in the early phases of developing your governance structure these details may still be emerging. But it is recommended to have a clearly articulated impact model as you move into coordination and organization phases. This will ensure that you have a solid coherent and testable foundation to connect your network’s purpose to actual measurable change in the world.

2. Define Requirements

With your purpose and goals established, the next step is defining specific requirements your operational governance structure must fulfill.

Activity: Requirements Mapping

For each high-level goal, identify concrete requirements across these dimensions:

  1. Scale and Scope: Consider the following questions:
    • Do you want to create a large network that will do many different things, or a tight network that will do a few things really well?
    • Do you want the network to be highly efficient, highly flexible or highly creative?
    • Do you want to highly prioritize community engagement and democratic decision-making or should it be tightly controlled by a specific group of stakeholders?
    • Do you expect large amounts of money to flow through the network?
    • Who are the stakeholders who will participate in the operational network?
    • Are there particularly sensitive people, communities or materials that need to be protected or secured?
  2. Decision Scope: What types of decisions need operational governance?
    • Strategic implementation decisions
    • Resource allocation within operations
    • Process standards and protocols
    • Coordination between cells
    • Conflict resolution between teams
  3. Stakeholder Inclusion: Who needs representation in operational governance?
    • Cell leads/representatives
    • Team members
    • Subject matter experts
    • Community representatives
    • Resource providers
  4. Time Horizons: What timeframes must governance address?
    • Short-term tactical decisions
    • Medium-term implementation planning
    • Iteration and adaptation cycles
  5. Resource Considerations: What resources will governance manage?
    • Financial assets
    • Digital infrastructure
    • Human resources
    • Knowledge/information
    • Technical tools
  6. Desired Dynamics: Based on your requirements, which organizational dynamics do you want to prioritize?
    • Decentralized decision-making
    • Autonomy
    • Creative innovation
    • Economies of scale
    • Permissionless innovation
    • Flexibility/adaptability
    • Network effects
    • Fractal scaling
  7. Desired System Properties: Which system properties would you like your network to produce?
    • Collective/network intelligence
    • Evolving/adapting systems
    • Regenerative economics
    • System level impact

Document these requirements in a structured format that can be referenced throughout the design process.

3. Design Your Governance Model

With clear purpose, goals, and requirements established, you can now design your operational governance structure using appropriate primitives.

Activity: Governance Approach Selection

There are many ways that you can use the DAO primitives to construct a network of operational teams. The particular system you put together will reflect both the specific realities of the work and the ways in which members want to work together:

  1. Highly structured top-down decision-making
    • If a lot of control is desired (optimizing for operational efficiency over creativity and flexibility)
    • Build hierarchies of cells that answer to cells above them
    • Could resemble a traditional corporate org chart
    • However, if implementing DAO primitives, you likely don’t want to just recreate a traditional hierarchy
    • May have some aspects that operate in a strictly controlled manner
  2. Highly unconstrained networks
    • DAO primitives can create networks that are maximally autonomous and permissionless
    • Free-forming of cells that coordinate without constraints from the larger network
    • Emphasizes creative innovation and rapid adaptation
  3. A combination of top-down and bottom-up decision-making
    • This is what the DAO primitives framework is designed to facilitate
    • Build a network that flexibly uses different types of constraints
    • Allow more or less autonomy based on specific operational needs
    • Balance unlocks the dynamics and system properties listed earlier

See index for different approaches to building operational structures with the DAO Primitives.

Activity: Community-Operational Boundary Design

Using the DAO primitives framework, design a structure that implements a network of operational Cells. It needs to cover four different levels of scale:

  1. Community governance level (constituency scale)
    • How community decision-making translates into instructions for the operational network
    • What network-wide constraints will community governance impose
    • How resources and value will flow from community governance into operations
    • See Community Governance pattern and implementation guide
  2. Cell coordination level (coordination scale)
    • How the operational network connects with community governance
      • Perhaps via a top-level Cell that takes instruction from community governance
      • Or different functional areas that each take instructions from community governance
    • How resources and value flow through the operational network
    • How strategy is created
    • What legal status the operational governance will have
    • Define what being a member of the operational network entails
    • Define the initial structure of Cells needed to instantiate operations
  3. Cell level (collaboration scale)
    • Define minimum information standards (state) expected of Cells
    • Create templates or archetypal Cell types to standardize new Cells
  4. Partnerships level (network scale)

Sense-making Tools

You can use a tool like The Ready’s OS Canvas The Ready’s OS Canvas as a starting point for thinking about how you want the operational governance system to work. It can help you think through and discuss different aspects of how your operational governance will function.

Activity: Governance Structure Documentation

Create a comprehensive document outlining your governance structure, including:

  1. Selected Approach: Which governance approach you’ve chosen
  2. Core Components: The specific primitives that will form your governance system
  3. Decision Processes: How different types of decisions will flow through governance
  4. Roles and Responsibilities: Key functions within the governance system
  5. Resource Allocation: How governance will manage organizational resources
  6. Boundaries and Constraints: Limits on governance authority and Cell autonomy
  7. Evolution Mechanisms: How governance can be updated over time

This document will serve as the blueprint for your implementation phase.

Proposal

Depending on the context, the design of the community governance system should be approved by the community on whose behalf the system is being designed. If the community is already established, then this could be a community proposal process whereby feedback is sought and integrated into the design. However if the community is nascent, then perhaps a less formal proposal to confirm approval of the design by the proto-community is all that will be required.

4. Implementation Phase

When you have a clear design for your operational governance, it’s time to implement it both organizationally (with protocols, practices) and technically (with tools and modules).

Activity: Implementation Planning

Create an implementation plan that addresses:

  1. Timeline: Realistic schedule for implementing governance components
  2. Dependencies: Which elements must be in place before others can function
  3. Resources Needed: Tools, funding, expertise required for implementation
  4. Responsible Parties: Who will lead each aspect of implementation
  5. Success Criteria: How you’ll know each component is functioning effectively

Implementation Sequence Recommendation

  1. Implement initial decision-making processes - you will use this to make ongoing implementation decisions
  2. Set up core coordination primitives (basic agreements and protocols)
  3. Establish foundational roles and responsibilities
  4. Create resource allocation mechanisms
  5. Add specialized governance components
  6. Put feedback and governance evolution process in place

Group Phase Implementation

Use the concept of group phase to implement your governance structure in an evolutionary way, formalizing Cells and other primitives as they are ready, rather than forcing a completed governance design all at once.

Conversation Phase

During this initial phase, focus on:

  • Creating shared understanding of governance purpose and design
  • Building alignment around key values and principles
  • Establishing communication channels for ongoing dialogue
  • Documenting emerging norms and expectations
  • Testing concepts through lightweight experiments

Key Activities:

  1. Host governance design workshops with stakeholders
  2. Create accessible documentation explaining governance concepts
  3. Establish feedback channels for ongoing input
  4. Map existing informal governance processes

Formation Phase

As implementation progresses, the formation phase includes:

  • Formalizing core agreements, communication and meeting protocols
  • Establishing initial roles and responsibilities
  • Creating basic decision-making processes
  • Implementing minimal viable governance structures
  • Building governance documentation

Key Activities:

  1. Draft formal governance charter or constitution
  2. Establish critical roles and select/elect initial occupants
  3. Create proposal process with templates and guidelines
  4. Implement basic voting or consent mechanisms
  5. Develop onboarding materials for governance participants

Organization Phase

In this phase, focus on:

  • Formalized systems for all governance functions
  • Establish documentation and training resources
  • Integration with technical systems and tools
  • Implement token systems to manage contributors, community voting
  • Formalize resource allocation mechanisms
  • Implementing accountability systems
  • Developing policies (e.g., codes of conduct, conflict resolution processes)

Key Activities:

  1. Finalize governance documentation
  2. Implement technical tools and modules for governance processes
  3. Establish regular governance review and improvement cycles
  4. Create specialized governance working groups as needed

Coordination Phase

In the final implementation phase, establish:

  • Ongoing community engagement/participation in governance
  • Ongoing upkeep of documentation and systems
  • Ongoing management of governance roles and authorities
  • Continued processes for governance feedback and evolution

Key Activities:

  1. Implement teams, squads, Cells and roles to manage ongoing governance functions
  2. Implement reporting mechanisms for transparency
  3. Develop metrics for governance effectiveness
  4. Create feedback loops between governance layers

Group State Documentation

Each primitive (DAO, Cell, Role, Task) contains a version of state – an articulation of core relevant information that allows it to be treated as a discrete entity addressable across the network.

If the operational governance design is leveraging the DAO primitives, there will likely be a top-level-cell or other entity that will serve as the anchor for the governance structure (e.g be accountable to the community governance structure, hold legal and administrative responsibilities etc). In this entity build out a master “state” for the whole operational structure.

  1. Governance Charter: Foundational document outlining purpose, principles, and structure
  2. Decision Mechanisms: Systems for making decisions at different scales
  3. Decision Registry: Record of significant decisions and their rationale
  4. Role Descriptions: Clear documentation of governance roles and responsibilities
  5. Process Maps: Visual representations of key governance processes
  6. Policies: Explicit guidelines governing community behavior
  7. Proposal Mechanisms: Standardized formats and systems to source and pass proposals from different layers of the structure
  8. Resource Allocation Records: Transparent tracking of resource decisions
  9. Participation Guidelines: Clear information on how to engage with governance

Technical Implementation

Depending on your organization’s technical context, governance implementation may involve various tools and platforms.

Technical Considerations

  1. On-chain vs. off-chain governance

    • Determine which governance elements require blockchain properties and which can be better done off-chain
    • Consider speed and costs involved in using on-chain tools
    • Ensure technical accessibility for all operational participants
    • Scale considerations - smaller scales can leverage relationship based trust more effectively than larger scales

  2. Tool Selection Here are some potential tool options for different core operational governance functions: a. Knowledge repository

    • Where information about the operational network can be articulated and shared
    • Examples: Charmverse, Notion, Google Docs

    b. Cell state repository

    • A mechanism for containing and updating Cell state
    • Ideally editor controlled and version controlled but accessible to the network
    • Examples: Shared information platforms like Gitbook, Charmverse, Notion

    c. Proposal creation and voting tools

    • Examples: Charmverse, Snapshot

    d. Token based authority and access tools

    • To manage access to communication channels, documents, voting rights
    • Example: Hats protocol

    e. Communication platforms

    • Communication will happen at different scales
    • Choose one platform or a combination of several different platforms
    • Example: Discord is useful because it can be set up to cover all three scales with granular access control

    f. Treasury management

    • The operational network will need to secure and manage resource flows
    • Example: Safe - multisig wallet infrastructure
    • Governance platforms (Snapshot, Tally, Commonwealth, etc.)
    • Communication tools (Discord, Discourse, Telegram, etc.)
    • Documentation systems (Charmverse, Notion, GitHub, etc.)
    • Voting mechanisms ([token-based governance](artifacts/articles/network-evolution/Building DAOs as scalable networks.md#community-governance), [quadratic voting](artifacts/articles/governance-for-better-futures/Governance for better futures - Meta-governance.md), reputation-based, etc.)

  3. Implementation Approach

    • Start with minimum viable governance tools as required by the phase of development
    • Create clear user guides, videos and other resources to support accessibility for all community members
    • Establish support/help systems for technical assistance

5. Launch & Evolution

Use the group phase framework to implement your governance structure in an evolutionary way, formalizing Cells and other primitives as they are needed, rather than forcing a completed governance design in one go.

Activity: Phased Implementation Strategy

Based on the outputs of working through the implementation phase, create a phased implementation strategy.

For each phase identify clear:

  • Timeframes
  • Deliverables
  • Review mechanisms

Feedback Mechanisms

Define how the system will gather and respond to input. Implement ways for the network to reflect and feedback on how the governance model is working.

Depending on the governance approach these feedback mechanisms will work differently. For example:

  • A sociocratic approach will elicit feedback via its consent based circles structure
  • A liquid democracy style governance system might leverage a combination of representatives and direct community feedback

However the system is structured, it is important to have feedback mechanisms that can source feedback from all of the different scales that the system operates at—collaboration, coordination, constituency and network scales—and from diverse members of the community operating at its edges.

Success Metrics

Based on the above feedback mechanisms, determine how you will measure the effectiveness of your operational governance structure:

  • Are Cells able to operate autonomously while maintaining alignment?
  • Is decision-making happening at appropriate levels?
  • Are resources flowing efficiently to value-creating activities?
  • Is the network able to adapt to changing circumstances?

Adaptation Processes

Establish how the structure will evolve over time based on the concrete feedback and metrics above. Create mechanisms to propose and make changes to the governance model in response to insights from your feedback mechanisms. This needs to happen at all scales:

  1. Network Scale: governing how the network partners with other organizations and networks
  2. Constituency Scale: how decisions at the community governance level influences the operational governance
  3. Coordination Scale: how the operational network makes decisions, allocates resources etc
  4. Collaboration Scale: how individual Cells make decisions about what work they do and how they do it

Getting Help

As mentioned above, the process of developing an operational governance structure can be complex. This is especially true when redesigning governance for an existing network—starting something new allows you to start small and iterate, whereas redesigning operational governance for something already running is much harder.

We recommend utilizing the support of an experienced facilitator. Get in touch with folks in SuperBenefitDAO to find someone to help you navigate the journey. This will make the process faster and less time consuming.

Facilitation Support

Governance Design Facilitation:

  • Having an experienced governance design facilitator can be extremely useful and save a lot of time when developing your community governance systems and structures
  • SuperBenefit can connect you to a community contributor who can support your governance journey with facilitation.

Learning Resources

There is an emerging knowledge commons designed to support and guide the creation of decentralized governance models like this

  1. Online Resources:
    • See SuperBenefit’s knowledge garden for specific tools, templates, case studies, playbooks and patterns to support your community governance design (like this implementation guide)
    • Other web3 communities also have valuable resources for community governance organizing:
    • OpenCivics
    • Others
  2. Peer networks - finding other organizations who have developed their own community governance structures can offer insights and guidance. SuperBenefit’s network can provide connection to many such organizations

Technical Support Options

For technical implementation assistance, SuperBenefit and our partner organizations can connect you with technical support to help you implement your community governance design

Conclusion

Effective operational governance is not a fixed structure but an evolving system that grows more sophisticated as your network learns and adapts. By thoughtfully applying the DAO primitives framework, organizations can create operational structures that balance autonomy with coordination, enabling small autonomous teams to work together powerfully while maintaining the flexibility to innovate and respond to changing conditions.

The key to successful operational governance design is creating structures that can harness the collective intelligence and creativity of autonomous teams while maintaining coherent direction and efficient resource allocation. When done well, operational governance becomes the engine that transforms community purpose into tangible impact.

The patterns and primitives outlined in the DAO primitives framework provide a foundation for composing operational structures that can reliably produce the organizational dynamics needed to tackle complex challenges—from decentralized decision-making and creative innovation to economies of scale and adaptive capacity.

Remember that operational governance is fundamentally about unleashing human potential through better coordination. Start with clear purpose alignment and basic coordination mechanisms, then evolve your operational structure based on real experience and feedback from the teams doing the work. The most effective operational governance emerges when autonomous teams have both the freedom to innovate and the support to coordinate effectively.

May your operational governance implementation create the conditions for your network to execute brilliantly, adapt continuously, and achieve meaningful impact in the world.

Graph View

Backlinks