Pre-Constitutional Governance offers a foundational approach for groups navigating the ambiguous early stages of organizational formation. Developed by Spencer Saar Cavanaugh, this framework addresses the challenging transition from informal collaboration to structured decision-making by providing a minimal viable governance template. It emphasizes transparent documentation of early decisions to establish legitimacy, create clear precedent, and reduce potential conflicts as organizations mature.
Key Highlights
- Structured Evolution: The framework presents governance as an evolutionary process rather than a binary state, acknowledging the “structureless social soup” that precedes formal organization and providing bridging mechanisms that allow groups to develop more sophisticated governance as they mature.
- Legitimacy Through Transparency: Central to the approach is the insight that early decisions gain legitimacy through transparent documentation rather than procedural perfection. By explicitly recording how initial decisions are made, groups create foundations for trust even before formal processes are established.
- Platform-Agnostic Design: The methodology deliberately avoids tying governance to specific platforms or tools, instead offering flexible templates that can be implemented across various technological environments, preventing lock-in and allowing adaptation to changing needs.
- Minimum Viable Structure: The framework provides essential components for functional governance (proposal mechanisms, voting parameters, documentation standards) while avoiding premature complexity. This balance creates enough structure to enable coordination without imposing unnecessary constraints on emerging groups.
- Future-Oriented Documentation: Beyond immediate decision-making, the approach emphasizes creating clear records that will serve future participants who weren’t present for initial decisions, establishing continuity and shared understanding across organizational evolution.
Practical Applications
This pattern can be applied in various contexts:
- Emerging DAOs transitioning from informal community to structured coordination
- Project teams spinning out from larger organizations and establishing independent governance
- Community initiatives moving from ad-hoc collaboration to sustained collective action
- Working groups within established organizations that need semi-autonomous governance
- Multi-stakeholder collaborations between independent entities requiring shared decision frameworks
The framework provides practical templates for establishing:
- Who can propose decisions and how proposals are formatted
- Required review periods and feedback mechanisms before voting
- Voting parameters including duration, quorum requirements, and majority thresholds
- Documentation standards for preserving decision context and outcomes
- Amendment processes for evolving governance as the organization matures
Connection With SuperBenefit
- Directly addresses the “conversation phase” and early “collaboration phase” of group development where informal coordination begins to require more structured agreements.
- Aligns with SuperBenefit’s concept of “Minimum Viable Permissionless-ness” – creating just enough structure to enable coordination without imposing unnecessary constraints.
- Supports SuperBenefit’s “state transparency” practice of making group agreements visible to enable trust-based coordination without hierarchical control.
- Offers concrete methods for implementing consent-based governance that distributes authority without creating decision bottlenecks.