Consensus Workplace at Genaro Network; an Experiment in Inclusivity

I joined Genaro Network as the VP of Global Development during a time when the company was going through a rebranding phase. We are still going through the rebranding process as we speak. As with many startups, my initial view was that there were many organizational issues as the tech progressed at variable speeds, but somehow everything stayed afloat and worked. Fairly quickly I found my own perceptions changing. I had never worked in a consensus-driven workspace. After going through some simple processes such such as selecting our slogan, I started wondering if perhaps this was a viable way to run a company. I started to ask myself if this could be the preferable future way to manage any entity. Consensus-driven decisions contribute to the liveliness of people, overall camaraderie, and happiness. The process allows anyone to feel willingly and responsibly engaged.

Having had ample experience with startup projects myself, I was used to wearing multiple hats at the same time. I specifically joined the company because I saw Genaro Network’s immense potential to scale, much larger than any other project I have ever worked on in the past. I was happy to meet people within the company who had similar backgrounds and joined for similar reasons. On the tech side Genaro Network is the first in the industry to create a dual layered process on the chain, which will ultimately make the DAPP development process simpler, faster, and more efficient.

Aside from the innovations of tech, the culture is notable. I Have thoroughly enjoyed the energy of the entire team. The non-top down, consensus-driven style had created tight-knit supportive teams and fluid communication within the company.

“Not feeling” hierarchical systems was perhaps the single most important fact or encouraging for team communication. Having lived in Shanghai. China for 5 years, and having observed the inner workings of local and international businesses, unnecessary hierarchies were prevalent in most new and legacy organizations. Most of the time it’s a hindrance and de-motivates those involved.

I remember reading “The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes” from Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers back in college. It linked Korean cockpit culture to epic fatal crashes endured by the country’s Asiana Airline in the 80’s and 90's.

At some point in the 90’s, Asiana hired an American Delta manager who saved lives by simply ridding the cockpit of outmoded authority structures and testing for proficiency in English, the aviation industry’s standard language. This created better communication, and resulted in less plane crashes for an airline that had had one of the worst crash rates for a major carrier in the 80’s and 90’s purely because the pilots in the cockpit didn’t know how to properly voice their opinions or concerns due to subordinations in rank.

What does this have to do with the blockchain industry?

Well, in someways, everything. The way we are testing decision making in our company involves abiding by general consensus vote, anti-hierarchical systems, and open communication. Perhaps these are the factors that save us from crashing and burning as a startup.

At Genaro Network the energy is different to other startups. For many key decisions the team is called together to come to a general consensus. It’s no longer a small group of people making fundamental decisinos while the rest blindly follow. Employees are adequately engaged, even with simple questions such as how to update the whiteboard, or as complex as the company slogan selection process.

Trusting in the consensus was something I wasn’t used to in the beginning. My initial perception of anything related to a consensus was that it be down right inefficient. We were all brought up with the concept that some small group in authority-somewhere, somehow knew better. However if you really think about it, this in the long run can lead us into a life of irresponsibility.

Quickly I learned to trust in the consensus because it worked better than I had imagined. It seemed everyone had an accurate insight once given the chance to voice it. Overall, we were making decisions for the greater good. Through an active voting process, we were able to clarify individual thought processes, convince those who were not convinced, finally to find ourselves at times dropping certain concepts after realizing that there were better alternatives.

We live in an interesting time in history where we can observe a consciousness-shifting technology such as blockchain develop from it’s infancy. There is something interesting that happens with the energy surrounding this, especially when humans put their energies together to work towards a greater goal, while truly taking ownership of that goal. I see this more and more everyday at Genaro Network. When Genaro Network Mainnet finally launches end of the year and creates a seismic shift in the industry, I’m sure that our consensus-building efforts will have made a great contribution towards that success.