“It is far more common for people to allow ego to stand in the way of learning.” ― Ray Dalio.
Ray Dalio is one of my favorite teachers since this video in 2013, How The Economic Machine Works
But to know what he learned from his 40 years of career as a hedge fund manager and building a 1500 member team managing a fund size of 160 bn dollars and the success of Bridgewater Associates – then this is a must watch 45 min video.
His new book Principles, a condensed wisdom of his lifetime of trial and error is provocative in every sense. Idea meritocracy is what the whole video is talking about and how radical truthfulness and transparency can help organizations to do better than the rest 99.99%. He says ‘pain+ reflection’ is progress. Constantly learning from mistakes is a shamelessly annoying process. For that, we must do more to make more mistakes. And then brutally evaluate yourself, leaving aside the ego, to make decisions along with other super smart people.
In his recent TED talk, he explains, how his team takes decisions using the wisdom of groups – data-driven group decision-making through collective idea storming for better quality and outcomes. He says many teams fail because team members do not know what others ‘really think’ leaving a black hole in the communication. In a new world, where crowdsourcing of ideas are transforming the way organizations drive innovation, he asserts, a clear way for winning is to unlock what others have in mind about real issues. Individual decision-making gives the boss a false thrill of doing all things alone. But to build a large team with a bigger cause, it takes a massive amount of ‘letting go’ of crucial decisions to data-driven decision-making along with smart people.
He asks: Rather than thinking, ‘I’m right.’ I started to ask myself, “How do I know I’m right?