Ray Dalio: recommendation

Transcript context

…Your management idea for radical transparency — where did that come from and how did evolve? When did you start it? I started Bridgewater — I didn’t even think of it as starting a company — just two years after I got out of school. It wasn’t a company, really. There was somebody I’d played rugby with and then a couple of other people, and the idea was, we’re going to be truthful with each other — truthful and transparent. I have this belief that what brings me satisfaction is excellent work and excellent relationships. I was taught, really, in the markets through my experience that being as accurate as possible is my goal. Then to get at truth — what is true is fundamentally important in both making better decisions and also making good relationships, trustful relationships. For that reason, it seemed apparent that, whether it’s in the markets or it’s dealing with people, being radically truthful and trying to work things through to find out what’s the best thing to do, given those realities, is fundamentally beneficial. All through my life, maybe to some extent, I was influenced to do that. It just seems like the obviously better thing to do than to be the other. I think it’s very odd that the world questions being very radically truthful and radically transparent with each other, to try to find out what’s true. I think that’s a problem that the world faces in terms of those sorts of things. Anyway, I came by it that way, and I wouldn’t compromise it. As the company grew from a couple of people — I had a two-bedroom apartment. It came out of the other part of the bedroom, and then it grew. As we grew to, let’s say 1,500 people, there needed to be an organization and a culture that is built around those things. That became of paramount importance. We built our culture. It’s not for some people, and it’s great for other people. With time, we’ve done that, and that’s what we do. That has served us really great. It served us not only in terms of the investment management aspects of it, but it’s also served us very well in our relationships — that we can talk about anything frankly, and that we can deal with anything. As a result of that, it produces the dealing with things well, and it also produces better relationships. It’s been something that I believe has been key to our success, and it’s also something I recommend very highly. I understand people aren’t used to it, and so on. It can be adapted, too. I recommend that. That’s how it developed. What’s your model for why more of the world hasn’t followed suit? Is it that leaders are cowards, too many workers are too emotionally fragile, just status quo bias, or what?…

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