Page 212 - Ray Dalio - Principles

looking at their backgrounds and histories, they are far more powerful than traditional
interviewing and screening methods. If I had to choose between just the assessments or just
traditional job interviews to get at what people are like, I would choose the assessments.
Fortunately, we don’t have to make that choice.
The four main assessments we use are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the
Workplace Personality Inventory, the Team Dimensions Profile, and Stratified Systems
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Theory. But we are constantly experimenting (for example, with the Big Five) so our mix will
certainly change. Whatever the mix, they all convey people’s preferences for thinking and
action. They also provide us with new attributes and terminologies that clarify and amplify
those we had identified on our own. I will describe a few of them below. These descriptions
are based on my own experiences and learnings, which are in many ways different from the
official descriptions used by the assessment companies. 34
a. Introversion vs. extroversion. Introverts focus on the inner world and get their energy from ideas,
memories, and experiences while extroverts are externally focused and get their energy from
being with people. Introversion and extroversion are also linked to differences in
communication styles. If you have a friend who loves to “talk out” ideas (and even has trouble
thinking through something if there isn’t someone around to work it through with), he or she is
likely an extrovert. Introverts will usually find such conversations painful, preferring to think
privately and share only after they’ve worked things out on their own. I’ve found that it is
important to help each communicate in the way that they feel most comfortable. For example,
introverts often prefer communicating in writing (such as email) rather than speaking in group
settings and tend to be less open with their critical thoughts.
b. Intuiting vs. sensing. Some people see big pictures (forests) and others see details (trees). In the
Myers-Briggs framework, these ways of seeing are best represented by the continuum from
intuiting to sensing. You can get an idea of people’s preferences by observing what they focus
on. For example, when reading, a sensing person who focuses on details can be thrown off by
typos such as “there” instead of “their,” while intuitive thinkers won’t even notice the mistake.
That is because the intuitive thinker’s attention is focused on the context first and the details
second. Naturally, you’d rather have a sensing person than an intuitor preparing your legal
documents, where every “i” must be properly dotted and every “t” crossed just so.
c. Thinking vs. feeling. Some people make decisions based on logical analysis of objective facts,
considering all the known, provable factors important to a given situation and using logic to
determine the best course of action. This approach is an indicator of a preference for thinking
and is how you’d hope your doctor thinks when he makes a diagnosis. Other people—who
prefer feeling—focus on harmony between people. They are better suited to roles that require
lots of empathy, interpersonal contact, and relationship building, for example HR and customer
service. Before we had assessments to identify these differences, conversations between “Ts”
and “Fs” were really frustrating. Now we laugh as we bump up against our differences,
because we know what they are and can see them playing out in classic ways.
d. Planning vs. perceiving. Some people like to live in a planned, orderly way and others prefer
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flexibility and spontaneity. Planners (or “Judgers” in Myers-Briggs terms) like to focus on a
plan and stick with it, while perceivers are prone to focus on what’s happening around them
and adapt to it. Perceivers work from the outside in; they see things happening and work
backward to understand the cause and how to respond; they also see many possibilities that
they compare and choose from—often so many that they are confused by them. In contrast,
planners work from the inside out, first figuring out what they want to achieve and then how
things should unfold. Planners and perceivers have trouble appreciating each other. Perceivers
see new things and change direction often. This is discomforting to planners, who weigh
precedent much more heavily in their decision making, and assume if it was done in a certain
way before, it should be done in the same way again. Similarly, planners can discomfort
perceivers by being seemingly rigid and slow to adapt.
e. Creators vs. refiners vs. advancers vs. executors vs. flexors. By identifying talents and preferences that
lead people to feel a particular way, you can place them in jobs at which they will likely excel.
At Bridgewater, we use a test called the “Team Dimensions Profile” (TDP) to connect people