Page 309 - Ray Dalio - Principles

ultratrustworthy people received it in real time, and it was
distributed to others after a delay. The information was the sort
that, in a typical company, would be shared with just a handful

but at Bridgewater was shared with nearly a hundred trusted
people. In other words, while our radical transparency in that
case wasn’t total, I pushed its limits in a practical way. It
served us well because the people who most needed the
transparency got it right away and most everyone understood
that the commitment to being transparent remained very much
intact, even in challenging circumstances. People know that

my intent is to always push the limits of trying to be
transparent and that the only things that would prevent me
from doing that will be the interests of the company and that I
will tell them if I can’t be transparent and why. It is in our
culture to be that way and that fosters trust, even when the
transparency is less than we would like it to be.

d. Make sure those who are given radical transparency recognize their
responsibilities to handle it well and to weigh things intelligently.

People cannot be given the privilege of receiving information
and then use the information to harm the company, so rules
and procedures must be in place to ensure that doesn’t happen.
For example, we provide great transparency inside
Bridgewater on the condition that Bridgewater citizens do not
leak it outside; if they do, they will be dismissed for cause (for

unethical behavior). Additionally, the rules for how issues are
explored and decisions are made must be maintained, and
because different people have different perspectives, it’s
important that the paths for resolving them are followed. For
example, some people are going to make big deals out of little

deals, come up with their own wrong theories, or have
problems seeing how things are evolving. Remind them of the
risks that the company takes to give them that transparency
and their responsibilities to handle the information that they
get responsibly. I have found that people appreciating this
transparency and knowing that they will lose it if it is not
handled well leads them to enforce good behavior with each
other.

e. Provide transparency to people who handle it well and either deny it to
people who don’t handle it well or remove those people from the organization.