Page 330 - Ray Dalio - Principles

have Randal do implementation. Instead, you took a total of
62 minutes (I measured) but worse, you rambled for 50
minutes on what I think was portfolio structuring topics and
only then got to culture and you talked about that for 12

minutes. It was obvious to all of us that you did not prepare
at all because there is no way you could have been that
disorganized at the outset if you had prepared.

Similarly I’d like to share another case in which one of our
senior managers observed a conversation between Greg Jensen,
who was then CEO, and a junior employee, and felt that Greg
was speaking to that employee in a way that discouraged

dissent and independent thinking. She raised this in feedback
she gave Greg. Greg disagreed, asserting that he was simply
reminding the employee of relevant principles and her
responsibilities to either adhere to them or openly question
them. The two sought to get in sync through a series of emails,
and when that didn’t work, they raised their disagreement to
the Management Committee. A case based on the meeting in
question was sent to the entire company so everyone could
judge for themselves who was right and who was wrong. It was

a good learning exercise that Greg and the senior manager
appreciated. We used it to reflect on our written principles for
handling situations like this and they both got a lot of useful
feedback. If we hadn’t laid out our principles and used them to
judge cases like this, we would have people with power making
decisions however they wanted instead of in mutually agreed-

upon ways.
The principles that follow flesh out how we do this. If they

are adhered to, you will be well aligned with others and your
idea meritocracy will hum with productivity. If they are not, it
will grind to a halt.

4.1 Recognize that conflicts are

essential for great

relationships . . .