Page 357 - Ray Dalio - Principles

the entire organization), both to ensure quality decision
making and to perpetuate the culture of openly working
through disputes.

a. Don’t let the little things divide you when your agreement on the big things
should bind you. Almost every group that agrees on the big things
ends up fighting about less important things and becoming
enemies even though they should be bound by the big things.
This phenomenon is called the narcissism of small differences.
Take the Protestants and Catholics. Though both are followers
of Christ, some of them have been fighting for hundreds of

years, even though many of them are unable to articulate the
differences that divide them, and most of those who can
articulate the differences realize that they are insignificant
relative to the big important things that should bind them
together. I once saw a close family have an irrevocable blow-
out at a Thanksgiving dinner over who would cut the turkey.
Don’t let this narcissism of small differences happen to you.

Understand that nobody and nothing is perfect and that you are
lucky to have by-and-large excellent relationships. See the big
picture.

b. Don’t get stuck in disagreement—escalate or vote! By practicing open-
mindedness and assertiveness, you should be able to resolve
most disagreements. If not, and if your dispute is one-on-one,
you should escalate to a mutually agreed-upon believable

other. All things being equal, that should be someone higher in
your reporting chain, such as your boss. When a group can’t
reach an agreement, the person responsible for the meeting
should take a believability-weighted vote.

6.4 Once a decision is made, everyone

should get behind it even though

individuals may still disagree.

A decision-making group in which those who don’t get what
they want continue to fight rather than work for what the

group has decided is destined to fail—you can see this
happening all the time in companies, organizations, and even