Page 413 - Ray Dalio - Principles

by giving them plenty of opportunities to speak up. Don’t just
expect them to provide you with regular and honest feedback
—explicitly ask them for it.

h. Realize that the people closest to certain jobs probably know them best. At

the very least, they have perspectives you need to understand,
so make sure you see things through their eyes.

11.3 Be very specific about problems;

don’t start with generalizations.

For example, don’t say, “Client advisors aren’t communicating
well with the analysts.” Be specific: Name which client
advisors aren’t doing this well and in which ways. Start with
the specifics and then observe patterns.

a. Avoid the anonymous “we” and “they,” because they mask personal
responsibility. Things don’t just happen by themselves—they
happen because specific people did or didn’t do specific
things. Don’t undermine personal accountability with
vagueness. Instead of the passive generalization or the royal
“we,” attribute specific actions to specific people: “Harry
didn’t handle this well.” Also avoid “We should . . .” or “We

are . . .” and so on. Since individuals are the most important
building blocks of any organization and since individuals are
responsible for the ways things are done, mistakes must be
connected to those individuals by name. Someone created the
procedure that went wrong or made the faulty decision.
Glossing over that can only slow progress toward
improvement.

11.4 Don’t be afraid to fix the difficult

things.

In some cases, people accept unacceptable problems because
they are perceived as too difficult to fix. Yet fixing
unacceptable problems is a lot easier than not fixing them,
because not fixing them will lead to more stress, more work,