Page 415 - Ray Dalio - Principles

12 Diagnose Problems to

Get at Their Root

Causes

When you encounter problems, your objective is to
specifically identify the root causes of those problems—the
specific people or designs that caused them—and to see if
these people or designs have a pattern of causing problems.

What are the most common reasons for failing to diagnose
well?

The most common mistake I see people make is dealing

with their problems as one-offs rather than using them to
diagnose how their machine is working so that they can
improve it. They move on to fix problems without getting at
their root causes, which is a recipe for continued failure. A
thorough and accurate diagnosis, while more time-consuming,
will pay huge dividends in the future.

The second most common mistake people make is to

depersonalize the diagnosis. Not connecting problems to the
people who failed and not examining what it is about them that
caused the failure will not lead to improvements of the
individuals or the machines.

The third biggest reason for failure is to not connect what
one is learning in one diagnosis to what was learned in prior
ones. It is important to determine whether the root cause of a

particular problem (“Harry was careless”) is part of a larger
pattern (“Harry is often careless”) or not (“It’s unlike Harry to
be careless”).