Page 421 - Ray Dalio - Principles

I have always described Bridgewater as being “terrible and
terrific at the same time.” For nearly forty years, we have
consistently produced extraordinary results while struggling

with lots of problems. It is easy to look at messy
circumstances, think things must be terrible, and get frustrated.
But the real challenge is to look at the long-term successes
these messy circumstances have produced and understand how
essential they are to the evolutionary process of innovation.

f. Identifying the fact that someone else doesn’t know what to do doesn’t mean
that you know what to do. It’s one thing to point out a problem; it’s

another to have an accurate diagnosis and a quality solution.
As described earlier, the litmus test for a good problem solver
is 1) they are able to logically describe how to handle the
problem and 2) they have successfully solved similar problems
in the past.

g. Remember that a root cause is not an action but a reason. Root causes
are described in adjectives, not verbs, so keep asking “why” to

get at them. Since most things are done or not done because
someone decided to do them or not do them in a certain way,
most root causes can be traced to specific people who have
specific patterns of behavior. Of course, a normally reliable
person can make the occasional error and if that’s the case,
then it can be forgiven, but when a problem is attributable to a
person, you have to ask why they made the mistake—and you

have to be as accurate in diagnosing a fault in a person as you
would be if he or she were a piece of equipment.

A root cause discovery process might proceed like this:

The problem was due to bad programming.

Why was there bad programming?

Because Harry programmed it badly.

Why did Harry program it badly?

Because he wasn’t well trained and because he was in a

rush.

Why wasn’t he well trained? Did his manager know that
he wasn’t well trained and let him do the job anyway, or
did he not know?