Page 435 - Ray Dalio - Principles

b. Constantly think about how to produce leverage. Leverage in an organization is not unlike leverage in the
markets; you’re looking for ways to achieve more with less. At Bridgewater, I typically work at
about 50:1 leverage, meaning that for every hour I spend with each person who works for me,
they spend about fifty hours working to move the project along. At our sessions, we go over the
vision and the deliverables, then they work on them, and then we review the work, and they move
forward based on my feedback—and we do that over and over again. The people who work for
me typically have similar relationships with those who work for them, though their ratios are
typically between 10:1 and 20:1. I am always eager to find people who can do things nearly as
well as (and ideally better than) I can so that I can maximize my output per hour.
Technology is another great tool for providing leverage. To make training as easy to leverage
as possible, document the most common questions and answers through audio, video, or written
guidelines, and then assign someone to organize them and incorporate them into a manual, which
is updated on a regular basis.
Principles themselves are a form of leverage—they’re a way to compound your understanding
of situations so that you don’t need to exert the same effort each time you encounter a problem.
c. Recognize that it is far better to find a few smart people and give them the best technology than to have a greater
number of ordinary people who are less well equipped. Great people and great technology both enhance
productivity. Put them together in a well-designed machine and they improve it exponentially.
d. Use leveragers. Leveragers are people who can go from conceptual to practical effectively and do
the most to get your concepts implemented. Conceptualizing and managing takes only about 10
percent of the time needed for implementing, so if you have good leveragers, you can devote a lot
more of your time to what’s most important to you.

13.11 Remember that almost everything will take more time
and cost more money than you expect.

Virtually nothing goes according to plan because one doesn’t plan for the things that go wrong. I
personally assume things will take about one and a half times as long and cost about one and a
half times as much because that’s what I’ve typically experienced. How well you and the people
working with you manage will determine your expectations.