Page 442 - Ray Dalio - Principles

15 Use Tools and

Protocols to Shape

How Work Is Done

Words alone aren’t enough.

That’s something I learned from watching people struggle
to get themselves to do things that are in their best interests.
After I shared these principles with the people at Bridgewater
and refined them, nearly everyone saw the connection between
the principles and our excellent results and wanted to operate

in accordance with them. But there’s a big difference between
wanting to do something and actually being able to do it.
Assuming people will do what they intellectually want to do is
like assuming that people will lose weight simply because they
understand why it’s beneficial for them to do it. It won’t
happen until the proper habits are developed. In organizations,
that happens with the help of tools and protocols.

Take a minute to think about how this applies to your
reading of this book, or reading books in general. How often
have you read a book describing some behavioral change
you’ve wanted to make but then failed to? How much
behavioral change do you think will result from this book if
you don’t have tools and protocols to help you? My guess is
hardly any. Just as you can’t learn many things by reading a

book (how to ride a bike, speak a language, etc.), it’s nearly
impossible to change a behavior without practicing it. That is
why I plan to make the tools that I describe in the Appendix
publicly available.