Remember that for every case you deal with, your approach should have two purposes: 1) to move you closer to your goal, and 2) to train and test your machine (i.e., your people and your design).
1. Everything is a case study. 2. When a problem occurs, conduct the discussion at two levels: 1) the machine level (why that outcome was produced) and 2) the case-at-hand level (what to do about it). 3. When making rules,
Look down on your machine and yourself within it from the higher level.
1. Constantly compare your outcomes to your goals. 2. Understand that a great manager is essentially an organizational engineer. 3. Build great metrics. 4. Beware of paying too much attention to what is coming at you and not enough attention
Don’t lower the bar. TO BUILD AND EVOLVE YOUR MACHINE.
Source: Ray Dalio's Book Principles
Remember that the goal of a transfer is the best, highest use of the person in a way that benefits the community as a whole.
Have people “complete their swings” before moving on to new roles. Source: Ray Dalio's Book Principles
Train, guardrail, or remove people; don’t rehabilitate them.
1. Don’t collect people. 2. Be willing to “shoot the people you love.” 3. When someone is “without a box,” consider whether there is an open box that would be a better fit or whether you need to get them
Recognize that when you are really in sync with someone about their weaknesses, the weaknesses are probably true.
1. When judging people, remember that you don’t have to get to the point of “beyond a shadow of a doubt.” 2. It should take you no more than a year to learn what a person is like and whether
Knowing how people operate and being able to judge whether that way of operating will lead to good results is more important than knowing what they did.
1. If someone is doing their job poorly, consider whether it is due to inadequate learning or inadequate ability. 2. Training and testing a poor performer to see if he or she can acquire the required skills without simultaneously trying
Make the process of learning what someone is like open, evolutionary, and iterative.
1. Make your metrics clear and impartial. 2. Encourage people to be objectively reflective about their performance. 3. Look at the whole picture. 4. For performance reviews, start from specific cases, look for patterns, and get in sync with the
Don’t hide your observations about people.
1. Build your synthesis from the specifics up. 2. Squeeze the dots. 3. Don’t oversqueeze a dot. 4. Use evaluation tools such as performance surveys, metrics, and formal reviews to document all aspects of a person’s performance. Source: Ray Dalio's
Recognize that tough love is both the hardest and the most important type of love to give (because it is so rarely welcomed).
Recognize that while most people prefer compliments, accurate criticism is more valuable. Source: Ray Dalio's Book Principles