1.4 Be radically transparent.
If you agree that a real idea meritocracy is an extremely powerful thing, it should not be a great leap for you to see that giving people the right to see things for themselves is better than forcing them to rely on information processed for them by others. Radical transparency forces issues to the surface—most importantly (and most uncomfortably) the problems that people are dealing with and how they’re dealing with them—and it allows the organization to draw on the talents and insights of all its members to solve them. Eventually, for people who get used to it, living in a culture of radical transparency is more comfortable than living in the fog of not knowing what’s going on and not knowing what people really think. And it is incredibly effective. But, to be clear, like most great things it also has drawbacks. Its biggest drawback is that it is initially very difficult for most people to deal with uncomfortable realities. If unmanaged, it can lead to people getting involved with more things than they should, and can lead people who aren’t able to weigh all the information to draw the wrong conclusions.
I have learned that the people whose opinions matter most are those who know us best—our clients and our employees—and that our radical transparency serves us well with them. Not only has it led to our producing better results, but it also builds trust with our employees and clients so that mischaracterizations in the press roll off their backs. When we discuss such situations with them, they say that for us to not operate transparently would scare them much more.
a. Use transparency to help enforce justice.
When everyone can follow the discussion leading up to a decision—either in real time in person or via taped records and email threads—justice is more likely to prevail. Everyone is held accountable for their thinking and anyone can weigh in on who should do what according to shared principles. Absent such a transparent process, decisions would be settled behind closed doors by those who have the power to do whatever they want. With transparency, everyone is held to the same high standards.
b. Share the things that are hardest to share.
While it might be tempting to limit transparency to the things that can’t hurt you, it is especially important to share the things that are most difficult to share, because if you don’t share them you will lose the trust and partnership of the people you are not sharing with. So, when faced with the decision to share the hardest things, the question should not be whether to share but how. The following principles will help you do this well.
c. Keep exceptions to radical transparency very rare.
While I would like virtually total transparency and wish that everyone would handle the information they have access to responsibly to work out what’s true and what to do about it, I realize that’s an ideal to be approached but never fully achieved. There are exceptions to every rule, and in very rare cases, it is better not to be radically transparent. In those unusual cases, you will need to figure out a way that preserves the culture of radical transparency without exposing you and those you care about to undue risks.
When weighing an exception, approach it as an expected value calculation, taking into consideration the second- and third-order consequences. Ask yourself whether the costs of making the case transparent and managing the risks of that transparency outweigh the benefits.
d. Make sure those who are given radical transparency recognize their responsibilities to handle it well and to weigh things intelligently.
People cannot be given the privilege of receiving information and then use the information to harm the company, so rules and procedures must be in place to ensure that doesn’t happen. For example, we provide great transparency inside Bridgewater on the condition that Bridgewater citizens do not leak it outside; if they do, they will be dismissed for cause (for unethical behavior). Additionally, the rules for how issues are explored and decisions are made must be maintained, and because different people have different perspectives, it’s important that the paths for resolving them are followed. For example, some people are going to make big deals out of little deals, come up with their own wrong theories, or have problems seeing how things are evolving. Remind them of the risks that the company takes to give them that transparency and their responsibilities to handle the information that they get responsibly. I have found that people appreciating this transparency and knowing that they will lose it if it is not handled well leads them to enforce good behavior with each other.
e. Provide transparency to people who handle it well and either deny it to people who don’t handle it well or remove those people from the organization.
It is the right and responsibility of management, and not the right of all employees, to determine when exceptions to radical transparency should be made. Management should restrict transparency sparingly and wisely because every time they do, it undermines the idea meritocracy and people’s trust.
f. Don’t share sensitive information with the organization’s enemies.
Both side and outside of any organization, there are some people who will intentionally cause the organization harm. If these enemies are within your organization, you need to call them out to resolve this conflict through the organization’s system for achieving such resolutions, because working with enemies within your “extended family” will undermine you and the “family.” If the enemies are outside your organization and will use the information to harm you, of course don’t share it
* Source: Principles by Ray Dalio
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