At Bridgewater, we create an atmosphere that gives everyone the right and responsibility to express their opinions and publicly defend what they think is the best solution. Only in this way can we find the best solution and implement it.

What is needed is a true selection of ideas, not a theoretical selection of the best ideas.

Creative meritocracy has evolved over the decades.

From the beginning, it is better to have a stimulating argument about whose point of view is best, and to find a way to solve the problem in the heated debate over the differences, than to think separately.

Now, a decision-making system has been constructed that effectively weighs the credibility of the opinions put forward by different people, while also making everyone feel that the process is obviously fair.

This approach seems difficult and inefficient, but it is actually extremely efficient.

In fact, it’s harder and less productive to work in an organization where most colleagues don’t know what each other really thinks.

Moreover, if people cannot be honest with each other, everyone will wear a mask.

As Bob Keegan, a Harvard University psychologist who studies Bridgewater, puts it, in most companies, people are engaged in two jobs: one is actually doing their own work, and the other is trying to impress others on how they work.

good impression.

Bridgewater’s approach: Put everything on the table: 1. No need to deliberately show the good side; 2. Save time guessing other people’s thoughts.

The result is more meaningful work and more meaningful relationships.

This method really works!

You can evaluate the possible powerful effects of this approach and corresponding principles in two ways: 1. Look at the results; 2. Look at the logic behind it.

Over the past 40 years, Bridgewater has grown to rank fifth on Fortune magazine's list of the most important private companies in the United States, becoming the world's largest hedge fund firm and earning more money for clients than any other hedge fund firm in history.

.

The following are the driving forces for Bridgewater to achieve self-reinforcement and spiral development and progress: 1.

What started as a single independent thinker who wanted to achieve ambitious goals grew into a group of independent thinkers who wanted to achieve ambitious goals.

2.

To empower these thinkers to make effective collective decisions, we invented idea meritocracy, which is based on principles that ensure we are all honest, open with each other, think through differences of opinion, and choose the best ideas.

Reach beyond differing perspectives to make decisions.

3.

We write down these decision-making principles in writing, then code them into a computer and make decisions based on them.

4．

This decision-making process has brought us both success and failure, and has given us more opportunities to learn lessons, which in turn has led to the formation of more principles, which are all codified into the system to guide practice.

5．

This process results in excellent work performance and great relationships that reward and delight our employees and customers.

6.

This allows us to recruit more independent thinkers with ambitious goals, which promotes the company's self-reinforcement and spiral development progress.