Principles are ways of successfully dealing with reality to get what you want out of life.
Ray Dalio, one of the world’s most successful investors and entrepreneurs, cites principles as his key to success.
In 1975, Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates, out of his two-bedroom apartment in New York City. Over forty years later, Bridgewater has grown into the largest hedge fund in the world and the fifth most important private company in the United States (according to Fortune magazine), and Dalio himself has been named to TIME’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Along the way Dalio discovered unique principles that have led to his and Bridgewater’s unique success. It is these principles, and not anything special about Dalio, that he believes are the reason behind whatever success he has had. He is now at a stage in his life that he wants to pass these principles along to others for them to judge for themselves and to do whatever they want with them.
Work Principle
Process Flow Diagram
Just as an engineer uses flow charts to understand the workflow of what they're designing, a manager needs a Process Flow Diagram to help visualize the organization as a machine. It might have references to an organizational chart that shows who reports to whom, or the org chart might supplement the Process Flow Diagram. Ideally the Process Flow Diagram is made in a way that allows you to both see things simply at a high level and drop down to lower levels of detail as needed (e.g., when looking at a person in the diagram, one can click into their Baseball Card and view other info about them).
At Bridgewater, we've created process maps for every department in the company that show us clearly all the roles and the responsibilities for each role and how the work flows among them to reach intended outcomes.
Work Principle
- Use Tools and Protocols to Shape How Work Is Done
Process Flow Diagram
Any person or organization can adopt Principles to better achieve their goals.
Learn what Principles are and how they are applied at Principles.com
