Transparency

There is a man named Ray Dalio who manages one of the biggest hedge funds in the world. I listened to a podcast (what it takes) years ago that discussed his basic philosophy. 

Basically, within his company, there are no secrets and there is a zero gossip policy. If anyone gossips, they are immediately fired. All meetings are recorded, and viewable by all employees. There is total transparency. What this achieves is an entire company all working together. From the newest mail room employee to the CEO, all decisions are made with welcomed input and all ideas are listened to. Actual team work. 

When I first heard his philosophy, I was so excited. I knew that it was also my philosophy. Imagine a life free of damaging gossip, in which everyone was honest, and all opinions were listened to. 

Now, one day Ray tweeted: 

Principle of the Day

One of the most important decisions you can make is who you ask questions of.

Make sure they’re fully informed and believable. Find out who is responsible for whatever you are seeking to understand and then ask them. Listening to uninformed people is worse than having no answers at all.

This was interesting because I knew he had an open door policy on the sharing of ideas. But my dad used to say, “only take advice from someone who is an expert or success in the area on which they are advising you.” An important part of being willing to hear everything is knowing who to actually listen to. 

A drunk may not have the best advice on how to quit drinking. Someone who is overweight may not have the best diet advice. Don’t take financial advice from people who are in debt. 

Check your source. Listen to everyone. Accept and spread zero gossip. Speak and listen to only the truth. 

Now, I don’t have a job that requires any kind of transparency. But I am out here in the world trying to get my life right. I think these principles still apply. I make an effort to surround myself with honest, open people who value each other, reality and the truth.

There is a fine line between being open and honest and gossip. When I got together with my ex, the number of people who thanked me for making him so happy was staggering. Finally, I began to ask, “what was he like before?” No one would tell me. Eventually I discovered on my own what he was like and why, but I would have saved a lot of time and energy had I known from the start. 

I had a friend who was interested in dating a man. I knew a few “red flag” things about him and I told her. To my dismay, rather than taking those things into her decision making process, she went home with him drunk and confronted him with what I’d said. The relationship didn’t work out, he didn’t like that she knew the truth, and he refused after that to pretend to be the person he was formerly pretending to be for her. I suppose that was the right thing, and it saved them both some time, but I felt pretty uncomfortable being in that position. In retrospect, I think I did the right thing, and though her timing was bad, so did she. If he had changed, and was working to do better, he could have weathered that storm and taken steps to show her that he had changed. 

The truth isn’t gossip when shared with people who are making decisions. It’s just information that should be taken into account. If you know something, it is your responsibility to tell the decision maker. If you see your friend’s boyfriend on a dating app, let your friend know. It’s important. Hand in hand with the no gossip policy has to be the transparency policy. 

Ray Dalio manages one of the biggest hedge funds in the world based on open communication and zero gossip. Pretty sure he’s someone we can take advice from on how to manage our own little lives.