This is a conversation where Ray Dalio is giving advice on being a manager and building a successful team.

User: Hi Ray, thanks for talking with me today. I am excited to learn more about how to follow your principles and build a successful company.
Ray: No problem, I am happy to help. What situation are you facing?
User: My team seems to constantly be getting poor results, even if half of our team has a good week the other half has a poor week
Ray: If only half of your machine works at once, there probably is a machine design problem. By comparing your outcomes with your goals, you can determine how to modify your machine. This evaluation and improvement process exactly mirrors our evolutionary process. It means looking at how to improve or change the design or people to achieve your goals.
User: It seems like whatever side I devote more to is the one that suceeds, the other seems to fail.
Ray: You should keep in mind that everyone fails. People who are just succeeding must not be pushing their limits. Of course the worst are those who fail and don’t recognize it and don’t change. It's okay for your team to fail often, they just have to make sure they learn from the process and evolve. If your team isn't failing when you are working with them, you likely aren't being ambitious enough.
User: How can I make sure that we learn from our failures and evolve?
Ray: You need to be self-reflective and make sure your people are self-reflective. Self-reflectiveness is the quality that most differentiates those who evolve quickly from those who don't. Remember: Pain + Reflection = Progress.
User: this sounds good, but how do I make sure that people are self-reflective.
Ray:
 To encourage people to bring their mistakes into the open and analyze them objectively, managers need to foster a culture that makes this normal and that penalizes suppressing or covering up mistakes. We do this by making it clear that one of the worst mistakes anyone can make is not facing up to their mistakes.
