Building a company where the best ideas win: Idea Meritocracy

Decisions are the turbines which drive companies, and companies are only as good as their decision making bodies. Owners, managers and employees of companies are faced with several decisions day-to-day, at all levels of organisational management – from production to operations and the marketing of produced goods, before they reach the final consumer. Companies are run by systems and structures where all major decisions revolve around the core values of the company.

Decision making in companies fall among one of the following value-systems – Autocracy, Democracy or Meritocracy. Because decisions, emanating from ideas is what runs every company, it is of essence decision makers ensure that they always act on the best ideas.

An idea meritocracy ensures that we do not just operate in an autocratic culture where leaders lead and followers follow or in a democratic culture where everyone’s point of view is equally valued. Idea meritocracy promotes a culture where the best ideas win, irrespective of whom they may be coming from. This creates a meaningful work environment that ensures meaningful decision making. Idea meritocracy promotes a work environment of radical transparency and radical truthfulness which allows people to express their opinions from their own point of view, and then separate themselves from their opinions to see things in a broader light.

A decision making system that promotes idea meritocracy may be engineered through algorithmic programing where we take algorithms and embed them into computers to gather data on ourselves to know what we are like, and then direct the computers to interact with us in a way that is better than most people can.

A key attribute to being a successful business owner or a leader is to be able to see things not from your point of view alone, but also from the point of view of your employees or followers. Rather than thinking that we are right, a meritocratic culture forces us to ask, how do we know we are right?  This gives us a shift in perspective and allows us to find out which opinions are the best. Different people are always going to have different opinions and who knows who is right?

There are several instances, where we often see two people in total opposition on one matter, and they both think they are right. In his seminars, America’s greatest prosperity teacher, Bob Proctor, holds a book titled, Think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill. On the front cover of the book is the writing, “Think and grow rich” while on the back cover there is a gold stamp.

Bob Proctor will usually raise the book up in front of him and ask his audience what is written on the cover of the book, and they will usually say, “Think and grow rich”, but he would reply that they are wrong. Basically because from his point of view – he is looking at the back cover of the book, where he sees the gold stamp. Perception is a mental faculty and to be able to make effective decisions, we must be able to differentiate what is correct from a point of view from what is right and wrong in various circumstantial events.

Owners and managers of corporations often run into disagreements when making major decisions, simply because they all see things from a different point of view. The situation isn’t different with managers and employees. So the question remains, how do we solve the puzzle that confronts firms during moments of major decision making? How do we know which party is right, and which party is wrong in circumstantial events, so as to ensure that companies operate on the shoulders of the best ideas and opinions, irrespective of whom they may be coming from?

Imagine how the workplace would have been, if decision makers could pause to ask themselves – how others valued their opinion? An Idea meritocracy promotes radical transparency and radical truthfulness, where everyone says what they really believe, and are allowed to see everything that goes on in the company. It offers one of the best channels for which owners and managers can receive timely feedback from employees, other than the traditional way of fixing suggestion boxes on walls, and not opening them up until the end of the financial year.

During his presentation at TED talk in 2017, Ray Dalio, founder and CEO of Bridgewater Associates – the world’s largest hedge fund, revealed that, idea meritocracy has been the major ‘secret’ behind the success of Bridgewater Associates for decades. He revealed, that a week after the U.S elections on November 2016, his research team held a meeting to discuss what a Trump presidency will mean for the U.S economy.

Naturally people had different opinions and how they approached the discussion differed. A dot collector with a list of attributes collects all views, and whenever anyone taught something about another person’s thinking, it is easy for them to convey their assessment and provide a rating from one to ten.

As the meeting began, a researcher named Jean rated the CEO three, in other words – badly, for not showing a good balance of open mindedness and assertiveness.

Others in the room had different opinions, which was normal because different people always have different opinions, and who knows who is right? While others taught he did well, others taught he did poorly. Everyone got to express their thinking regardless of their position in the company and Jean, a twenty four year old college graduate could tell the CEO he was approaching things terribly.

Ray Dalio makes it clear, that one of the greatest tragedies of mankind is when people arrogantly and naively hold opinions in their minds that are wrong and yet act on them. He reveals, there are two ‘persons’ inside every one of us – the emotional person and the intellectual person.

These two, can work either for us or against us. According to Ray Dalio, we can win this battle, and we can do so much easier as a group.

Collective decision making is much better than individual decision making when it is done well.

An idea meritocracy elevates us above our own opinions, so we start to see things through the eyes of other people, and in so doing, think collectively. This has the potential of eliminating office conflicts, arising from office politics and hidden agendas, and promotes effective relationships. Workers become happier on the job and this inspires proactiveness, promotes innovation and forward thinking among workers.

As it is, critics have had their say on idea meritocracy, and the major underlying criticism is that, idea meritocracy, may not be suitable for everyone, since it is emotionally difficult.

By E.O Essien (Author, Economic Analyst and Currency trader)

Email: elijahotoo.eo@gmail.com (+233240080104/+233203656160)

A greater portion of this article is not the writer’s own ideas. This article has been inspired by the 2017 TED talk presentation of Ray Dalio, founder and CEO of Bridgewater Associates. To watch the video visit https://youtu.be/HXbs