Value Creation Principles

2KNOWLEDGE BUILDING AND FIRM PERFORMANCE

By detaching our self-image and self-worth from our beliefs, we should be more willing to stress test those beliefs instead of habitually defending them. This means that being who we are won't be tied up in maintaining a particular view, answer, opinion, or conclusion. Rather, we can define our “being” by how we think and converse. Defining everything we know as conditional—subject to change based on new evidence—can help decouple our egos from our beliefs.

—Edward D. Hess¹

To be radically open-minded you must … sincerely believe that you might not know the best possible path and recognize that your ability to deal well with “not knowing” is more important than whatever it is you do know.… Radically open-minded people know that coming up with the right questions and asking other smart people what they think is as important as having all the answers … what exists within the area of “not knowing” is so much greater and more exciting than anything any one of us knows.

—Ray Dalio²

THE KNOWLEDGE-BUILDING PATH TO IMPROVED PERFORMANCE

A major theme of this book is the paramount importance of a firm's knowledge-building proficiency in determining a firm's survival and prosperity over the long term. As such, a well-grounded understanding of what knowledge building entails is essential. The beginning point is four foundational ideas about building useful knowledge that can lead to improved performance.

First, to navigate through the world ...