2 cultivate meaningful workand meaningful relationships

?培養(yǎng)有意義的工作和關(guān)系

Meaningful relationships areinvaluable for building and sustaining a culture of excellence, because theycreate the trust and support that people need to push each other to do greatthings. If the overwhelming majority of people care about having an excellentcommunity, they will take care of it, which will yield both better work andbetter relationships. Relationships have to be genuine, not forced; at the sametime, the culture of the community will have a big influence on how peoplevalue relationships and how they behave with each other. To me, a meaningfulrelationship is one in which people care enough about each other to be therewhenever someone needs support and they enjoy each other’s company so much thatthey can have great times together both inside and outside of work. I literallylove many of the people I work with, and I respect them deeply.

I have often been asked whetherrelationships at Bridgewater are more like those of a family or those of ateam, the implication being that in a family there is unconditional love and apermanent relationship, while in a team the attachment is only as strong as theperson’s contribution. Before answering this question, I want to emphasize thateither is good by me, because both families and teams provide meaningfulrelationships and that neither is anything like a typical job at a typicalcompany, where the relationships are primarily utilitarian. But to answer thequestion directly, I wanted Bridgewater to be like a family business in whichfamily members have to perform excellently or be cut. If I had a familybusiness and a family member wasn’t performing well, I would want to let themgo because I believe that it isn’t good for either the family member (becausestaying in a job they’re not suited to stands in the way of their personalevolution) or the company (because it holds back the whole community). That’stough love.

To give you an idea of how Bridgewater’sculture developed and how it’s different from what you’d find at mostcompanies, I will tell you about how we handled benefits in our early days.When the company was just me and a small group of people, I didn’t provideemployees with health insurance; I assumed that they would buy it on their own.But I did want to help the people I shared my life with during their times ofneed. If someone I worked with

got seriously sick and couldn’t affordproper care, what was I going to do, stand by and not help them? Of course I’dhelp them financially, to whatever extent I could. So when I did beginproviding health insurance to my employees, I felt that I was insuring myselfagainst the money I knew I’d give them if they were injured or fell ill as muchas I was insuring them.

Because I wanted to make certain thatthey received the best care possible, the policies I provided allowed them togo to any doctor they chose and spend whatever amount was required. On theother hand, I didn’t protect them against the little things. For example, Ididn’t provide dental insurance any more than I provided car insurance, becauseI felt that it was their own responsibility to protect their teeth, just as itwas their own responsibility to take care of their car. If they needed dentalinsurance, they could pay for it out of their own pocket. My main point is thatI didn’t approach benefits in the impersonal, transactional way most companiesdo, but more like something I provided for my family. I was more than generouswith some things and expected people to take personal responsibility forothers.

When I treated my employees like extendedfamily, I found that they typically behaved the same way with each other andour community as a whole, which was much more special than having a strictlyquid pro quo relationship. I can’t tell you how many people would do anythingin their power to help our community/company and wouldn’t want to work anywhereelse. This is invaluable.

As Bridgewater grew, my ability to havequality personal contact with everyone faded, but this wasn’t a problem becausethe broader community embraced this way of being with each other. This didn’tjust happen; we did a lot to help it along. For example, we put into place apolicy that we would pay for half of practically any activities that peoplewant to do together up to a set cap (we now support more than a hundred clubsand athletic and common-interest groups); we paid for food and drink for thosewho hosted potluck dinners at their houses; and we bought a house thatemployees can use for events and celebrations. We have Christmas, Halloween,Fourth of July, and other parties that often include family members.Eventually, others who valued this kind of relationship took responsibility forit and it spread to become a cultural norm so that I could just sit back andwatch beauty happen.

What about the person who doesn’t give adamn about all of this meaningful relationship stuff, who just wants to go intowork, do a good job, and receive fair compensation? Is that okay? Sure it is,and it’s common for a significant percentage of employees. Not everyone feelsthe same or is expected to feel the same about the community. It’s totally okayto opt out. We have all sorts of people and respect whatever they want to do ontheir own time, as long as they abide by the law and are considerate. But theseare not the folks who will provide the community with the skeletal strength ofcommitment that is essential for it to be extraordinary over very long periodsof time.

No matter how much one tries to create aculture of meaningful relationships, the organization is bound to have some bad(intentionally harmful) people in it. Being there isn’t good for them or thecompany so it’s best to find out who they are and remove them. We have foundthat the higher the percentage of people who really care about theorganization, the fewer the number of bad people there are, because the peoplewho really care protect the community against them. We have also found that ourradical transparency helps make it clearer which are which.

譯文：

有意義的關(guān)系是對(duì)于建立和維持優(yōu)秀的文化氛圍是無(wú)價(jià)的勤婚，因?yàn)檫@種關(guān)系創(chuàng)造了信任和支持-那種人們需要彼此支持仪搔，推動(dòng)去做偉大的事情。具有壓倒性優(yōu)勢(shì)的人們都對(duì)擁有優(yōu)秀的社群非常在意潮改。他們會(huì)很在乎這個(gè)，尤其這個(gè)對(duì)工作和關(guān)系都能受益腹暖。而這種社群文化對(duì)人們?cè)u(píng)價(jià)社群價(jià)值和他們是如何彼此影響的都有著巨大影響汇在。對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)，一份有價(jià)值的關(guān)系就是人們?cè)谛枰獣r(shí)能彼此充分支持脏答，人們彼此欣賞并能一起在內(nèi)部和工作之外協(xié)作糕殉。我非常敬重與我一起工作的人，我深深的尊敬他們殖告。

經(jīng)常有人問(wèn)我在橋水里的關(guān)系是不是如同一個(gè)家庭或者一個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)阿蝶。一個(gè)家庭的意義在于無(wú)條件的愛(ài)和永恒的親情，而一個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)的粘性在于個(gè)人的貢獻(xiàn)度黄绩。在回答這個(gè)問(wèn)題前羡洁，我想強(qiáng)調(diào)的那也不錯(cuò)，因?yàn)榧彝ズ蛨F(tuán)隊(duì)都提供了有意義的關(guān)系而沒(méi)有什么事情能像在一家典型的公司的的一個(gè)典型的工作爽丹，那種關(guān)系主要還是功利的筑煮。但要直接回答問(wèn)題，我期望橋水像一個(gè)家族事業(yè)而家族的成員必須表現(xiàn)出最后的一面或者被辭退粤蝎。如果我有一份家庭事業(yè)而家庭成員表現(xiàn)的不好真仲，我可能會(huì)讓他們離開(kāi)因?yàn)槲蚁嘈艑?duì)家庭其他成員或者對(duì)公司都是不好的。很艱難的愛(ài)對(duì)吧初澎。

為了讓您了解橋水的文化是如何發(fā)展起來(lái)的,以及它與大多數(shù)公司的不同,我將告訴你我們?cè)谠缙谑侨绾翁幚砀＠慕沼Α．?dāng)公司只是我和一小群人的時(shí)候,我沒(méi)有為員工提供醫(yī)療保險(xiǎn);我以為他們會(huì)自己買(mǎi)。但我確實(shí)想幫助和我一起生活的人,在他們需要的時(shí)候碑宴。如果和我一起工作的人病重,無(wú)力負(fù)擔(dān)適當(dāng)?shù)淖o(hù)理,我該怎么辦,袖手旁觀,不幫助他們灸眼？當(dāng)然,無(wú)論我能在多大程度上,我都會(huì)在經(jīng)濟(jì)上幫助他們。所以,當(dāng)我真的開(kāi)始為員工提供醫(yī)療保險(xiǎn)時(shí),我覺(jué)得我是在用我知道的錢(qián)來(lái)為自己投保,如果他們受傷或生病了,我就會(huì)給他們,就像我給他們保險(xiǎn)一樣墓懂。

因此我想確認(rèn)他們收到了可能的最好的照料，我提供的政策能保證他們可以去找任何他們能選擇的醫(yī)生以及任何花費(fèi)霉囚。另一方面捕仔，我并不能在一些事情上保護(hù)他們。舉例盈罐，我除了汽車(chē)保險(xiǎn)外不再提供牙科保險(xiǎn)榜跌，因?yàn)槲矣X(jué)得人們有義務(wù)保護(hù)自己的牙齒，就像他們有義務(wù)保護(hù)自己車(chē)一樣盅粪。如果他們需要牙科保險(xiǎn)钓葫，他們需要自己掏腰包。我主要觀點(diǎn)是我并沒(méi)有從非個(gè)人化中得到好處票顾，就像大多數(shù)公司的傳統(tǒng)做法础浮，但更像我為家庭提供的服務(wù)帆调。我在一些事情上非常慷慨, 期望人們?yōu)閯e人承擔(dān)個(gè)人責(zé)任豆同。

而我對(duì)待雇員像是家庭的衍生成員番刊，我發(fā)現(xiàn)他們也像我一樣對(duì)待彼此，我們就像一個(gè)大家庭影锈，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過(guò)嚴(yán)格的交換關(guān)系芹务。我沒(méi)法分辨人們?cè)趲椭M織/公司的事情是付出多少，而他們可能不會(huì)再為其他人工作了鸭廷，而這是無(wú)價(jià)的枣抱。

隨著橋水公司的不斷成長(zhǎng)，我與他人高質(zhì)量的鏈接褪色了辆床，但這在現(xiàn)在社會(huì)更廣泛的鏈接不是問(wèn)題佳晶。這一切都不是簡(jiǎn)單地發(fā)生；事實(shí)上我們?yōu)橹α撕芏喾鹣牛e例宵晚，我們實(shí)施了一項(xiàng)政策：我們將為那些一起為挑戰(zhàn)工作上限的活動(dòng)支付一半的費(fèi)用（現(xiàn)在我們支持超過(guò)一百家俱樂(lè)部和運(yùn)動(dòng)，普通利益集體）维雇；我們?yōu)槟切┰谧约抑鞒只顒?dòng)的人提供食物和飲料淤刃；還買(mǎi)了一棟房子以便于雇員能用于活動(dòng)或慶祝。我們還有圣誕節(jié)吱型，萬(wàn)圣節(jié)逸贾，獨(dú)立日，其他一些經(jīng)常邀請(qǐng)家庭成員的聚會(huì)活動(dòng)津滞。而最終铝侵，認(rèn)同這種鏈接并承擔(dān)責(zé)任，慢慢傳播并形成一種正常的文化-我只需要坐下來(lái)看著這一切發(fā)生触徐。

那些根本不在乎這種關(guān)系的家伙只是想去工作咪鲜，一份好的職業(yè)，收到公平的補(bǔ)償嗎撞鹉？那樣就好嗎疟丙？當(dāng)然，是的鸟雏，這是通常情況下的大多數(shù)雇員的想法享郊。不是所有人都對(duì)此有一致的或者期盼有一致的想法。實(shí)際上有其他選擇也是完全可以理解的孝鹊。存在有各種類(lèi)型的人炊琉，應(yīng)該尊重他們的自由時(shí)間的決定，只要他們遵守法律和經(jīng)過(guò)考慮的又活。但顯然這樣的人不是能為了堅(jiān)實(shí)的承諾而提供鏈接的那些家伙苔咪，而這樣的人才是能歷久非凡的關(guān)鍵锰悼。

不論人們對(duì)于嘗試建立有意義的聯(lián)系的文化付出多少，組織中總是有一些不好的（故意破壞）人在里面悼泌。而對(duì)組織或公司沒(méi)有任何好處松捉，所以最好找出他們并去除掉。我們發(fā)現(xiàn)如果真正關(guān)心組織的人的比例越高馆里，不好的人的比例就越小隘世，因?yàn)檎嬲P(guān)心組織的人會(huì)為維護(hù)這種良好的鏈接而反對(duì)破壞的人。還發(fā)現(xiàn)橋水的極致透明的制度幫助我們發(fā)現(xiàn)好人和壞人鸠踪。