Why an idea meritocracy is the ideal workplace culture
Plus, how to sniff one out when you’re interviewing
by Nina Ace
When you’re on the hunt for a new gig and the recruiter talks about workplace culture, you’re likely to hear a lot about unlimited free snacks, annual company gatherings and epic (pre-Covid) holiday parties, and a “real team mentality”—it’s possible that last one came out of an HR handbook somewhere.
The next time you find yourself evaluating a potential new employer, breeze past the bottomless coffee perk and search for two magic words: idea meritocracy. It’s a type of workplace culture that values transparency and truth, and it might just be the ideal situation for women and employees from underrepresented communities and backgrounds.
Let’s dig into what exactly an idea meritocracy is, plus how to find out if a potential new employer shares the same values.
What is an idea meritocracy?
Believe it or not, the father of the idea meritocracy movement is also the founder of the largest hedge fund in the world. We know, “hedge fund” and “exceptional workplace culture” don’t always show up in the same sentence, but after taking a big bet and losing, investor Ray Dalio felt a major shift—how do you know when an idea or decision is the right one?
At its core, an idea meritocracy is an environment in which the best idea rises to the top. How? Because all team members (regardless of title, salary, background, or years at the company) are encouraged and incentivized to do their very best thinking. And while not all idea meritocracies are identical, permission to speak freely, thoughtful disagreements, and doing the work employees are truly passionate about are all essential components to a successful one.
If done correctly, it means decisions are made based on what’s really the right thing for the company—not doing something because your boss wants you to, or because you think it might help you get promoted, or even because you want to support your work wife. It takes the power out of position or rank and redirects it toward ingenuity, asking good questions, and the ability to respectfully challenge ideas, including those from people in leadership positions.
Dalio, founder and CIO of Bridgewater Associates, pins the wild success of his fund on these principals. He spills his secrets in his books, but a LinkedIn article titled, The Key to Bridgewater's Success: A Real Idea Meritocracy outlines the main principles succinctly and clearly. Here are four important aspects of an idea meritocracy:
Meaningful Work. An idea meritocracy makes sure employees are doing kind of work that really excites them and sucks them in.
Meaningful Relationships. Employees genuinely caring about each other, to the point that work feels more like a strong community and less like an “office dynamic.”
Radical Truthfulness. He uses the word “radical” for a reason. In his words, “By that I mean not filtering one’s thoughts and one’s questions, especially about problems and weaknesses.” Talking about them leads to solutions or, ideally, even better ideas.
Radical Transparency. It renders closed-door meetings, inexplicable decision making, and gross office politics nearly impossible. According to Dalio, “To give people anything less would deny them what they need to form their own opinions about what’s happening around them.” We couldn’t agree more.
A workplace culture primed for growth.
The concept is put to work successfully at mega corporations like Google, Pixar, and Intuit—unsurprisingly, all companies with reputations for innovation and being great places to work. But if you aren’t making decisions based on what will get you promoted, what can you stand to gain from working in an idea meritocracy?
“It will provide you with the opportunity to learn more frequently and how to think critically, innovatively and emergently,” says Edward D. Hess is Professor of Business Administration, Batten Fellow and Batten Executive-in-Residence at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and the author of Hyper-Learning: How to Adapt to the Speed of Change, (Berrett-Koehler, 2020). “It should help you develop better listening and collaborating skills and enable you to be more adaptive and able to go into the unknown and figure things out because it democratizes learning by reducing the stifling impact of hierarchy.”
“In an Idea Meritocracy, can people behave disrespectfully? Yes,” says Hess. “Then the question is whether that behavior is accepted or not by leadership. Leaders and managers must role model the desired human dignity behaviors and require everyone to behave in ways that respects the dignity of every other person.”
Does meritocracy=equity?
Here at Per, we had a feeling this concept might be especially beneficial for women and employees from underrepresented communities and backgrounds. According to Diversity & Inclusion Champion Leo Wong, Adjunct Professor at University of Oklahoma and A100 Director, Gold House, women and employees of color face a multitude of obstacles:
subjects of unconscious biases
overlooked for opportunities and promotions
subject to tokenism as they are frequently "the only___"
talked over and having their perspectives ignored
having the burden of educating others on their identity/differences
Idea meritocracies combat many of those obstacles by allowing employees to enter a safe space in which they can be their full selves, where their skills and contributions carry the same weight as those of their peers.
“It evens the playing field for underrepresented groups of employees by giving a chance to those who may be quieter, less experienced, or from a different background an opportunity to pitch their ideas,” says Wong. “That way, these opportunities aren't just given to the loudest or most aggressive employees.”
Hess believes that in order for corporations to remain viable, they’ll have to pair their technological advances with higher human and emotional performance. Idea meritocracies inject a good dose of human dignity into the workplace that can boost said performance.
“An Idea Meritocracy should liberate people—it does not work in a ‘command and control’ environment or an environment where people are fearful of speaking up,” he says. “If operationalized correctly an Idea Meritocracy believes in the power of “Otherness” and people will behave in ways that evidence respect for others and will honor the uniqueness of every individual.”
Further proof culture is important to the bottom line.
Dalio’s principles helped Bridgewater Associates skyrocket to fame, including one of Fortune‘s five most important private American companies. And while Dalio’s chosen industry requires a different type of creativity than, say, Pixar, the concepts work across industries and disciplines. That’s why corporations with creativity at their core rely on these principles for not just increased innovation, but increased output.
“At the end of the day, there is no formula to come up with great creative ideas,” says Wong. “Companies need to change their mentality to embrace the diversity of perspectives, experiences, and skills that exist in ALL of their employees to service their clients' creative needs rather than focusing on tenure, seniority, and who creative ideas should come from.”
Here’s what to ask a recruiter or interviewer.
While recruiters and HR representatives tend to speak broadly about the culture at a company, Hess and Wong believe that a few important leading questions can help clue you in on whether an idea meritocracy exists within a team or a company as a whole. Here are their suggestions:
For the Recruiter:
What is the company's perspective on diversity and inclusion? What are some tangible recent efforts?
What value do you feel junior employees bring to the team/company/client?
What's your perspective on employees integrating their identity, when appropriate, into the work that they do?
For the Hiring Manager:
Where do the best ideas come from? How do ideas come to be on this team?
How are decisions made here about what work to do or how work is done? Who makes those decisions?
Do you participate in work team collaborations? How is the answer or conclusion determined?
Is your opinion sought on how to best do your job by your manager?
In most meetings does every team member participate equally?
Are you comfortable disagreeing with your boss?