评论
打印
So, imagine a company hires a new employee, best in the business, who's on a multimillion-dollar contract.
想象一家公司，雇用了一个新的员工，他是业界最好的人，他的薪资合约高达数百万美元。
Now imagine that whenever this employee went to go meet with her team members,
现在，想象一下，每当这位员工要去见她的团队成员时，
the appointments were ignored or dismissed, and in the meetings that did happen,
约好的会面不是爽约就是取消，就算确实有实际会面，
she was yelled at or kicked out after a few minutes.
不到几分钟她就被吼骂或甚至被赶出去。
So after a while, she just went quietly back to her desk,
过一阵子后，她静静地回到自己的座位，
sat there with none of her skills being put to use, of course, being ignored by most people,
坐在那里，她的技能通通没有被拿出来运用，当然，大部分人忽视她，
and of course, still getting paid millions of dollars.
当然，她还是能继续领那数百万美元的薪资。
This hotshot employee who can't seem to catch a break is that company's technology.
这位似乎一直无法突破僵局的大咖级员工，其实就是该公司的科技。
This scenario is not an exaggeration. In my job as a technology advisor,
上述情境并没有夸饰。我的工作是科技顾问，
I've seen so many companies make the well-meaning decisions to put huge investments into technology,
我曾经见过很多公司做出立意很好的决策，对科技砸重金投资，
only to have the benefits fail to live up to the expectation.
最后的获益却完全不如预期。
In fact, in one study I read, 25 percent of technology projects are canceled or deliver things that are never used.
事实上，我读过一份研究，它说有25%的科技项目计划会被取消，或是做出来的成品从来没有被用过。
That's like billions of dollars just being wasted each year.
也就是说，这些公司每年浪费了数十亿美元在这些科技上。
So why is this? Well, from what I've seen,
为什么会这样？嗯，就我的观点来说，
the expectation from the top management is high but not unreasonable about the benefits from the technology.
管理高层对于科技能带来的益处期望很高，但不是不合理。
They expect people will use them, it will create time savings, and people will become genuinely better at their jobs.
他们期望人们能运用这些科技来节省时间，并确实地把工作做得更好。
But the reality is that the people on the front line,
但现实是，前线的这些人，
who are supposed to be using these softwares and tools, they're skeptical or even afraid.
也就是应该要使用这些软件和工具的这些人，他们抱持怀疑或甚至会害怕。
We postpone the online trainings, we don't bother to learn the shortcuts,
大家会把在线学习向后拖延，不想费心地去学习快捷方式方法，
and we get frustrated at the number of tools we have to remember how to log into and use. Right?
对于得要记住这么多工具的登入方式和使用方式，感到很挫折。对吧？
And that frustration, that guilt -- it's racking up,
那种挫折感、罪恶感，会不断累积，
the more that technology is inserting itself into our daily working lives, which is a lot.
那些科技越是强行介入，我们的日常工作生活当中越是难受。
Brookings says that 70 percent of jobs today in the US require at least mid-level digital skills.
布鲁金斯说，现今在美国，70%的工作职位都需要至少中级以上的数字技能。
So basically, to work these days, you need to be able to work with technology.
所以，基本上，现在若是要工作，你就得和科技一同工作。
But from what I've seen, we are not approaching this with the right mindset.
但就我所知，我们并没有用正确的心态来面对这件事。
So here's the idea that I've been toying with: What if we treated technology like a team member?
所以，我把这个想法付之执行：如果我们把科技当成是团队成员来对待呢？
I've been writing my own personal experiment about this.
我持续地把这些个人经历写成文章。
I've spoken to people from all different industries about how they can treat their core technologies like colleagues.
与来自各种产业的人对话，谈他们可以如何将他们的核心科技当作同事一样对待。
I've met with people from the restaurant industry, medical professionals, teachers, bankers, people from many other sectors,
我见过餐饮业的人、医疗专业人士、老师、银行家以及许多来自不同领域的人，
and the first step with anybody that I would meet with was to draw out the structure of their teams in an organization chart.
见到每一个人，第一步都是先在组织结构中画出他们团队的架构图。
Now, I'm a total geek when it comes to organization charts.
谈到组织结构，我根本是个怪胎。
Org charts are really cool because, if they are drawn well,
组织结构很酷，因为，如果画得好，
you can quickly get a sense of what individual roles are and also how a team works well together.
对于每个人的角色，你马上就能有点概念，也能知道团队如何一起合作。
But if you look at a typical org chart, it only includes the boxes and lines that represent people.
但如果你仔细观察典型的组织结构，只有用方块和线条来代表“人”的那种组织结构。
None of the technology team members are there. They're all invisible.
你在上面会看不到任何一位科技团队成员。它们都是隐形的。
So for each of the organizations that I met with for my experiment,
所以，在我的实验中，针对每一个和我会面的组织，
I had to draw a new type of org chart, one that also included the technology.
我都会画一种新型的组织结构，把科技也纳入其中。
And when I did this, people I spoke to could actually visualize their technologies as coworkers,
当我这么做时，和我谈的人就能真正可视化地将他们的科技视为同事，
and they could ask things like: "Is this software reporting to the right person?"
他们就会问这样的问题：“这个软件向对的人报告吗？”
"Does this man and machine team work well together?"
“这个人和机器团队合作得好吗？”
"Is that technology actually the team member that everybody's awkwardly avoiding?"
“那项科技是大家都觉得尴尬而会躲避的团队成员吗？”
So I will walk you through an example of a small catering company to bring this experiment to life.
我会带大家一起探讨一家小型餐饮公司的例子，让这个实验能生动呈现。
This is the top layer of people who work at Bovingdons Catering Company.
这是Bovingdons餐饮公司的最高层人员。
There's a sales director, who manages all of the customer interactions,
包括业务主管，他要管理所有的客户互动，
and there's an operations director, who manages all the internal activities.
还有营运主管，管理所有内部的活动。
And here's the people who report to the sales and operations directors.
这些则是要向业务及营运主管报告的人。
And finally, here's the view where we've overlaid the software and the hardware that's used by the Bovingdons staff.
最后，在这张图中，我们把Bovingdons全体员工会用到的软件和硬件也列出来。
Using this amazing org chart, we can now explore how the human team members and the technology team members are interacting.
用这张很让人惊奇的组织结构，现在我们可以探讨人类团队成员和科技团队成员要如何互动。
So the first thing that I'm going to look for is where there's a human and machine relationship that's extra critical.
我首先要找的就是人类与机器之间的关系，这点格外重要。
Usually, it's somebody using a technology on a day-to-day basis to do his or her job.
通常，这个图就是某位员工每天与科技的工作关系图。
At Bovingdons, the finance director with the accounting platform would be one.
在Bovingdons，财务主管与会计平台就是一个例子。
Next, I would check on the status of their collaboration.
接着，我会察看他们合作的状况。
Are they working well together? Getting along?
他们在一起工作顺利吗？处得来吗？
In this case, it turned out to be a tenuous relationship.
在这个案例中，发现他们的关系是很薄弱的。
So, what to do? Well, if the accounting platform were actually a person,
所以该怎么办？嗯，如果会计平台真的是一个人，
the finance director would feel responsible for managing it and taking care of it.
财务主管会觉得自己有责任要管理它并照顾它。
Well, in the same way, my first suggestion was to think about a team-building activity,
同样的，我的第一个建议是要想出一个建立团队的活动，
maybe getting together on a specialist course.
也许可以一起去上一堂专业课程。
My second suggestion was to think about scheduling regular performance reviews for the accounting platform,
我的第二个建议是要为会计平台安排定期的绩效检讨，
where the finance director would literally give feedback to the company who sold it.
在检讨时，财务主管要提供回馈意见给贩卖这个平台的公司。
Now, there will be several of these really important human and machine teams in every organization.
在每一个组织中，都会有数个这种重要的“人类--机器”团队。
So if you're in one, it's worth taking the time to think about ways to make those relationships truly collaborative.
如果你是其中一员，就值得花些时间想办法让那些关系变成真正的协同工作关系。
Next, I'll look on the chart for any human role which might be overloaded by technology,
接着，我会在图上寻找有没有人可能会因为科技而负荷过多，
let's say, interacting with four or more types of applications.
比如说，要和四种以上的应用程序互动。
At Bovingdons, the operations director was interacting with five technologies.
在Bovingdons，营运主管就要和五种科技互动。
Now, he told me that he'd always felt overwhelmed by his job,
他告诉我，他总觉得忙不过来，
but it wasn't until our conversation that he thought it might be because of the technologies he was overseeing.
但一直到我们进行了对谈之后，他才发现原因有可能是他在监管的科技。
And we were talking that, if the operations director had actually had a lot of people reporting to him,
我们在谈的是，如果真的有很多人需要向营运主管报告，
he probably would have done something about it,
那他应该得想个办法来处理这样的困境，
because it was stretching him too thin, like, move some of them to report to somebody else.
因为太多人向他报告会让他分身乏术，比如，他可以让其中一些人改向其他人报告。
So in the same way, we talked about moving some of the technologies to report to someone else,
所以，我们用同样的方式来谈是不是能让其中一些科技向其他人报告，
like the food inventory to go to the chef.
比如食物库存就向主厨报告。
The last thing that I'll look for is any technology that seems to be on the org chart without a real home.
最后，我还会寻找图上有没有哪一项科技看起来是没人理的。
Sometimes they're floating around without an owner.
有时，它们会到处游走，没有拥有者。
Sometimes they're reporting to so many different areas that you can't tell who's actually using it.
有时，它们要向许多不同的部门报告，让你无法分辨出到底是谁在用它。
Now, at Bovingdons, nobody appeared to be looking after the marketing software.
在Bovingdons，看来并没有人在照顾营销软件。
It was like someone had hired it and then didn't give it a desk or any instructions on what to do.
这就好像是有人雇用了它，却没有给它一张桌子，没有指示它要做什么。
So clearly, it needed a job description, maybe someone to manage it.
所以，很明显，它需要工作内容描述，也许还需要有人管理它。
But in other companies, you might find that a technology has been sidelined for a reason,
但在其他公司中，你可能会发现有的科技被冷冻是有原因的，
like it's time for it to leave or be retired.
比如，该是它离开或退休的时候了。
Now, retiring applications is something that all companies do.
每家公司都会让应用程序退休。
But maybe taking the mindset that those applications are actually coworkers
但如果调整一下心态，把那些应用程序当成是真正的同事，
could help them to decide when and how to retire those applications in the way
可能可以协助他们决定何时及如何让这些应用程序退休，
that would be least destructive to the rest of the team.
才能把对团队中其他人的伤害降到最低。
I did this experiment with 15 different professionals, and each time it sparked an idea. Sometimes, a bit more.
我和十五位不同的专业人士做过这个实验，每次都会有一个新点子冒出来。有时还更多。
You remember that hotshot employee I was telling you about, that everybody was ignoring?
你们还记得我前面提到的大咖级员工吗？被大家忽视的那位？
That was a real story told to me by Christopher,
那是克里斯托弗告诉我的真实故事，
a very energetic human resources manager at a big consumer goods company.
他在大型消费品公司工作，是一位活力十足的人力资源经理。
Technology was a new HR platform, and it had been installed for 14 months at great expense, but nobody was using it.
科技是一个新的人力资源平台，十四个月前就安装完成，耗费很多金钱，但没有人在用它。
So we were talking about how, if this had really been such a hotshot employee with amazing credentials,
所以，我们就谈起了如果它真的是个大咖级的员工，且有惊人的资历，
you would go out of your way to get to know it, maybe invite them for coffee, get to know their background.
你会不遗余力地去了解它，也许邀请他们去喝咖啡，了解他们的背景。
So in the spirit of experimentation, Christopher set up one-hour appointments, coffee optional,
所以，抱持实验的精神，克里斯托弗约了一小时，要不要咖啡自己决定，
for his team members to have no agenda but to get to know their HR system.
这期间要他的团队成员没排别的议程，只去了解他们的人力资源系统。
Some people, they clicked around menu item by menu item.
有些人会把选单中的每一个选项都点选过。
Other people, they searched online for things that they weren't clear about.
其他人则是上网搜寻他们不清楚的地方。
A couple of them got together, gossiped about the new software in town.
他们几个人聚在一起，八卦这个新来乍到的软件。
And a few weeks later, Christopher called to tell me that people were using the system in new ways,
几个星期之后，克里斯托弗打电话来告诉我，大家开始以新的方式使用这个系统，
and he thought it was going to save them weeks of effort in the future.
他认为将来能为他们省下数周的功夫。
And they also reported feeling less intimidated by the software.
他们也说自己感觉不那么害怕这个软件了。
I found that pretty amazing, that taking this mindset helped Christopher's team
我觉得这相当不可思议，采用这种心态，让克里斯托弗的团队
and others that I spoke to these past few months actually feel happier about working with technology.
以及过去几个月内和我谈过的其他团队都真正觉得和科技共事变得更快乐些。
And I later found out this is backed up by research.
后来，我发现有研究支持这个方法。
Studies have shown that people who work in organizations that encourage them
有研究指出，在组织内工作的人，若鼓励他们
to talk about and learn about the technologies in the workplace
在工作场所谈论科技、学习科技，
have 20 percent lower stress levels than those in organizations that don't.
他们承受的压力层级就会比没有这么做的人更低20%。
I also found it really cool that when I started to do this experiment,
我还发现一件很酷的事，当我开始做这个实验时，
I started with what was happening between a person and an individual technology,
我是从一个人和一项各别科技之间的关系当作开端，
but then it ultimately led to ideas about how to manage tech across entire companies.
但接着，最终还是会延伸到讨论要如何在整个公司当中管理这些科技。
Like, when I did this for my own job and extended it,
我针对我自己的工作来做这实验，并将它延伸出去，
I thought about how our data analysis tools should go on the equivalent of a job rotation program,
那时我想过，我们的数据分析工具应该要有类似工作轮班的程序在里面，
where different parts of the company could get to know it.
让公司中不同部门的人能够认识它。
And I also thought about suggesting to our recruiting team
我还想过要向我们的征才团队建议，
that some of the technologies we work with every day should come with us on our big recruiting events.
我们每天会使用的一些科技应该要和我们一起参加我们的大型征才活动。
If you were a university student,
如果你是大学生，
how cool would it be to not only get to know the people you might be working with, but also the technologies?
这是件很酷的事，因为你不只是认识将来会共事的人，还有你将来会共事的科技。
Now, all of this begs the question:
这一切都带出了一个问题：
What have we been missing by keeping the technologies that we work with day to day invisible,
一直把我们每天工作要用到的科技隐藏起来，会让我们错失掉了什么，
and what, beyond those billions of dollars in value, might we be leaving on the table?
并且在那几十亿美元的价值之外，我们可能有什么没考虑到？
The good news is, you don't need to be an org chart geek like me to take this experiment forward.
好消息是，你不需要成为像我这样的组织结构怪胎，也能进行这个实验。
It will take a matter of minutes for most people to draw out a structure of who they work with,
对大部分的人来说，只要几分钟，就能画出他们和哪些人共事的结构图，
a little bit longer to add in the technologies to get a view of the entire team,
再多花一点时间，就能把科技也放入，看到整个团队的状况，
and then you can have fun asking questions like, "Which are the technologies that I'll be taking out for coffee?"
接着，你就能享受问这类问题的乐趣：“我会邀请哪一项科技一起出去喝咖啡？”
Now, I didn't do this experiment for kicks or for the coffee.
我做这项实验并不是为了好玩或喝咖啡。
I did it because the critical skill in the 21st-century workplace is going to be to collaborate with the technologies
我做的目的，是因为在21世纪，在工作场所的重要技能，将会是和科技一起协同工作，
that are becoming such a big and costly part of our daily working lives.
因为科技正在成为我们工作日常中非常重要的一员。
And from what I was seeing, we are struggling to cope with that.
就如我所看到的，我们正在挣扎着要对付这类状况。
So it might sound counterintuitive, but by embracing the idea that these machines are actually valuable colleagues,
这听起来可能有点违背常理，但若能开放地接受这些机器其实是有价值的同事，
we as people will perform better and be happier.
我们人类的表现也会更佳，且过得更快乐。
So let's all share a bit of humanity towards the technologies and the softwares and the algorithms and the robots who we work with,
所以，咱们来分享一点人性给和我们一起工作的科技、软件、算法和机器人，
because we will all be the better for it. Thank you.
因为这么做能让我们都变得更好。谢谢。
