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Bosses Learn Not To Be So Clueless老板們別再一無所知 Boardroom commanders are being assigned to basic training. 會議室里的決策者們如今要接受最基本的培訓。 Fearful their companies will fall behind because top bosses don't have a firm grasp of technology or digital media, senior managers are taking lessons on how the Internet works. 由于擔心公司高層無法牢固掌握技術或數字媒體知識會使公司落后于時代，高級經理人們都開始上課、學習互聯網究竟是怎么一回事。 Some firms are pairing individual leaders with young mentors, while others are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach the entire c-suite how to use social tools that most of their entry-level employees use without a second thought. 一些公司讓年輕導師與高層領導一一配對，也有一些公司花費數十萬美元讓整個領導層學習使用社交工具，而這些東西對他們的入門級員工來說卻是信手拈來。 The goal isn't for the CEO to parse the difference between a 'like' and 'share' on Facebook or take a spin on the company Twitter account, though that is covered, too. Rather, instructors and managers say, a basic understanding of the digital landscape helps leaders make better decisions about what to invest in, as well as how to talk about it. 此類培訓的目的并非讓首席執行官搞懂Facebook上“贊”和“分享”的區別，或是用公司賬號在Twitter上轉發，盡管這些也在教學范圍內。更重要的是，老師們和高層們認為，對于數字世界的基本認知有助于領導者們做出更好的投資決策，也能讓他們知道如何談論互聯網。 In the past 18 months, senior staffers from companies including American Express Co., NYSE Euronext and PepsiCo Inc. have gone to the Manhattan classrooms of General Assembly, which offers courses in coding and product design, to learn how to analyze data and think like a tech entrepreneur. A two-day program can cost $60, 000. 在過去的一年半中，美國運通公司(American Express Co.)、紐約泛歐證交所(NYSE Euronext)和百事公司(PepsiCo Inc.)的高層們都走進了General Assembly公司位于曼哈頓的教室，學習如何分析數據并像科技創業者一樣思考，那里提供的課程包括編程和產品設計。兩天的課程花費可達60,000美元（約合人民幣363,200元）。 In a recent class, 22 senior managers at advertising agency Draftfcb Healthcare were asked to draw Facebook from memory as part of a lesson about user experience. One participant muttered that she had 'no idea what Facebook looks like' as her colleagues laughed uncomfortably. 在近期一堂關于用戶體驗的課上，22名來自博達大橋(Draftfcb Healthcare)廣告公司的高管被要求根據記憶繪制出Facebook界面。一名參與者在同事們尷尬的笑聲中嘟噥道她“根本不知道Facebook長什么樣”。 But they all managed to sketch the social-media site and then discussed how factors like color and clutter affect the user experience. Later, in a mobile-product session, participants used an iPad app to try on glasses virtually. 但是他們都盡力畫出了這個社交網站，并且討論了諸如色彩、插件一類的元素如何影響用戶體驗。之后在移動產品的環節，參與者們使用了一款iPad應用程序來進行實際操作。 Lisa Dujat, the ad firm's senior vice president and chief HR officer, likens the courses to 'having prunes in your brownie' -- fun but high-fiber -- and says the sessions are crucial to keep the company current. 麗薩·迪雅(Lisa Dujat)是這家廣告公司的副總裁和首席人力資源官，她將課程比作“布朗尼上的梅子干”──有趣并且有益，她還說這些內容對于讓公司緊跟時代來說至關重要。 Mediabistro Inc., a media job board and training site, also offers short corporate-training programs for executives, mainly on-site at the client's offices, to firms in media, consumer products, finance and hospitality. The sessions don't just cover the basics of a Twitter feed. They put the service in context, explaining which strategies work and what a company's competitors have done, says Gretchen VanEsselstyn, director of education. 媒體職業平臺及培訓網站Mediabistro 同樣提供短期公司高管培訓項目，主要是在客戶辦公室進行現場培訓，其客戶包括媒體、消費品、金融和服務業的公司。其培訓總監格雷琴·范埃塞爾斯廷(Gretchen VanEsselstyn)說，他們的課程不僅有Twitter訂閱源等基礎知識，還把培訓內容與現實情況結合起來，解釋何種策略有效以及公司的競爭對手做了什么。 Other companies ask young people to show them the ropes. Fifteen University of Miami students are mentoring executives in Citigroup Inc.'s Latin America unit on the lives and digital habits of millennials. 還有些公司請年輕人向高管們進行演示。15名來自邁阿密大學(University of Miami)的學生正在指導花旗集團(Citigroup Inc.)拉美事業部的高管們，告訴他們新千年出生的一代人的生活方式和網絡、數碼產品的使用習慣。 Ana Fernanda Ruiz, a senior finance and management-science major, says her mentee, a managing director, wanted to learn how to connect with younger clients and future employees. In monthly meetings, Ms. Ruiz has been addressing topics including how she and her friends make purchases on mobile devices. 安娜·費爾南達·魯伊斯(Ana Fernanda Ruiz)是金融和管理科學專業大四的學生，她說自己的學員，一名總經理，想要學習如何與年輕客戶以及未來的雇員打交道。在他們的月度會面時，魯伊斯談論的話題包括她和朋友們如何使用移動設備購物。 Some senior managers simply need vocabulary lessons. Greg Verdino, an executive coach in Huntington, N.Y., tells of one former client, a financial-services manager, who was seeking a new job but stumbled in interviews when speaking of his ability to use 'socmed' -- an abbreviation he had created for 'social media.' Recruiters were befuddled, Mr. Verdino says, adding that he taught the client new lingo. 一些高管只是需要詞匯課。格雷格·維爾迪諾(Greg Verdino)是紐約亨廷頓(Huntington)的一名高管教練，他之前的客戶是一名正在找新工作的金融服務經理，但他在面試中談及使用“socmed”（social media即社交媒體的縮寫，是維爾迪諾所創）的能力時就結結巴巴。維爾迪諾說，招聘者感到大惑不解。他還說，是他教會了客戶新的術語。 Then there's the senior marketing executive who tried too hard to prove his digital savvy, name-dropping social-media sites such as Dodgeball, a location-based networking service shuttered in 2009. 'He looked clueless, ' Mr. Verdino says. 還有一位負責營銷的高管太想表現自己對互聯網的懂行，搬出了Dodgeball一類的社交網站，而這家基于地理位置網絡服務提供商在2009年就關閉了。維爾迪諾說：“他看起來知之甚少。” Still other coaches have horror stories of clients who come in using the word 'interwebs.' 其他教練也遇到過類似可怕的故事，有些客戶們剛來時連“因特網”三個字都記不準。 At best, training efforts are designed to allow executives and, in turn, companies to keep pace with changing market conditions and customer needs. 培訓的初衷是讓高管們以及各公司跟上日新月異的市場環境以及客戶需求。 'Ninety-nine percent of executives say [digital growth] is important, but only 10% of companies are satisfied with the speed at which they are making the transition, ' says Michael Robson, general manager of General Assembly's enterprise business. General Assembly企業業務總經理邁克爾·羅伯森(Michael Robson)說：“百分之九十九的高管們都表示數碼科技帶來的增長十分重要，但只有百分之十的公司對于目前公司自身進行轉型的速度表示滿意。” Draftfcb Healthcare chose to invest in digital training after realizing that junior staffers' new ideas weren't getting much traction because bosses didn't understand their tech-heavy proposals. Young workers felt 'a little bit disenfranchised, ' Ms. Dujat says. 博達大橋選擇投入數碼科技培訓是因為基層員工的新想法得不到老板的注意，而根源就在老板們搞不懂那些科技味較重的提案。迪雅說，年輕的員工覺得“有點被剝奪了權力”。 Stephanie Walcoe, a vice president at financial advisory David Lerner Associates Inc., hired Sally Falkow to teach her team about the importance of online reputation after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority filed complaints against the Syosset, N.Y.-based company in 2011. 斯蒂芬妮·維爾科(Stephanie Walcoe)是金融咨詢公司David Lerner Associates Inc.的副總裁，在2011年美國金融業監管局(Financial Industry Regulatory Authority)對這家位于紐約州賽奧希特(Syosset)的公司提起訴訟之后，她雇傭了薩莉·法爾科(Sally Falkow)教授她的團隊網絡聲譽的重要性。 David Lerner didn't sell products online, so executives had paid little attention to the Web. But the flood of negative posts made Ms. Walcoe realize she needed a better handle on how Web searches affect customer choices. David Lerner公司并不在網上銷售商品，所以高管們對網絡不甚在意。到那時如潮的惡評讓維爾科意識到她需要更好地掌握網絡搜索如何影響顧客決策。 Ms. Falkow, the CEO of Meritus Media Inc., explained search-engine optimization and showed the team other ways to neutralize negative headlines. The staff now regularly checks its search-engine results and takes action when bad results bubble up. 法爾科是Meritus Media Inc.公司的首席執行官，她解釋了搜索引擎優化的概念，并向團隊展示了中和負面新聞的其他方法。員工如今會定期檢查搜索結果并在負面新聞產生時采取行動。 Ms. Walcoe, 48 years old, says she had a Facebook page at the time but 'knew nothing about how the Internet worked.' 48歲的維爾科說，她當時有一個Facebook賬號，但是“對于互聯網的原理一無所知”。
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More Rational Resolutions 如何制定更理性的新年計劃？ Can 'goal factoring' help you keep your New Year's resolution to hit the gym every day in 2014? “目標構想”能幫助你堅持自己的新年決心，在2014年的每一天都去健身房健身嗎？ 'Goal factoring, ' a method of designing better plans, is one of the techniques taught by the Center for Applied Rationality, which hosts three-day workshops that teach attendees how to use science-based approaches to achieve goals. A November workshop in Ossining, N.Y., instructed 23 participants on how thinking about one's future self as a different person can help goal-setting and why building up an 'emotional library' of associations can reduce procrastination. “目標構想”是應用理性學習中心(Center for Applied Rationality，簡稱“CFAR”)所教授的技巧之一，是一種擬定更合理計劃的方法。該中心常舉辦為期三天的講習班，教授與會者如何采用有科學依據的方法來實現目標。他們于11月份在紐約州奧西寧(Ossining)舉辦的講習班吸引了23名參加者，指導他們把未來的自己想象成一個不同的人可如何幫助制定目標，以及建立“情感（聯想）庫”為何能減輕拖延。 CFAR, a Berkeley, Calif.-based nonprofit, is prominent in the growing 'rationality movement, ' which explores the science of optimized decision-making. In recent years, books about decision-making and probability theory -- including 'Predictably Irrational' by Dan Ariely, who writes a regular column for The Wall Street Journal, and 'Thinking, Fast and Slow' by Daniel Kahneman -- have been best-sellers. Websites like Overcoming Bias and Less Wrong serve as communities for those who believe the best way to be effective, whether in changing eating habits or changing the world, is to actively look at the lessons of science and hard data. The movement draws on some of the same research as economists who argue that investors behave irrationally. CFAR是加州伯克利(Berkeley)的一個非營利機構，它在影響正在日益擴大的探討優化決策制定科學的“理性運動”中地位顯著。近些年，有關決策制定及概率論的書籍一直都是暢銷書，包括也為《華爾街日報》(The Wall Street Journal)定期撰寫專欄的丹·阿雷利(Dan Ariely)所寫的《可預見的非理性》(Predictably Irrational)，以及丹尼爾·卡內曼(Daniel Kahneman)撰寫的《思考，快與慢》(Thinking, Fast and Slow)等。諸如Overcoming Bias和Less Wrong這樣的網站成為了那些認為變得高效──無論是改變飲食習慣或是改變世界──的最佳方法就是積極參考科學經驗和硬數據的人士的活動中心。此外，理性運動還借鑒了那些提出投資者總是不理性地行動的經濟學家所借鑒的部分研究。 Very smart people often make irrational decisions, says University of Toronto psychologist Keith Stanovich. This leads to, say, physicians choosing less effective medical treatments or governments spending millions on unneeded projects. In 2013, Dr. Stanovich received a $1 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to develop a rigorous 'rationality quotient' test similar to an IQ test. Dr. Stanovich, who sits on CFAR's advisory board, hopes to have such a test ready in two years. He hopes the test will encourage people to learn to be more rational. 多倫多大學(University of Toronto)的心理學家基思·斯塔諾維奇(Keith Stanovich)稱，非常聰明的人常常也會做出不理智的決定。這會導致醫生選擇了不怎么有效的醫療方案，或者是政府在不必要的工程上花了幾百萬。2013年，斯塔諾維奇博士收到了約翰·坦普爾頓基金會(John Templeton Foundation)提供的100萬美元資助，以開發一個類似智商測試的嚴密的“理性商數”測試。斯塔諾維奇博士也是CFAR的顧問之一，他希望在兩年后設計出這樣的測試，并希望該測試能促動大家學習變得更理性一些。 For individuals, the odd secret of rationality is its reliance on emotions, proponents say. 'People are always really surprised at how much time we spend at the workshops talking about our feelings, ' says CFAR President Julia Galef, who has a statistics degree from Columbia University. 'Rationality isn't about getting rid of emotions, but analyzing them and taking them into consideration when making decisions, ' she says. 支持者稱，對于個人而言，理性的奇特秘密在于它對情感的依賴。CFAR主席朱莉婭·加利夫(Julia Galef)指出：“總是有人對自己在講習班中花了那么多時間談論自己的感受非常驚訝。理性并不是要你消除情感，而是要分析它們并在做決定時把它們考慮進去。”加利夫擁有哥倫比亞大學(Columbia University)的統計學學位。 Attendees, who each paid about $4, 000 to participate in the Ossining workshop (meals and lodging included), learned a technique called 'pre-hindsight' that uses emotional cues to create more foolproof plans. It works like this: Imagine that six months have passed, and you haven't achieved the body of your dreams. How surprised are you? The less surprised you are, the less likely it is you will succeed at your goal. Then think in detail about each reason you wouldn't be surprised if June comes and the number on the scale hasn't budged. Each reason -- whether 'I don't have time' or 'I don't like running in the mornings' -- is a possible cause of failure. Using the surprise level to anticipate these is crucial to creating a plan to address each weak point. 參加奧西寧講習班的人每人需交費約4,000美元（包括食宿），學習的是一項名為“事后認識預測”的技能，即運用情感暗示來制定更萬無一失的計劃。它是這樣起作用的：想象一下六個月已經過去，而你還未實現你的理想身材。你會有多驚訝？你越是不驚訝，你成功實現目標的可能性就越低。接下來，你要仔細想想假如6月份已經到來，但體重秤上的數字還沒變化，對此你并不驚訝的每個原因。每一個原因──無論是“我沒有時間”還是“我不喜歡在早晨跑步”──都是可能讓你失敗的原因。利用驚訝程度來預測這些是制定計劃以解決每個弱點的關鍵。 Similarly, goal factoring can help determine whether shelling out $40 a month at the YMCA is the best way to get in shape. This involves mapping out the motivations (health, stress relief, weight loss) behind doing something (going to the gym), and questioning whether there is a more effective way to achieve the same things. Goal factoring could lead a person to realize that, given time and interests, an hour on the treadmill is unrealistic, but a weekly soccer tournament with friends is doable. 同樣地，目標構想能幫助你決定每個月在基督教青年會(YMCA)花上40美元是否是保持體型的最佳方法。這包括要列出做某件事情（比如去健身房）背后的動因（為了健康、減壓或減肥），然后自問做成同樣的事情是否還有更有效的方法。目標構想可讓一個人意識到，考慮到時間和興趣問題，在跑步機上跑一小時是不切實際的，而每周和朋友踢場足球則是可行的。 Other lessons include 'structured procrastination.' The idea is that if you're going to procrastinate, you might as well procrastinate by doing something that works toward another goal -- for example, procrastinate on starting a work project by watching a TED talk you've been meaning to catch or starting a book you've wanted to read. 其他技巧包括“結構化拖延”。其理念是假如你想拖延某事，倒不如通過做些有助于實現另一個目標的事情來拖延它。比如說，如果你想延遲開始一個工作項目，你可以去看一段你一直想補上的TED的演講，或者開始讀一本以前想讀的書。 If it seems like the rationalists are overthinking the decision-making process, consider the audience, Ms. Galef says. Most workshop participants have been software engineers, entrepreneurs, students or scientists. In one session, the instructor asked whether anyone present hadn't written a computer program. No hands went up. 加利夫說，如果你覺得理性主義者似乎對決策制定過程思慮過度了，想想講習班的那些人吧。參加講習班的人大多數曾是軟件工程師、企業家、學生和科學家。在某節課上，講師問在座的人是否有沒有寫過電腦程序的。沒有一個人舉手。 Can rationality exercises actually teach us to act more rational day to day? 理性訓練真能教會我們一天比一天更理性地行動嗎？ Psychologist Dr. Kahneman, who won a Nobel Prize in economics for research into decision-making in 2002, says it is very difficult to overcome our split-second irrational reactions. 'Much of it is automatic, ' he says. 'Preferences come to mind and emotions arise, and we're not aware that we're making [decisions and assumptions] and therefore cannot control them.' 憑借對決策制定的研究在2002年獲得諾貝爾經濟學獎的心理學家卡內曼博士指出，我們會很難克服我們自己在一瞬間的非理性反應。他說：“多數是自然出現的，你偏愛的東西會出現在你的腦海中，情緒會隨之產生，而且我們也意識不到我們正在做出決定和假設，所以我們無法控制它們。” Organizations can generally make gains by adopting rational procedures enforced from the top, but Dr. Kahneman is skeptical of how much individuals can change. 機構團體一般都能夠從采納自上而下執行的理性程序中受益，但卡內曼博士對個人能改變多少持懷疑態度。 Dr. Stanovich is more optimistic. It is true that automatic biases can't be removed, he says, but people can train themselves to slow down and question these biases, and learn other mechanisms -- even something as simple as deliberately thinking of the effect of the opposite decision -- that may counteract such biases. 斯塔諾維奇博士則更為樂觀。他說，自然而然的偏見確實不能消除，但人們可以訓練自己減緩和質疑這些偏見，并學會其他也許能抵消這些偏見的機制──甚至是像審慎考慮相反決定的后果這樣簡單的事情。 Max Tegmark, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says he 'already had a high level of rationalism' but found the CFAR workshop useful. 麻省理工學院(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)物理學家馬克斯·泰格馬克(Max Tegmark)說他“已經具備很高的理性程度”，不過還是發現CFAR的講習班很有用。 'I had this huge to-do list with over a thousand things on it, and I found I wasn't looking at it very often because whenever I did, I just got this depressing feeling of being overwhelmed by my failure to accomplish stuff, ' says Dr. Tegmark. After the March workshop in Berkeley, Calif., the 46-year-old developed an improved system for tackling emails by writing a program that responds to routine emails with automated messages. He also got better at staying on track with long-term projects. 'I learned that if I want Max to do something in December, I should think about December Max as a different person, ' he says. Instead of just putting a reminder to do something in a few months, he'll plan ahead and send email reminders and incentives for his 'future self.' 泰格馬克博士說：“我制定了一份龐大的任務清單，單子上列了1000多件事情，我發現我并不會經常看它，因為每當我去看它時，我就會因為受不了自己做不成那些事情而產生一種沮喪的感覺。”在3月份于加州伯克利參加了講習班后，46歲的泰格馬克寫了一個以自動生成的信息回復日常郵件的程序，由此開發了一個跟蹤郵件的升級系統。他在堅持長期項目方面也做得更好了。他說：“我了解到如果我要馬克斯在12月份做些事情，我應該把12月的馬克斯想象成一個不同的人。”他不只是記上要在幾個月后做某件事的提醒，而是提前計劃，給“未來的自己”發送郵件提醒和激勵。 Another March attendee, Estonian computer programmer and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, says the workshop helped him improve his fitness plan. After analyzing his actions, Mr. Tallinn, 41, realized that he was avoiding exercise mostly because his routine was too long. He designed a shorter routine with different exercises that he finds it easier to stick to. (Mr. Tallinn is an investor in the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, which is affiliated with CFAR.) 愛沙尼亞電腦程序員、Skype的聯合創始人揚·塔林(Jaan Tallinn)也在3月份參加了講習班。他說講習班幫助他改進了他的健身計劃。在分析了自己的行動后，41歲的塔林意識到他逃避健身主要是因為他的那個日常計劃太長了，于是他擬定了一個他認為更容易堅持的包含不同鍛煉項目的較短期的計劃。（塔林為隸屬于CFAR的機器智能研究所(Machine Intelligence Research Institute)的投資者。） That individuals -- as well as markets and corporations -- don't always behave rationally is a tenet of behavioral economics. 個人──連同市場及企業──并不總是理性行事是行為經濟學的一大信條。 Scholars of behavioral economics, including Dr. Kahneman, have attempted to tease out the factors behind individuals' and investors' shifting risk tolerances and decisions. 包括卡內曼博士在內，行為經濟學的學者曾嘗試理出個人及投資者的風險容忍度和決策不斷變化背后的因素。 Behavioral economics, which has gained ground among academic economists over the past several decades, departs from traditional notions by assuming that individuals don't always behave rationally and act in their own best interests. Thus we have market bubbles in which investors inflate stocks or homes way above their rational value. 過去數十年來，行為經濟學在學院派經濟學家中得到了發展，它與傳統觀念不同，認為個人的行為并不總是理性的，并且總是按照自己的最大利益行事。因此，我們會看到市場泡沫，投資者將股票或房產的價格抬高到遠遠高于它們合理價值的水平。 instructor[in'strʌktə]video n. 指導書；教員；指導者 incentive[in'sentiv]video n. 動機；刺激adj. 激勵的；刺激的 mechanism['mekənizəm]video n. 機制；原理，途徑；進程；機械裝置；技巧 tolerance['tɔlərəns]video n. 公差；寬容；容忍；公差 overwhelm[,əuvə'hwelm]video vt. 壓倒；淹沒；受打擊 emotion[i'məuʃən]video n. 情感；情緒 statistic[stə'tistik]video adj. 統計的，統計學的n. 統計數值 economist[i'kɔnəmist]video n. 經濟學者；節儉的人 behavioral[bi'heivjərəl]video adj. 行為的 automate['ɔ:təmeit]video vt. 使自動化，使自動操作vi. 自動化，自動操作 |
