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企業(yè)保持活力的秘訣
Recently I had a conversation with a chief executive who expressed concern about several of her senior managers. They were smart, experienced, competent. So what was the problem? “They’re not asking enough questions,” she said.
最近，我和一家企業(yè)的首席執(zhí)行官進(jìn)行了一次交談，她對(duì)公司的好幾名高級(jí)經(jīng)理感到擔(dān)憂。他們聰明，有經(jīng)驗(yàn)，也有能力。那么問(wèn)題是什么呢?“他們提出的問(wèn)題不夠多，”她說(shuō)。
This wouldn’t have been a bad thing in the business world of a few years ago, where the rules for success were: Know your job, do your work, and if a problem arises, solve it and don’t bother us with a lot of questions.
幾年前，這在商業(yè)界不會(huì)被當(dāng)作一件壞事，那時(shí)的成功法則是：了解你的崗位，做好你的工作，如果出現(xiàn)問(wèn)題，就解決它，不要問(wèn)太多問(wèn)題，麻煩我們。
But increasingly I’m finding that business leaders want the people working around them to be more curious, more cognizant of what they don’t know, and more inquisitive — about everything, including “Why am I doing my job the way I do it?” and “How might our company find new opportunities?”
但我日漸發(fā)現(xiàn)商業(yè)領(lǐng)袖希望在他們身邊工作的人能對(duì)自己不懂的東西更好奇，能更清楚地認(rèn)識(shí)到自己有什么不懂，并對(duì)所有的一切更具探究精神，包括“我為什么要用自己現(xiàn)在這種方式做我的工作”以及“我們公司怎樣才能發(fā)現(xiàn)新的商機(jī)”。
I may be hyper-aware of this trend because I think of myself as a “questionologist,” having studied the art of questioning and written a book about it. But I also think there are real forces in business today that are causing people to value curiosity and inquiry more than in the past.
我可能對(duì)這種趨勢(shì)極為敏感，因?yàn)槲矣X(jué)得自己就是一個(gè)“提問(wèn)學(xué)家”(questionologist)，我曾經(jīng)研究過(guò)提問(wèn)這門藝術(shù)，還就此寫(xiě)了本書(shū)。不過(guò)，也覺(jué)得在當(dāng)今的商業(yè)社會(huì)里，的確存在一些力量，它們導(dǎo)致人們比過(guò)去更看重好奇心和提問(wèn)能力。
Companies in many industries today must contend with rapid change and rising uncertainty. In such conditions, even a well-established company cannot rest on its expertise; there is pressure to keep learning what’s new and anticipating what’s next. It’s hard to do any of that without asking questions.
在很多行業(yè)里，企業(yè)都必須與快速的變化和越來(lái)越大的不確定性作斗爭(zhēng)。在這種情況下，就連一個(gè)地位穩(wěn)固的企業(yè)也不能過(guò)分依賴其專長(zhǎng);也會(huì)有壓力促使他們不斷學(xué)習(xí)新東西，預(yù)測(cè)接下來(lái)會(huì)發(fā)生什么。而在不問(wèn)問(wèn)題的情況下是很難做到這些的。
Steve Quatrano, a member of the Right Question Institute, a nonprofit research group, explains that the act of formulating questions enables us “to organize our thinking around what we don’t know.” This makes questioning a good skill to hone in dynamic times.
非營(yíng)利研究組織正確問(wèn)題研究所(Right Question Institute)的成員史蒂夫·夸特拉諾(Steve Quatrano)解釋說(shuō)，提出問(wèn)題的行為促使我們“圍繞自己不懂的東西組織思維”。在快速變化的時(shí)代里，這讓提問(wèn)成了一種值得磨練的優(yōu)秀技能。
Asking questions can help spark the innovative ideas that many companies hunger for these days. In the research for my book, I studied business breakthroughs — including the invention of the Polaroid instant camera and the Nest thermostat and the genesis of start-ups like Netflix, Square and Airbnb — and found that in each case, some curious soul looked at a current problem and asked insightful questions about why that problem existed and how it might be tackled.
提問(wèn)可以激發(fā)有創(chuàng)意的想法，而后者正是許多企業(yè)如今渴望擁有的東西。在為著作做調(diào)查的過(guò)程中，我研究了一些商業(yè)上的突破——包括寶麗來(lái)拍立得相機(jī)和Nest溫度自動(dòng)調(diào)節(jié)器的發(fā)明，以及Netflix、Square和Airbnb等初創(chuàng)公司的起源——發(fā)現(xiàn)每一種情況里，都是一個(gè)好奇的靈魂看看眼前的難題，就為何會(huì)存在這個(gè)難題和可能如何解決它提出了富有洞察力的問(wèn)題。
The Polaroid story is my favorite: The inspiration for the instant camera sprang from a question asked in the mid-1940s by the 3-year-old daughter of its inventor, Edwin H. Land. She was impatient to see a photo her father had just snapped, and when he tried to explain that the film had to be processed first, she wondered aloud, “Why do we have to wait for the picture?”
我最喜歡講述的是寶麗來(lái)的例子：拍立得相機(jī)的靈感產(chǎn)生于發(fā)明者埃德溫·H·蘭德(Edwin H. Land)3歲的女兒在上世紀(jì)40年代中期提出的一個(gè)問(wèn)題。她著急看到父親剛剛拍下的一張照片，當(dāng)他努力解釋為何膠卷要先進(jìn)行處理才能看到時(shí)，她疑惑地大聲問(wèn)，“為什么必須花時(shí)間等照片出來(lái)?”
One might assume that people can easily ask such questions, given that children do it so well. But research shows that question-asking peaks at age 4 or 5 and then steadily drops off, as children pass through school (where answers are often more valued than questions) and mature into adults. By the time we’re in the workplace, many of us have gotten out of the habit of asking fundamental questions about what’s going on around us. And some people worry that asking questions at work reveals ignorance or may be seen as slowing things down.
考慮到小孩都能做得這么好，有人可能會(huì)覺(jué)得人們可以很容易地提出這樣的問(wèn)題。但研究結(jié)果顯示，提問(wèn)的行為在一個(gè)人四五歲的時(shí)候達(dá)到高峰，之后隨著孩子們上學(xué)(相比于提出問(wèn)題，學(xué)校更看重給出答案)和長(zhǎng)大成人，就逐漸減少。到了工作的時(shí)期，我們中的很多人已經(jīng)失去了就周邊的事物提出根本性問(wèn)題的能力。一些人擔(dān)心在工作中提問(wèn)會(huì)暴露自己的無(wú)知，或者被看作拖慢進(jìn)度。
So how can companies encourage people to ask more questions? There are simple ways to train people to become more comfortable and proficient at it. For example, question formulation exercises can be used as a substitute for conventional brainstorming sessions. The idea is to put a problem or challenge in front of a group of people and instead of asking for ideas, instruct participants to generate as many relevant questions as they can. Kristi Schaffner, an executive at Microsoft, regularly conducts such exercises there and says they sharpen analytical skills.
那么企業(yè)如何才能鼓勵(lì)人們問(wèn)更多的問(wèn)題呢?有一些比較簡(jiǎn)單的訓(xùn)練辦法，可以讓人們?cè)谔釂?wèn)時(shí)更自在，也更嫻熟。比如，可以用構(gòu)思問(wèn)題的訓(xùn)練替代傳統(tǒng)的頭腦風(fēng)暴會(huì)議。方法就是在一群人面前拋出一個(gè)問(wèn)題，或向他們發(fā)出挑戰(zhàn)，讓參與者盡可能多地提出相關(guān)問(wèn)題，而不是要求他們就問(wèn)題談想法。微軟的高管克里斯蒂·沙夫納(Kristi Schaffner)就經(jīng)常在公司進(jìn)行這種訓(xùn)練，稱它們可以增強(qiáng)分析技能。
Getting employees to ask more questions is the easy part; getting management to respond well to those questions can be harder. When leaders claim they want “everyone to ask more questions,” I sometimes (in my bolder moments) ask: “Do you really want that? And what will you do with those questions once people start asking them?”
讓雇員問(wèn)更多的問(wèn)題相對(duì)容易;讓管理層對(duì)這些問(wèn)題做出良好的反應(yīng)則更加困難。當(dāng)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人稱他們希望“每個(gè)人問(wèn)更多問(wèn)題”時(shí)，我有時(shí)(比較大膽的時(shí)刻)會(huì)問(wèn)：“你真的這么想嗎?一旦人們開(kāi)始發(fā)問(wèn)，你準(zhǔn)備如何應(yīng)對(duì)這些問(wèn)題?”
For questioning to thrive in a company, management must find ways to reward the behavior — if only by acknowledging the good questions that have been asked. For example, I visited one company that asked all employees to think of “what if” and “how might we” questions about the company’s goals and plans. Management and employees together decided which of these mission questions were best, then displayed them on banners on the walls.
為了讓提問(wèn)的風(fēng)氣在公司傳播開(kāi)來(lái)，管理層必須找到獎(jiǎng)賞此類行為的辦法，哪怕只是去認(rèn)可被提出來(lái)的一些好問(wèn)題。比如，我曾拜訪過(guò)這樣一家公司，它會(huì)要求所有員工就公司的目標(biāo)和計(jì)劃提出“如果……怎么辦?”和“我們?nèi)绾尾拍堋敝惖膯?wèn)題。管理層和員工一起決定這些任務(wù)問(wèn)題中哪些是最好的，然后將它們放在橫幅和墻面上。
Leaders can also encourage companywide questioning by being more curious and inquisitive themselves. This is not necessarily easy for senior executives, who are used to being the ones with the answers. I’ve noticed during questioning exercises at some companies that top executives sit in the back of the room, laptops open, attending to other business; they seem to think their employees are the only ones who need to learn. As they do this, these leaders are modeling precisely the kind of incurious behavior they’re trying to change in others.
領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者也可以通過(guò)讓自身變得更好奇和更好問(wèn)，來(lái)鼓勵(lì)全公司的人提問(wèn)。對(duì)于高管層來(lái)說(shuō)，這未必容易做到，他們習(xí)慣于做知道答案的人。在一些企業(yè)進(jìn)行的提問(wèn)練習(xí)中，我注意到公司高層坐在房間后面，打開(kāi)手提電腦，在忙其他的事;他們似乎覺(jué)得只有員工需要學(xué)習(xí)這些。這么做的時(shí)候，他們恰恰在示范自己試圖改變的其他人身上存在的不愛(ài)究根問(wèn)底的行為。
They could set a better example by asking “why” and “what if” — while asking others to do likewise. And as the questions proliferate, some good answers are likely to follow.
他們可以通過(guò)問(wèn)“為什么”和“如果……怎么辦”來(lái)樹(shù)立更好的榜樣，同時(shí)要求其他人也這么做。隨著這些問(wèn)題激增，一些好的答案可能就會(huì)冒出來(lái)。
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