Why you should treat the tech you use at work like a colleague | Nadjia Yousif

翻译人员: jacks peng 校对人员: Shin Jong Hyeon

So, imagine a company hires a new employee,

想象一下公司招了位新员工，

该领域的顶尖人才，

best in the business,

who's on a multimillion-dollar contract.

合同价值几百万美元。

Now imagine that whenever this employee went to go meet with her team members,

现在想象一下，每当这个员工 邀请她的团队成员一起开会时，

the appointments were ignored or dismissed,

邀请却常常被忽略或是取消，

and in the meetings that did happen,

并且在已经开始会议上，

she was yelled at or kicked out after a few minutes.

几分钟后就她遭到斥责 或被赶出会议室。

So after a while, she just went quietly back to her desk,

过了一会儿，她静静地回到她桌子前，

sat there with none of her skills being put to use,

坐在那里，技能无丝毫用武之地，

of course, being ignored by most people,

当然，被大部分人忽略，

and of course, still getting paid millions of dollars.

当然，仍然要被支付数百万美元的薪资。

This hotshot employee who can't seem to catch a break

这个似乎无法抓住机会的最出色员工

is that company's technology.

就是公司的技术。

This scenario is not an exaggeration.

这种情况并不夸张。

In my job as a technology advisor,

作为一名技术顾问，

I've seen so many companies make the well-meaning decisions

我看到很多公司都做出了善意的决定，

to put huge investments into technology,

在技术上投入巨资，

最后的效果却没有达到预期。

only to have the benefits fail to live up to the expectation.

In fact, in one study I read,

事实上，在我读到的一个研究中，

25 percent of technology projects

有25%的科技项目

are canceled or deliver things that are never used.

最终被取消，或其产出从未得到使用。

That's like billions of dollars just being wasted each year.

这就像每年有数十亿美元被浪费。

So why is this?

那么为什么会这样呢？

Well, from what I've seen,

就我的观察而言，

the expectation from the top management is high but not unreasonable

最高层管理者对技术带来的好处

about the benefits from the technology.

预期虽高，但并非不合理。

They expect people will use them,

他们期望人们会使用它们，

it will create time savings,

它会提高工作效率，

and people will become genuinely better at their jobs.

人们也会在工作中表现更好。

But the reality is that the people on the front line,

但现实情况是，在一线的员工，

who are supposed to be using these softwares and tools,

那些应该使用这些软件和工具的人，

they're skeptical or even afraid.

却对此表示怀疑，甚至感到害怕。

We postpone the online trainings,

我们推迟在线培训，

we don't bother to learn the shortcuts,

懒得学习捷径，

and we get frustrated at the number of tools

而且对需要记住一大堆工具才能

正常登陆和使用感到十分沮丧。

we have to remember how to log into and use.

Right?

是吧？

And that frustration, that guilt -- it's racking up,

那种挫败感，那种罪恶感——越来越强烈，

the more that technology is inserting itself into our daily working lives,

随着科技越来越多地融入 我们的日常工作中，

which is a lot.

这种情况相当普遍。

Brookings says that 70 percent of jobs today in the US

布鲁金斯学会表示， 目前美国70%的工作岗位

require at least mid-level digital skills.

需要至少中等水平的数字技能。

So basically, to work these days,

基本上可以说，在当今社会想要正常工作，

you need to be able to work with technology.

你得知道如何与科技合作。

But from what I've seen,

但就我所看到的而言，

我们还没有能够应对 这个问题的正确心态。

we are not approaching this with the right mindset.

So here's the idea that I've been toying with:

所以这就是我一直在尝试的想法：

What if we treated technology like a team member?

如果我们像对待团队成员 一样对待技术呢？

I've been writing my own personal experiment about this.

我一直在写自己的经验。

I've spoken to people from all different industries

我跟来自不同行业的人交流

about how they can treat their core technologies like colleagues.

他们如何像对待自己的 同事那样对待技术。

I've met with people from the restaurant industry,

我见过来自餐饮行业的人，

medical professionals, teachers, bankers,

医疗专业人士，教师，银行家，

people from many other sectors,

以及很多其他行业的人，

and the first step with anybody that I would meet with

我跟任何人见面的第一步

was to draw out the structure of their teams

是画出他们团队在组织架构图中的

in an organization chart.

关系结构。

Now, I'm a total geek when it comes to organization charts.

谈到组织架构图，我可是个行家。

Org charts are really cool because, if they are drawn well,

组织结构图很酷，因为如果画得好，

you can quickly get a sense of what individual roles are

你可以快速理解个人的角色

and also how a team works well together.

以及团队如何协同工作。

But if you look at a typical org chart,

但如果你看传统的组织架构，

it only includes the boxes and lines that represent people.

它只包括了代表人的框和线。

None of the technology team members are there.

各项技术都不包含在内。

They're all invisible.

它们都没有被画出来。

So for each of the organizations that I met with for my experiment,

所以对于我在实验中遇到的每个组织，

I had to draw a new type of org chart,

我得画出一种新的组织架构图，

one that also included the technology.

而技术也包括在其中。

And when I did this, people I spoke to

当我这样做时，与我交谈过的人们

could actually visualize their technologies as coworkers,

可以看到他们的技术 以同事的身份得以呈现，

and they could ask things like:

他们会这样问：

"Is this software reporting to the right person?"

“这个软件报告给正确的人了吗？”

"Does this man and machine team work well together?"

“这个团队中的人和机器合作得好吗？”

"Is that technology actually the team member

“团队成员真的在尴尬地

回避这种技术吗？”

that everybody's awkwardly avoiding?"

So I will walk you through an example of a small catering company

我给大家举一个 小型餐饮公司把这实验

to bring this experiment to life.

变成现实的例子。

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,

有一个销售总监， 负责管理所有的客户互动，

还有一个运营总监， 负责管理所有的内部活动。

and there's an operations director, who manages all the internal activities.

And here's the people who report to the sales and operations directors.

这些是汇报给销售和运营总监的人。

And finally, here's the view

最后，在这里，

where we've overlaid the software and the hardware

我们还添加了bovingdons员工使用的

that's used by the Bovingdons staff.

软件和硬件。

Using this amazing org chart, we can now explore

使用这个一目了然的组织架构图， 我们现在可以探索

how the human team members and the technology team members

人类团队成员和技术团队成员

are interacting.

如何交互。

So the first thing that I'm going to look for

所以我最先要找出的就是

在所有人类和机器之间存在的

is where there's a human and machine relationship

重要的关系。

that's extra critical.

Usually, it's somebody using a technology

通常，这是人们每天

on a day-to-day basis to do his or her job.

在工作中使用的技术。

At Bovingdons,

在bovingdons，

the finance director with the accounting platform would be one.

会计平台的财务总监就是其中之一。

Next, I would check on the status of their collaboration.

接下来，我将检查他们的合作状态。

Are they working well together?

他们合作得好吗？

Getting along?

能够和谐相处吗？

在这个案例中，这种关系十分脆弱。

In this case, it turned out to be a tenuous relationship.

So, what to do?

那么，要怎么改善的呢？

Well, if the accounting platform were actually a person,

假如会计平台是个人，

the finance director would feel responsible for managing it

财务总监就会觉得有责任管理它，

and taking care of it.

照看它。

同样，

Well, in the same way,

my first suggestion was to think about a team-building activity,

我的首个建议是考虑团建活动，

maybe getting together on a specialist course.

也许一起上个专业课程。

My second suggestion was to think about scheduling regular performance reviews

我的第二个建议是考虑对会计平台做

for the accounting platform,

定期的绩效考核，

where the finance director would literally give feedback

这样财务总监就可以 对售卖该软件的公司

to the company who sold it.

提供反馈意见。

Now, there will be several of these really important human and machine teams

每个组织都会有几个非常重要的

人类和机器团队。

in every organization.

So if you're in one, it's worth taking the time

因此，如果你身处其中，

花点时间思考如何让 这些关系更加和谐是值得的。

to think about ways to make those relationships truly collaborative.

Next, I'll look on the chart for any human role

接下来，我会看看图上有没有人类角色

which might be overloaded by technology,

使用了过多的技术，

let's say, interacting with four or more types of applications.

比如说，跟四个或更多的 应用软件打交道。

At Bovingdons, the operations director was interacting with five technologies.

在bovingdons，运营总监 要跟5个技术打交道。

Now, he told me that he'd always felt overwhelmed by his job,

他告诉我，他总是觉得工作过于繁重，

but it wasn't until our conversation

但直到与我交谈，

that he thought it might be because of the technologies he was overseeing.

他才意识到这可能是 因为他所监管的技术。

And we were talking that,

我们讨论到，

if the operations director had actually had a lot of people reporting to him,

如果运营总监有很多人向他汇报，

he probably would have done something about it,

他很可能会做点什么，

because it was stretching him too thin,

因为他已经不堪重负了，

like, move some of them to report to somebody else.

比如，让某些人改向其他人汇报。

同样地，我们谈到将一些技术转移到

So in the same way, we talked about moving some of the technologies

to report to someone else,

其他人那里，

like the food inventory to go to the chef.

比如把食品清单交给厨师。

The last thing that I'll look for is any technology

最后我要看的是有没有技术

that seems to be on the org chart without a real home.

在组织架构上没有真正的归属。

Sometimes they're floating around without an owner.

有时候，它们只能在不同人之间游走。

Sometimes they're reporting to so many different areas

有时候它们汇报给如此多不同的领域，

that you can't tell who's actually using it.

导致你都不知道谁在使用它。

Now, at Bovingdons,

在bovingdons，

nobody appeared to be looking after the marketing software.

似乎没人负责管理营销软件。

It was like someone had hired it and then didn't give it a desk

有点像有人雇佣了它， 却没有给它安排工位，

or any instructions on what to do.

或任何工作指示。

So clearly, it needed a job description,

所以很明显，它需要一份职位指南，

maybe someone to manage it.

也许需要有人管理它。

But in other companies,

但在其他公司，

you might find that a technology has been sidelined for a reason,

你可能会发现一项技术 因为某种原因被边缘化，

like it's time for it to leave or be retired.

比如它是时候该离开或退休了。

Now, retiring applications is something that all companies do.

如今，淘汰应用软件是 所有公司都会做的事情。

But maybe taking the mindset that those applications are actually coworkers

但是，也许采用把这些 应用软件当作同事的心态

could help them to decide when and how to retire those applications

可以帮助他们以对团队 其他成员破坏性最小的方式

in the way that would be least destructive to the rest of the team.

决定何时，以及如何 停用这些应用程序。

I did this experiment with 15 different professionals,

我与15个不同的 专业人员做了这个实验，

and each time it sparked an idea.

每次它都激发了一个想法。

Sometimes, a bit more.

有时候，还更多。

You remember that hotshot employee I was telling you about,

还记得我跟你们说过的那个

that everybody was ignoring?

被每个人忽略的技术高手吗？

That was a real story told to me by Christopher,

那是克里斯托弗告诉我的 一个真实的故事，

a very energetic human resources manager at a big consumer goods company.

他是一家大型消费品 公司的人力资源经理。

Technology was a new HR platform,

技术是新的HR平台，

and it had been installed for 14 months at great expense,

有人花了大价钱安装它，但过了14个月，

but nobody was using it.

却一直没人使用它。

So we were talking about how,

所以我们在讨论，

如果这位员工真的是一个拥有 令人惊叹的资质的优秀员工，

if this had really been such a hotshot employee with amazing credentials,

you would go out of your way to get to know it,

你会不厌其烦去了解它，

maybe invite them for coffee,

也许邀请他们喝杯咖啡，

get to know their background.

去了解他们的背景。

所以本着实验的精神，

So in the spirit of experimentation,

Christopher set up one-hour appointments,

克里斯托弗安排了一个小时的会议，

coffee optional,

可能还会提供咖啡，

for his team members to have no agenda but to get to know their HR system.

让他的团队成员去了解 他们的人力资源系统。

Some people, they clicked around menu item by menu item.

一些人，他们一项项地点击菜单。

Other people, they searched online for things that they weren't clear about.

另一些人则在网上 查找他们不清楚的地方。

A couple of them got together, gossiped about the new software in town.

其中一些人聚在一起， 对新安装的软件说三道四。

And a few weeks later, Christopher called to tell me

几周后，克里斯托弗打电话告诉我

that people were using the system in new ways,

人们正在用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.

并且他认为，这将在未来 为他们节省几周时间的努力。

And they also reported feeling less intimidated by the software.

他们还表示，自己不再觉得 这个软件有什么可怕的了。

I found that pretty amazing,

我觉得这很让人欣喜，

that taking this mindset helped Christopher's team

这种心态帮助了克里斯托弗的团队

and others that I spoke to these past few months

和我在过去几个月里采访的其他人，

actually feel happier about working with technology.

实际上对与技术合作感到更快乐。

And I later found out this is backed up by research.

我后来发现这是有研究支持的。

Studies have shown that people who work in organizations

研究发现在鼓励员工

that encourage them to talk about and learn about the technologies

谈论和学习工作场所 所用技术的公司里

in the workplace

工作的人，

have 20 percent lower stress levels

要比在没有这样做的公司里面工作的人

than those in organizations that don't.

压力水平要低20%。

I also found it really cool that when I started to do this experiment,

在开始这些实验时，

I started with what was happening between a person

我从个人与单个技术的

and an individual technology,

关系开始，

but then it ultimately led to ideas about how to manage tech

不过最终却引发了如何在整个公司中

across entire companies.

管理技术的想法，这让我觉得很酷。

Like, when I did this for my own job and extended it,

比如当我以同样的方式 对待自己的工作并扩展它的时候，

I thought about how our data analysis tools

我会思考我们的数据分析工具

should go on the equivalent of a job rotation program,

应该参与相当于工作轮岗的程序，

where different parts of the company could get to know it.

这样公司的不同部门就都可以了解它。

And I also thought about suggesting to our recruiting team

我还想过建议我们的招聘团队，

that some of the technologies we work with every day

应该让我们常用的技术

should come with us on our big recruiting events.

出现在我们的大型招聘活动中。

If you were a university student,

如果你是个大学生，

how cool would it be to not only get to know the people

除了知道你将与哪些人工作，还知道

会用到哪些技术，

you might be working with,

but also the technologies?

是不是很酷呢？

Now, all of this begs the question:

以上这些又引出了这样一个问题：

What have we been missing

忽视我们每天都在

by keeping the technologies that we work with day to day invisible,

使用的技术，我们错过了什么，

and what, beyond those billions of dollars in value,

除了这数十亿美元的价值，

might we be leaving on the table?

我们还留下了什么？

The good news is,

好消息是，

you don't need to be an org chart geek like me

要推进这个实验，你并不需要

to take this experiment forward.

像我这样擅长做组织架构图。

It will take a matter of minutes for most people

对大多数人而言，只需要几分钟

to draw out a structure of who they work with,

就可以画出他们工作环境的关系结构，

a little bit longer to add in the technologies

再花点时间添加技术在里面，

来获得整个团队的视图，

to get a view of the entire team,

and then you can have fun asking questions like,

然后你就可以问诸如这样有趣的问题：

"Which are the technologies that I'll be taking out for coffee?"

“我将会带哪些技术出去喝咖啡？”

我做这个实验不是为了好玩，

Now, I didn't do this experiment for kicks

or for the coffee.

或者为了喝咖啡。

I did it because the critical skill in the 21st-century workplace

我之所以这样做，是因为与技术协作

is going to be to collaborate with the technologies

是21世纪工作场所的关键技能，

that are becoming such a big and costly part of our daily working lives.

技术已经成为我们日常工作生活中 庞大且昂贵的部分。

And from what I was seeing, we are struggling to cope with that.

而且就我所看到的而言， 我们仍在艰难应对这个问题。

So it might sound counterintuitive,

这听起来可能违反直觉，

但通过接受这些技术其实 是有价值的同事的想法，

but by embracing the idea that these machines are actually valuable colleagues,

we as people will perform better

我们作为人类可以表现得更好，

and be happier.

也更快乐。

So let's all share a bit of humanity

所以，让我们对工作中会使用到的

towards the technologies and the softwares and the algorithms

技术，软件和算法，以及机器人

and the robots who we work with,

表现出一些人性关怀吧，

because we will all be the better for it.

因为我们都会因此变得更好。

Thank you.

谢谢。

（鼓掌）

(Applause)