工作中需要培養的特質

Being able to do this well is crucial in the “knowledge” economy.

能否培養這些特質在知識經濟時代非常重要

This statement has become a perennial mantra of sorts, blazoned across everything from trade show booths to billboards to websites for software companies. I don’t disagree with the statement. But, the majority of conversation about the way in which the world of work is changing ignores the Most important and powerful potential for c hange.

這句話已經成爲一種經久不衰的咒語，從展臺到廣告牌，再到軟件公司的網站，到處都有它的紋章。我不反對這一說法。但是，大多數關於工作的方式的討論忽略了最重要和最有潛力的改變。

On his last day as the CEO of General Electric Corporation, Jeffrey R. Immelt said, “leadership is this intense journey into yourself.” His message was clear: Leadership doesn’t necessarily equate with output. It’s much bigger, and much more personal.

傑弗裏•R•伊梅爾特(Jeffrey R. Immelt)在擔任通用電氣公司(General Electric Corporation)首席執行官的最後一天說:“領導力是發現自己的一次緊張旅程。”他傳達的信息很明確:領導力並不一定等同於產出。它包含更多方面、更個人化。

What the current conversation about the changing world of work neglects to acknowledge is that the biggest opportunity for change isn’t in migrating to cloud computing, offshoring (or repatriating) jobs, upgrading your internal employee communication tools, or optimizing your supply chain. All of these changes are external, extrinsic; namely, leadership and work as an inner experience. That’s because today, what we think of “work” is almost exclusively represented by what I call outer work.

當前關於變化的職場的討論忽略了一個事實:改變的最大機會不是從事雲計算、外包(或回收)工作、升級內部員工通訊工具或優化你的供應鏈。所有這些變化都是外在的; 也就是說，領導和工作是一種內在的體驗。這背後的原因是，如今我們所認爲的“工作”幾乎完全是由我所謂的外在工作來代表的。

This work encompasses activities that are external to us, such as sitting in meetings, analyzing, making presentations, interacting with customers, and even collaborating with teammates. Outer work consists entirely of what you do and what others do. For the vast majority of professionals, outer work is where most people spend 99% of their workday. In fact, we devote so much time to outer work, we hardly even think about it– and that’s part of the problem.

這項工作包括了我們外部的活動，比如開會、分析、做演示、與客戶互動、甚至與隊友合作。外在工作完全由你做什麼和別人做什麼組成。對於絕大多數的上班族來說，外在工作幾乎就是他們的所有工作內容了。事實上，我們花了很多時間來做外在工作，我們甚至都沒想過——這就是問題所在。

Because when it comes to making tough decisions, coming up with creative solutions to problems, and being an inspiring leader, outer work plays a small role. I’d argue that in a knowledge economy, what we’re really getting paid to do each and every day is fueled by critical inner work. And there’s a profitable side effect of doing it, which is exponentially elevating the value of our decision-making and productivity.

因爲在做出艱難決定的時候、想出有創意的解決方案、成爲一個鼓舞人心的領導者時，外在工作起着很小的作用。我認爲在知識經濟中，我們每天都在做的事情是由關鍵的內在工作推動的。這樣做有一個有利的作用，那就是大幅提升我們的決策和生產力的價值。

There’s a famous slide in Netflix’s culture deck that I’m sure you’ve seen before; it highlights that the best inventive work is 10 times better than average, as compared to the best non-creative decision, which is only two times better than average.

在Netflix的文化平臺上有一個著名的幻燈片，我相信你們以前見過;它表明，最佳的非創造性決策的價值是平均決策的兩倍，單最好的創造性工作比平均水平高出10倍。

The reality is that when we’re buried deep under a pile of outer work, it’s difficult to get to that optimal place. That’s because good knowledge work is about how you think. And, how you think isn’t outer work. It’s inner work.

現實情況是，當我們埋頭於一堆外在工作之下時，很難找到最理想的地方做內在工作。這是因爲良好的知識工作是關於你如何思考的。而且，你的想法並不是外在工作，而是屬於內在工作。

Inner work is centered on the inner experiences of yourself and others. Thinking about inner experiences in the context of work is not something we’re accustomed to doing. It’s a lot harder to visualize than outer work. One reason it’s so much harder to understand inner work is because we don’t have a clear picture of our inner world.

內在工作指的是你自己和他人的內心體驗。在工作環境中思考內心體驗不是我們習慣做的事情。這比外在工作更難想象。其中一個原因是，我們很難理解內在工作，因爲我們對自己的內心世界沒有清晰的認識。

Based on this understanding, inner work consists of:

基於上述信息，內在工作主要包括：

• Mental acts or activities focused in your inner world to achieve a purpose or result. That purpose could be to “the good ordering of your mind”, gaining clarity as to why a particular coworker bothers you so much through self-reflection, or meditating on your values or principles.

• 精神活動集中在內心世界以達到目的或結果。這個目的可能是“清晰的邏輯”，你可以通過自己思考或者考慮自己的價值觀和原則來清楚地瞭解到，爲什麼自己會討厭某個同事。

• More advanced inner work can consist of things like quieting your own thinking and feelings so you can deeply listen to what others are feeling.

• 更高級的內在工作還包括讓自己的想法和感覺安靜下來，這樣你就能深入傾聽別人的感受。

Prior to the industrial revolution, people actually spent a lot of time doing what I call inner work–contemplating, reading, meditating.

在工業革命之前，人們實際上花了很多時間來做我所謂的“內在工作”——思考、閱讀、冥想等等。

Admittedly, if you work in a textile factory, inner work likely isn’t moving the needle on the value you create. But if you work in the knowledge economy where creativity and leadership–not routine manual labor–produce value, then inner work is indispensable.

不可否認的是，如果你在一家紡織廠工作，你的內在工作很可能對你的幫助不是很大。但是，如果你在知識經濟領域工作，這種情況下的創造力和領導能力——而不是常規的手工勞動創造的價值，是非常需要內在工作的。

Without inner work, we’re vulnerable to depression, stress, and burnout, and consequently, lower-quality decisions and decreased creative output. I would argue that one reason there is so much disengagement or toxicity in the workplace is because people come to work with the expectation that their job is only to do outer work and make no time for inner work.

如果沒有內在工作，我們就容易受到抑鬱、壓力、倦怠等因素的影響，因此，我們會做出更低質量的決定，並減少創造性的產出。我想說的是，工作場所中多數人都有這種問題，是因爲人們開始工作時認爲他們的工作僅僅是做外在工作，而沒有時間去做內心的工作。

As I reflect on episodes in my career where I wasn’t performing at my best as a manager, one common theme is that I lacked is the internal clarity around what was important to me to prioritize, personally and professionally. We’ve all been there: unanchored, flailing, desperately trying to gain a sense of control, knowing all along that every frantic step we were taking was only further diffusing our impact instead of fastening our footing.

當我回顧我的職業生涯時，我發現自己在經理這個職位上並沒有最大化展現自己的價值，與其他很多人一樣，我的問題是沒有自己清楚認識到在我的職業生涯和個人生活中，什麼是最重要的。我們都有過這樣的經歷:漂泊着、掙扎着、拼命地想要獲得一種控制感，知道我們所採取的每一個瘋狂的步驟都只是在進一步加強我們的影響，而不是鞏固我們的基礎。

The biggest opportunity our world affords us is to reinvent the very concept of work: away from busyness of our to-dos, and inward toward developing ourselves so that we lead more fulfilling lives outside of work, too. As a culture, we’ve become obsessed with quantity and speed, but we spend less and less time doing the important inner work required to drive quality and well-being. It won’t be easy. In fact, it’ll be hard (inner) work, but it will be well worth it.

我們的世界給我們提供的最大的機會就是徹底改造我們的工作理念:讓我們從忙碌的工作中抽離出來，多探求內心的想法，這樣我們就能在工作之外更有成就感。我們沉迷於數量和速度，以至於這幾乎變成了一種文化和習慣。但我們花費越來越少的時間來做重要的內在工作來提升工作質量和幸福感。做大這一點並不容易。事實上，這將是一項艱鉅的工作，但這是值得的。