Half of the human workforce is expected to be replaced by software and robots in the next 20 years. And many corporate leaders welcome that as a chance to increase profits. Machines are more efficient; humans are complicated and difficult to manage.
未来二十年内,一半的人类劳动力 将会被软件和机器人取代。 一些企业家把它视为 增加利润的好机会, 因为机器更高效, 而人类更复杂且难于管理。
Well, I want our organizations to remain human. In fact, I want them to become beautiful. Because as machines take our jobs and do them more efficiently, soon the only work left for us humans will be the kind of work that must be done beautifully rather than efficiently.
而我希望我们的组织保留人类, 事实上,我希望它们变得更美。 由于机器可以取代我们, 并且更高效地工作, 很快,留给人类解决的就会只剩那些 需要美感而非效率的工作。
To maintain our humanity in the this second Machine Age, we may have no other choice than to create beauty. Beauty is an elusive concept. For the writer Stendhal it was the promise of happiness. For me it's a goal by Lionel Messi.
要在第二次机器时代维持人的作用, 我们别无选择,只能创造美。 美是一个难以捉摸的概念。 作家司汤达说美是一种幸福的承诺。 而对我来说,美是梅西的一记进球。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
So bear with me as I am proposing four admittedly very subjective principles that you can use to build a beautiful organization.
所以,请容许我 提出四个相当主观的原则, 它们可以被用来建立美的机构。
First: do the unnecessary.
第一,做不必要的事。
[Do the Unnecessary]
[做不必要的事]
A few months ago, Hamdi Ulukaya, the CEO and founder of the yogurt company Chobani, made headlines when he decided to grant stock to all of his 2,000 employees. Some called it a PR stunt, others -- a genuine act of giving back. But there is something else that was remarkable about it. It came completely out of the blue. There had been no market or stakeholder pressure, and employees were so surprised that they burst into tears when they heard the news. Actions like Ulukaya's are beautiful because they catch us off guard. They create something out of nothing because they're completely unnecessary.
几个月前,哈姆迪·乌鲁卡亚, Chobani 酸奶工厂的 创始人和 CEO, 为他2000名全体员工授予了股份, 并因此上了头条。 有人说这是公关噱头, 有人认为这是一种慷慨的回馈。 但还有些更不寻常的值得注意之处。 这个消息突如其来, 没有市场或股东的压力, 员工们也非常意外, 以至于他们听到消息时喜极而泣。 像乌鲁卡亚这样的行为就是美的, 它瞬间击中人心。 他们凭空创造了一些东西, 而这些东西看起来完全没有必要。
I once worked at a company that was the result of a merger of a large IT outsourcing firm and a small design firm. We were merging 9,000 software engineers with 1,000 creative types. And to unify these immensely different cultures, we were going to launch a third, new brand. And the new brand color was going to be orange. And as we were going through the budget for the rollouts, we decided last minute to cut the purchase of 10,000 orange balloons, which we had meant to distribute to all staff worldwide. They just seemed unnecessary and cute in the end. I didn't know back then that our decision marked the beginning of the end -- that these two organizations would never become one. And sure enough, the merger eventually failed. Now, was it because there weren't any orange balloons? No, of course not. But the kill-the-orange-balloons mentality permeated everything else. You might not always realize it, but when you cut the unnecessary, you cut everything. Leading with beauty means rising above what is merely necessary. So do not kill your orange balloons.
我曾在一家 由一家大型IT外包公司 和一家小设计公司 合并而成的公司工作过。 我们要把9000名软件工程师和 1000名创意工作者整合在一起工作。 为了融合这两种截然不同的文化, 我们要建立一个全新的品牌。 新的品牌商标是橙色的, 我们在讨论品牌推广预算时, 在最后一分钟, 我们决定砍掉购买 一万只橙色气球的计划, 我们本想把这些气球发给全球员工。 这件事看起来没有必要, 只是为了好玩。 当时我并不知道, 我们的决定预示了结局—— 两家公司不可能顺利合并。 果然,合并以失败告终。 就因为当时没买气球吗? 不,当然不是。 但是这种砍掉气球的心态 弥漫到了其他所有事情上。 你可能不会意识到, 但在你砍掉“不必要”的时候, 你其实砍掉了所有。 追求美,意味着超越单纯的必需。 所以,不要砍掉你的橙色气球。
The second principle: create intimacy.
第二个原则: 创造亲密感。
[Create Intimacy]
[创造亲密感]
Studies show that how we feel about our workplace very much depends on the relationships with our coworkers. And what are relationships other than a string of microinteractions? There are hundreds of these every day in our organizations that have the potential to distinguish a good life from a beautiful one. The marriage researcher John Gottman says that the secret of a healthy relationship is not the great gesture or the lofty promise, it's small moments of attachment. In other words, intimacy. In our networked organizations, we tout the strength of weak ties but we underestimate the strength of strong ones. We forget the words of the writer Richard Bach who once said, "Intimacy -- not connectedness -- intimacy is the opposite of loneliness."
研究表明,我们对工作的感受, 很大程度上取决于 我们和同事的人际关系。 除了每天简单的交流, 人际关系还包括什么呢? 我们每天在公司 有几百次这样的机会, 可以让普通的一天变成美丽的一天。 婚姻研究者约翰·戈特曼说, 健康关系的秘密, 不在于伟大的姿态或崇高的承诺, 而在于细小的展现人与人关系的瞬间。 换句话说,就是亲密感。 在我们网络化的组织中, 我们更加青睐弱连接的关系, 但我们同时低估了强连接的力量。 我们忘记了作家 Richard Bach 说过的话: “亲密感—— 不是连通—— 亲密感,是孤独的反义词。”
So how do we design for organizational intimacy? The humanitarian organization CARE wanted to launch a campaign on gender equality in villages in northern India. But it realized quickly that it had to have this conversation first with its own staff. So it invited all 36 team members and their partners to one of the Khajuraho Temples, known for their famous erotic sculptures. And there they openly discussed their personal relationships -- their own experiences of gender equality with the coworkers and the partners. It was eye-opening for the participants. Not only did it allow them to relate to the communities they serve, it also broke down invisible barriers and created a lasting bond amongst themselves. Not a single team member quit in the next four years. So this is how you create intimacy. No masks ... or lots of masks.
所以我们该如何设计 才能增进组织的亲密性? 一个叫 CARE 的人道组织 想要在印度北部的村庄 发起性别平等运动。 但他们很快意识到, 他们首先需要同内部成员展开交流。 所以他们邀请了 36位团队成员和他们的搭档, 去了克久拉霍的一个庙宇, 这个庙宇因色情佛像而闻名。 在那里,他们与同事和搭档一起, 坦诚地讨论他们的私人关系—— 他们自己对性别平等的体会。 这令参与者们深受启发, 这不仅帮他们在自己 与服务的社区之间建立了连结, 更打破了无形的障碍, 在他们之间建立了持久的团结。 结果,在接下来的四年中, 没有一个成员退出。 所以,这就是建立亲密感的方法, 没有面具, 或者,有很多面具——
(Laughter)
(笑声)
When Danone, the food company, wanted to translate its new company manifesto into product initiatives, it gathered the management team and 100 employees from across different departments, seniority levels and regions for a three-day strategy retreat. And it asked everybody to wear costumes for the entire meeting: wigs, crazy hats, feather boas, huge glasses and so on. And they left with concrete outcomes and full of enthusiasm. And when I asked the woman who had designed this experience why it worked, she simply said, "Never underestimate the power of a ridiculous wig."
在达能食品公司想要 把新的公司宣言落实为产品计划时, 他们召集了管理团队 和来自不同部门、不同层级和地区的 100名员工, 举办了为期三天的战略会议。 他们要求每个人都这么打扮: 假发、夸张的帽子、羽毛围巾、 大眼镜,等等。 他们都热情高涨, 并且实现了了很实质性的成果。 我问一位女士,谁设计了这个方式, 为什么这么有效, 她随口说道: “永远不要低估搞笑假发的力量。”
(Laughter)
(笑声)
(Applause)
(掌声)
Because wigs erase hierarchy, and hierarchy kills intimacy -- both ways, for the CEO and the intern. Wigs allow us to use the disguise of the false to show something true about ourselves. And that's not easy in our everyday work lives, because the relationship with our organizations is often like that of a married couple that has grown apart, suffered betrayals and disappointments, and is now desperate to be beautiful for one another once again. And for either of us the first step towards beauty involves a huge risk. The risk to be ugly.
因为假发消除了层级, 而层级会扼杀亲密感—— 不管对CEO还是实习生 都是如此。 假发让我们能依托一种伪装, 来展示真实的自己。 在我们日常的工作中 是不容易做到的, 因为我们的组织中的人际关系, 经常像日渐疏远的夫妻一样, 充满背叛和失望, 现在不顾一切地想要重修旧好。 对我们每个人来说, 通向美的第一步都隐含巨大的风险。 变丑的风险。
[Be Ugly]
[变丑]
So many organizations these days are keen on designing beautiful workplaces that look like anything but work: vacation resorts, coffee shops, playgrounds or college campuses --
现在很多组织想要 设计美丽的办公区, 让它们看起来像度假区、咖啡店、 游乐场、大学校园, 而偏偏不像是用来工作的。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Based on the promises of positive psychology, we speak of play and gamification, and one start-up even says that when someone gets fired, they have graduated.
基于积极心理学的考虑, 我们把工作变成玩耍、游戏, 甚至有创业公司在解雇员工的时候, 说他们是“毕业”了。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
That kind of beautiful language only goes "skin deep, but ugly cuts clean to the bone," as the writer Dorothy Parker once put it. To be authentic is to be ugly. It doesn't mean that you can't have fun or must give in to the vulgar or cynical, but it does mean that you speak the actual ugly truth. Like this manufacturer that wanted to transform one of its struggling business units. It identified, named and pinned on large boards all the issues -- and there were hundreds of them -- that had become obstacles to better performance. They put them on boards, moved them all into one room, which they called "the ugly room." The ugly became visible for everyone to see -- it was celebrated. And the ugly room served as a mix of mirror exhibition and operating room -- a biopsy on the living flesh to cut out all the bureaucracy.
这些美丽的语言是“肤浅的, 但丑陋却可以深入骨髓,” 这是作家多萝西·帕克的原话。 坦白事实,就意味着丑陋。 这不是说你不能开心, 或者必须向庸俗和自私妥协, 而是你应该说出丑陋的事实。 就像这位想要改善 他经营不佳的业务的企业家。 他们把所有的阻碍业绩的 问题归类、命名, 并钉在大白板上, 有几百项之多。 他们把这些白板搬到一个房间, 被他们称为“丑陋之屋”。 这些丑陋被暴露在灯光下—— 每个人都可以看到。 这个房间变成了 镜子展厅和手术室的结合—— 用来切除官僚主义的手术室。
The ugliest part of our body is our brain. Literally and neurologically. Our brain renders ugly what is unfamiliar ... modern art, atonal music, jazz, maybe -- VR goggles for that matter -- strange objects, sounds and people. But we've all been ugly once. We were a weird-looking baby, a new kid on the block, a foreigner. And we will be ugly again when we don't belong.
我们身体中最丑陋的部分是大脑。 不仅看上去很丑陋, 还会创造人们不熟悉的丑陋的东西, 现代艺术,无调音乐, 爵士乐,也可能—— 还有VR眼镜—— 奇怪的东西、声音和人。 但我们每个人都曾丑陋过, 我们曾经是外表奇怪的婴儿, 街区新来的小孩,或一个外来者。 我们离去时也会再次变得丑陋。
The Center for Political Beauty, an activist collective in Berlin, recently staged an extreme artistic intervention. With the permission of relatives, it exhumed the corpses of refugees who had drowned at Europe's borders, transported them all the way to Berlin, and then reburied them at the heart of the German capital. The idea was to allow them to reach their desired destination, if only after their death. Such acts of beautification may not be pretty, but they are much needed. Because things tend to get ugly when there's only one meaning, one truth, only answers and no questions. Beautiful organizations keep asking questions. They remain incomplete, which is the fourth and the last of the principles.
柏林一个叫“政治美好中心”的 社会活动团体, 近期上演了一个极端艺术事件。 经过家属同意, 他们掘出在欧洲边境 溺水身亡的难民遗体, 运送到柏林, 把他们葬在德国首都的中心。 这个计划想让他们 抵达曾经渴望的目的地, 即便是在他们死去之后。 这种美化行为可能不太优雅, 但它们很有必要。 因为如果只有一种意义,一个真相, 只有答案,没有问题的话, 事情就会变得丑陋。 美的组织会持续提出问题。 它们保持不完整的状态, 这是第四个,也是最后一个原则。
[Remain Incomplete]
[保持不完整]
Recently I was in Paris, and a friend of mine took me to Nuit Debout, which stands for "up all night," the self-organized protest movement that had formed in response to the proposed labor laws in France. Every night, hundreds gathered at the Place de la République. Every night they set up a small, temporary village to deliberate their own vision of the French Republic. And at the core of this adhocracy was a general assembly where anybody could speak using a specially designed sign language. Like Occupy Wall Street and other protest movements, Nuit Debout was born in the face of crisis. It was messy -- full of controversies and contradictions. But whether you agreed with the movement's goals or not, every gathering was a beautiful lesson in raw humanity. And how fitting that Paris -- the city of ideals, the city of beauty -- was it's stage. It reminds us that like great cities, the most beautiful organizations are ideas worth fighting for -- even and especially when their outcome is uncertain. They are movements; they are always imperfect, never fully organized, so they avoid ever becoming banal. They have something but we don't know what it is. They remain mysterious; we can't take our eyes off them. We find them beautiful.
最近我去了趟巴黎, 我的一个朋友带我去了 Nuit Debout, 意思是“不眠之夜”, 始于为反对法国劳动法提案而产生的 一个自发抗议运动。 每天晚上, 几百人聚集在共和国广场, 每天晚上,他们都会搭建起一个临时村庄, 讨论他们自己理想中的 法兰西共和国。 这个组织的核心是一个全体大会, 在会上,每个人都可以用 一种特别设计的手语来交流。 就像占领华尔街 及其他抗议运动一样, “不眠之夜”也是在面对危机时诞生。 它很混乱—— 充满争论和矛盾。 不管你是否认同他们的抗议诉求, 每次集会都是一次 原旨人权的大课堂。 巴黎—— 这个理想之城,美好之城—— 正是最合适他们的舞台。 它提醒我们,就像伟大的城市一样, 最美好的组织, 是值得为之奉献理想的—— 即使,也恰是, 当它们的结果不确定的时候。 它们是运动, 它们永远不完美, 永远不会组织完整, 所以它们可以避免变得平庸。 它们有一些无以言状的东西。 它们保持神秘,让我们无法忽视。 我们发现它们很美。
So to do the unnecessary, to create intimacy, to be ugly, to remain incomplete -- these are not only the qualities of beautiful organizations, these are inherently human characteristics. And these are also the qualities of what we call home. And as we disrupt, and are disrupted, the least we can do is to ensure that we still feel at home in our organizations, and that we use our organizations to create that feeling for others.
所以,做不必要的事, 创造亲密感, 变丑, 保持不完整—— 它们不只是美的组织的特征, 它们也是人类固有的特征。 更是我们称之为“家”的特征。 我们在干扰或被干扰时, 我们至少可以确保 自己在组织中就像在家一样, 确保我们在组织中 为他人营造同样的感受。
Beauty can save the world when we embrace these principles and design for them. In the face of artificial intelligence and machine learning, we need a new radical humanism. We must acquire and promote a new aesthetic and sentimental education. Because if we don't, we might end up feeling like aliens in organizations and societies that are full of smart machines that have no appreciation whatsoever for the unnecessary, the intimate, the incomplete and definitely not for the ugly.
当我们拥抱这些原则并为之努力, 美会拯救这个世界。 在人工智能和机器学习面前, 我们需要一种全新的彻底的人文主义。 我们必须学习并发展 新的审美和感性教育。 因为如果我们不这么做, 最终我们可能在遍布智能机器的、 不懂得欣赏美的组织和社会中, 像局外人一样疏离地活着—— 对不必要的事、 对亲密感、 对不完整、 当然也对丑陋,无动于衷。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)