来源：英文联播
How Bosses Waste Their Employees‘ Time
Leaders don’t mean to waste their employees’ time。 Unfortunately， many of them heap unnecessary work on the people below them in the pecking order—and are downright clueless that they’re doing it。
领导不会故意浪费员工的时间。不幸的是，他们许多人都会把没必要的活儿压给下属，且他们这样做全无理由。
They give orders without realizing how much work those directives entail。 They make offhand comments and don’t consider that their employees may interpret them as commands。 And they solicit opinions without realizing that people will bend over backward to tell them what they want to hear—rather than the whole truth， warts and all。
他们发号施令，完全没有意识到这些指令要费多大事。他们随口发表评论，完全不考虑到员工可能拿着鸡毛当令箭。他们想征求意见，却没意识到人们绞尽脑汁地说他们想听的话，而非道出一切是非曲直。
That is what my Stanford colleague Huggy Rao and I have learned from our “organizational friction” project。 We’re studying why some organizations make the right things too difficult to do and the wrong things too easy to do—and what leaders can do to avoid such missteps。
这就是我在斯坦福的同事哈吉·拉奥和我从你们的“组织摩擦”项目中得知的东西。我们在研究为什么有些组织让该做的事做起来那么困难，让不该做的事做起来那么容易——领导又该怎么做避免这些过失呢？
The roots of waste
Before describing how to avoid it， it’s important to understand why so many leaders are blind to the ways they waste employees’ time。
在说如何避免之前，明白为什么这么多领导对他们浪费员工时间的方式视而不见，这很重要。
First， many bosses don’t pay enough attention to followers’ behaviors， needs and troubles。
首先，许多老板根本不会注意下属的行为、需求和麻烦。
The CEO of one firm I studied， for instance， fell in love with new management concepts， such as “lean” operations， and frequently announced new companywide initiatives—often once a quarter。 But those announcements typically didn’t take into account initiatives from previous quarters。
例如我供职公司的首席执行官，总会爱上了各种新的管理理念，例如“精益”运营吧，他经常要在全公司推行各种倡议，经常每三个月一次。但这些动议通常与前几个季度毫不相干。
Employees were often asked to drop what they were doing before and start a new mission from scratch。
雇员经常被要求放下手头的事，从头开始干新的任务。
Each new initiative entailed a new round of training， meetings and paperwork。 Even though many employees learned the fine art of “fad surfing”—that is， complying with the changing directives as little as possible and focusing on their core work—they still wasted a lot of time。
每一个新的倡议都要进行新一轮的培训、开会、写报告。就算许多员工深谙这些“跟风运动”的艺术，尽量应付一下这些变化的指令，专注于主业，他们也还是浪费了很多时间。
At many companies， meanwhile， employees become aware of how self-absorbed their bosses are， and so focus on telling the bosses what they think the bosses want to hear， and on doing things they believe will keep their bosses happy。
同时，在许多公司，雇员明白老板有多么固执己见，专门告诉老板他想听的话，这样做，他们认为可以让老板开心。
This leads to what Dr。 Rao and I call “executive magnification，” when people bent on buttering up a leader react far more strongly to his or her words or actions than the leader ever intended。
这导致了拉奥博士和我所说的“管理层放大”效应，许多人点头哈腰拍马屁，某个小领导会把他或她说的话太当真，连大领导自己都没想到。
For example， an executive told me a story， perhaps apocryphal， about a CEO who commented that there were no blueberry muffins at a breakfast meeting.He wasn’t especially fond of them； it was just small talk。 After that， his staff sent strict instructions about this preference to every host。 It took him years to discover why there were piles of blueberry muffins every place he went。
例如，一个经理和我讲了一个首席执行官的故事，可能是编造的，首席执行官说早餐会上没有蓝莓小松饼。他其实不是特别爱吃这个，只是随口说。后来，他的下属严格要求所有招待方都提供这种小松饼。首席执行官几年后才知道为什么他走到哪儿都有成堆的蓝莓小松饼。
In another case， an executive asked his workers why there was a new door in one room。 His people took it as a criticism， so they plastered and painted it over to please him。 When he explained that he had not meant it as complaint， they put the door back in。
另一个例子，一个经理问员工，为什么一个屋子里有一个新的门。他的下属把这当做批评，他们把门堵上并刷平以讨他欢心。但他解释说自己并不是要抱怨时，下属又把门拆开了。
Not all smiles
Executive magnification can generate far more troubling waste。 In the 1980s， a co-researcher and I studied a retail chain that spent millions on improving employee courtesy。 They used training， incentives and contests to encourage clerks to offer smiles， eye contact， greetings and thanks to customers。
管理层放大会导致更多的无用功。上世纪八十年代，一个研究员和我研究了一家连锁超市，这家企业花数百万美元提高员工礼仪。他们通过培训、激励和竞争的方法鼓励员工面带笑容、目光接触、打招呼并感谢顾客。
This campaign was launched， in part， because the CEO complained about a rude clerk he encountered。 It took a couple of years before he realized his brief rant had triggered a big campaign that he never wanted—and he ordered the company to wind it down。
发起这种运动的部分原因是首席执行官抱怨他碰到一个粗鲁的员工。几年后，他才意识到他发了一通火竟然引出一场运动来，他压根就没那个意思，于是命令公司淡化处理。
Another way that executives waste employees’ time， slow the work and add to their own burdens is by “cookie licking，” a term inspired by sneaky children who lick cookies to deter others from eating them。
高管浪费员工时间、拖缓工作进度并给员工带来负担的另一种方式是“舔饼干”，这个用法来自于一些熊孩子把所有饼干都舔一遍以防止他人吃。
Cookie licking happens when leaders of growing companies don’t realize or accept that the time has come to delegate responsibilities。 For instance， it made sense for one CEO we know to interview every job candidate when her company had 25 employees—but not when it grew to over 500。
舔饼干发生在增长型公司，领导没有意识到或同意需要分配任务。例如，一个只有25个员工的企业，首席执行官面试每一个求职者是合理的，可公司员工增加到500人后就不行了，我们就认识这样一个首席执行官。
Yet she insisted on doing so even though scheduling interviews placed enormous burdens on her assistant and human-resources staffers， as her schedule became more packed。 The company also lost several top prospects， who accepted jobs elsewhere before interviews with the CEO could be scheduled。
她坚持这样做，即使安排面试给助理和人力资源部带来大量负担，她自己的日程也越来越紧张。公司还失去许多本来可以招致麾下的顶级人才，他们在首席执行官有时间安排面试前就找到其他工作了。
A year too late， the CEO decided she was too busy to interview every candidate。 But she remained oblivious to how her actions had burdened colleagues and driven away candidates。
一年后，这位首席执行官说她太忙了，没法面试每一位求职者。但她还是不知道她的行为给员工带来多少负担，赶走了多少求职者。
Listening to criticism
How can leaders stop making these mistakes？ How can they recognize that they have created an atmosphere where wasting time is more the norm than the aberration？
领导如何不犯这些错误呢？他们怎么能意识到他们营造了一种氛围，浪费时间成了一种管理而非例外。
They can start by being skeptical when they hear nothing but sunny feedback from followers。 They should also be vigilant about their minor complaints and offhand remarks。 When they say anything that could be misconstrued as a command or desire for change， it helps to add， “Please don’t do anything， I am just thinking out loud。”
他们可以从保持怀疑开始，尤其他们只听到下属的积极反馈。他们要谨慎地发小抱怨或随口评论。当他们说一些可能被我认为是改变的命令或意愿是，最好补充一句：“请别做什么，我只是把我想的说出来”。
And when leaders encourage candor and criticism from employees， they should make sure it isn’t just lip service， and back it up with actions。
当领导鼓励员工有话直说时，他们要确保这不是说说而已，要用行动予以支持。
A film director we interviewed described how he was dissecting the flaws in a scene for his team。 Then one member sighed.The director called him on it， and the man mumbled that he didn’t have anything to add。 But when the director nudged him to speak， he made a suggestion about changing the scene that the director praised and implemented。
我们采访过一个电影导演，他说自己分析一场戏的差错时，一个人叹了一口气。导演把他叫住，那个人却嘟囔自己没什么好说的。导演鼓励他说时，他提议改变这场戏，导演赞扬这个想法并付诸了实践。
A radical change
As part of embracing complaints， leaders might consider a radical （and often uncomfortable） change in how they define star employees。
作为容忍抱怨的一部分，领导可能该考虑彻底转变他们对明星员工的定义，尽管这常常让他自己不舒服。
Research on psychological safety led by Amy Edmondson at the Harvard Business School shows that the best employees for promoting organizational learning are often those who never leave well enough alone， pointing out mistakes and flawed practices。
哈佛商学院艾米·埃德蒙森的心理安全研究表明，有利于促进组织学习的最优秀员工经常是那些从来都不会”差不多就行“的人，他们指出错误和有问题的做法。
But those who management rates as top performers are often those who silently do what they’re told and what has always been done—and don’t annoy their superiors with complaints and questions about flawed practices。
但那些管理层认为的优秀员工经常是唯命是从或因循而作的人，他们不会对有问题的做法提出抱怨和问题以免惹恼上级。
My work with Dr。 Rao reveals similar problems： Employees who start big programs are often celebrated， but rarely those who end old， obsolete and ineffective programs and practices。 And managers who lord over big teams and keep adding underlings are rewarded with prestigious titles and big raises—even when their ever-expanding army of bureaucrats adds unnecessary rules and procedures that sap time and energy from people who do the most important work。
我和拉奥博士的工作反映出的问题大同小异：开始干大项目的员工经常受到表扬，那些把过时和无效的项目或事情收尾的人就没什么出息。那些管理一个大团队并不断增加下属的经理人可以获得显耀头衔并增加了薪酬，就算他们不断膨胀的官僚队伍增加了很多没有必要的规定，浪费着那些做最重要工作的员工的时间和能量。
Instead， the best leaders discourage this addition sickness by praising， promoting and paying employees who remove destructive friction and waste。
相反，最优秀的领导不会鼓励这种臃肿病，他们会赞扬、鼓励那些将有害摩擦和浪费消除掉的员工，并给他们加薪。
Playing the subtraction game is much like mowing a lawn。 Leaders can’t just do it once and declare victory。 They have to do it on a regular basis， or else the old bad habits will creep back into place。
做减法游戏很像在除草。领导不能做一次就宣告胜利了，他们必须经常做，否则过去的坏习惯又会卷土重来。
Robert I。 Sutton is a professor in the department of management science and engineering at Stanford University and co-author of “Scaling Up Excellence。”
作者是斯坦佛大学管理科学和工程部教授，《放大卓越》一书的共同作者。
本文作者系新浪国际旗下“地球日报”自媒体联盟成员，授权稿件，转载需获原作者许可。文章言论不代表新浪观点。
