- Intro -
An epidemic of bad, inefficient, overcrowded meetings is plaguing the world’s businesses — and making workers miserable. David Grady has some ideas on how to stop it.
糟糕、低效、人数过多的会议已成为全世界公司都有的一种疫病——它让员工们非常痛苦。大卫·格雷迪有想法来阻止它。
- Audio -
- Transcript -
Picture this: It's Monday morning, you're at the office, you're settling in for the day at work, and this guy that you sort of recognize from down the hall, walks right into your cubicle and he steals your chair. Doesn't say a word — just rolls away with it. Doesn't give you any information about why he took your chair out of all the other chairs that are out there. Doesn't acknowledge the fact that you might need your chair to get some work done today. You wouldn't stand for it. You'd make a stink. You'd follow that guy back to his cubicle and you'd say, "Why my chair?"
想象一下： 星期一的早晨 你在办公室 准备开始一天的工作 这时，坐在附近、你勉强认得的那个人 径直走到你的隔间 把你的椅子拿走了 并且没有对此说一个字 就直接把它推走了 没告诉你为何那么多椅子摆在那 却偏偏拿走了你的 不了解你或许需要这把椅子 来完成今天的工作 你不能容忍这样的事 你会跟着那人走到他的隔间 然后质问：“为什么拿我的椅子？”
Okay, so now it's Tuesday morning and you're at the office, and a meeting invitation pops up in your calendar. (Laughter) And it's from this woman who you kind of know from down the hall, and the subject line references some project that you heard a little bit about. But there's no agenda. There's no information about why you were invited to the meeting. And yet you accept the meeting invitation, and you go. And when this highly unproductive session is over, you go back to your desk, and you stand at your desk and you say, "Boy, I wish I had those two hours back, like I wish I had my chair back." (Laughter)
现在是星期二的早晨，你在办公室 日历上突然跳出一个会议邀请 （笑声） 来自于你在走廊里有点头之交的这位女士 标题栏显示会议是有关一个你勉强听说过的项目 但是没有议程 没有任何信息告诉你被邀请到这个会议的原因 但你接受了邀请并去参会 当这个毫无成果的会议结束 你回到自己的办公桌 你站在办公桌旁说 “天，我希望拿回过去的两小时 就像我希望拿回我的椅子。” （笑声）
Every day, we allow our coworkers, who are otherwise very, very nice people, to steal from us. And I'm talking about something far more valuable than office furniture. I'm talking about time. Your time. In fact, I believe that we are in the middle of a global epidemic of a terrible new illness known as MAS: Mindless Accept Syndrome. (Laughter) The primary symptom of Mindless Accept Syndrome is just accepting a meeting invitation the minute it pops up in your calendar. (Laughter) It's an involuntary reflex — ding, click, bing — it's in your calendar, "Gotta go, I'm already late for a meeting." (Laughter)
每一天 我们都在让好心的同事们 从我们身上窃取 我说的是远比办公室家具更有价值的东西 我说的是时间。你的时间 事实上，我认为 我们正处在一种叫MAS的 可怕的新型全球性疫病中 M（盲目）A（接受）S（综合症） （笑声） 盲目接受综合症的主要症状是 当会议邀请一出现在你的日历上时就接受它 （笑声） 这是不自觉地反应——叮，点击，哔——把它加到你的日历上了 “得走了。我开会已经迟到了” （笑声）
Meetings are important, right? And collaboration is key to the success of any enterprise. And a well-run meeting can yield really positive, actionable results. But between globalization and pervasive information technology, the way that we work has really changed dramatically over the last few years. And we're miserable. (Laughter) And we're miserable not because the other guy can't run a good meeting, it's because of MAS, our Mindless Accept Syndrome, which is a self-inflicted wound.
会议很重要，是吧？ 合作是任何企业成功的关键 一个进展良好的会议可以收获非常正向，可行性高的成果 但是在全球化 以及大型信息技术之间 我们工作的方式 在过去几年里已发生了翻天覆地的变化 然后我们很痛苦 （笑声） 我们痛苦不是因为别人不能运作个好的会议 而是因为MAS，我们的盲目接受综合症 这个病状是我们自找的
Actually, I have evidence to prove that MAS is a global epidemic. Let me tell you why. A couple of years ago, I put a video on Youtube, and in the video, I acted out every terrible conference call you've ever been on. It goes on for about five minutes, and it has all the things that we hate about really bad meetings. There's the moderator who has no idea how to run the meeting. There are the participants who have no idea why they're there. The whole thing kind of collapses into this collaborative train wreck. And everybody leaves very angry. It's kind of funny. (Laughter) Let's take a quick look. (Video)
事实上，我能证明MAS是一种全球性的疫病 我来告诉你为什么 几年前我在Youtube上传了一个视频 在视频中我把所有你曾经历的最糟糕的会议情况展现出来 时长大约五分钟 包含了一切有关令我们讨厌的会议 主持者完全不知道怎样运作会议 参会者完全不知道自己为什么参加 整件事演变成一场集体脱轨 每个人离开时都很愤怒 这仿佛挺可笑的 （笑声） 我们来简单看一下 （视频）
