CREATING BASEBALL CARDS
制作棒球卡
Even after we werearmed with the Myers-Briggs data and other tests we’d taken, I found that wewere still having a hard time connecting the dots between the outcomes that wewere seeing and what we knew about the people producing them. Over and overagain, the same people would walk into the same meetings, do things the sameways, and get the same results without seeking to understand why. (Recently Icame across a study that revealed a cognitive bias in which people consistentlyoverlook the evidence of one person being better than another at something andassume that both are equally good at a task. This was exactly what we wereseeing.) For example, people who were known not to be creative were beingassigned tasks that required creativity; people who didn’t pay attention todetails were being assigned to detail-oriented jobs, and so on. We needed a wayto make the data that showed what people were like even clearer and moreexplicit, so I began making “Baseball Cards” for employees that listed their“stats.” The idea was that they could be passed around and referred to whenassigning responsibilities. Just as you wouldn’t have a great fielder with a.160 batting average bat third, you wouldn’t assign a big-picture person a taskrequiring attention to details.
At first, this ideamet a lot of resistance. People were concerned that the Baseball Cards wouldn’tbe accurate, that producing them would be too time-consuming, and that theywould only succeed in pigeonholing people unfairly. But over time, everyone’sattitudes toward this approach of openly exploring what people are like shifted180 degrees. Most people found that having this information out in the open foreveryone to see was more liberating than constraining because when it becamethe norm, people gained the sort of comfort that comes with just beingthemselves at work that family members have with each other at home.
Because this way of
operating was so unusual, a number of behavioral psychologists came to
Bridgewater to evaluate it. I urge you to read their assessments, which were
overwhelmingly favorable.7The Harvardpsychologist Bob Kegan called Bridgewater “a form of proof that the quest forbusiness excellence and the search for personal realization need not bemutually exclusive—and can, in fact, be essential to each other.”
I should also explainthat my personal circumstances at the time also drew me to psychology andneurology. While for the most part I am keeping my family members’ lives out ofthis book to protect their privacy, I will tell you this one story about my sonPaul as it is relevant and he is open about it.
After graduating fromNYU’s Tisch film school, Paul headed out to Los Angeles to take a job. One dayhe went to the front desk of the hotel where he was staying while he looked foran apartment and smashed their computer. He was arrested and thrown in jail,where he was beaten up by guards. Ultimately, he was diagnosed with bipolardisorder, released into my custody, and admitted to the psychiatric ward of ahospital.
That was the beginningof a three-year roller-coaster ride that took Paul, Barbara, and me to thepeaks of his manias and the depths of his depressions, through the twists andturns of the health care system, and into discussions with some of the mostbrilliant and caring psychologists, psychiatrists, and neuroscientists at worktoday. There is nothing to prompt learning like pain and necessity, and thisgave me plenty of both. At times I felt as though I was holding Paul by thehand as he was dangling over a cliff—from one day to the next, I never knewwhether I could hold on or if he would slip from my grip. I worked intenselywith his caregivers to understand what was going on and what to do about it.Thanks both to the help he received and his own great character, Paul workedthrough this and is now better off than if he hadn’t fallen into his abyss,because he developed strengths he didn’t have but needed. Paul was oncewild—staying out till all hours, disorganized, smoking marijuana anddrinking—but he now faithfully takes his meds, meditates, goes to bed early,and avoids drugs and alcohol. He had loads of creativity but lacked discipline.Now he has plenty of both. As a result, he is more creative now than he wasbefore and is happily married, the father of two boys, an accomplishedfilmmaker, and a crusader helping those who struggle with bipolar disorder.
His radical transparencyabout being bipolar and his commitment to helping others with it inspires me.His first feature film,Touched with Fire, whichreceived lots of acclaim, gave many people who might have lost their lives tobipolar disorder both the hope and the path forward they needed. I rememberwatching him shoot one scene based on a real conversation between us in whichhe was manic and I was struggling to reason with him. I could simultaneouslysee the actor playing Paul at his worst while the real Paul was at his best,directing the scene. As I watched, my mind flashed over his whole journey—fromthe depths of his abyss, through his metamorphosis into the strong herostanding in front of me, someone on a mission to help others going through whathe had gone through.
That journey throughhell gave me a much deeper understanding of how and why we see thingsdifferently. I learned that much of how we think is physiological and can bechanged. For example, Paul’s wild swings were due to the inconsistentsecretions of dopamine and other chemicals in his brain, so he could change bycontrolling those chemicals and the activities and stimuli affecting them. Ilearned that creative genius and insanity can be quite close to each other,that the same chemistry that creates insights can cause distortions, and thatbeing stuck in one’s own head is terribly dangerous. When Paul was “crazy,” healways believed his own illogical arguments, no matter how strange they soundedto others. While more extreme in the case of someone with bipolar disorder,this is something I’ve seen most everyone do. I also learned how people cancontrol how their brains work to produce dramatically better effects. Theseinsights helped me to deal with people more effectively, as I will explain in detailin Chapter Four, Understand That People Are Wired Very Differently.
譯文：
即便我們有了梅耶比格斯的數(shù)據(jù)幫助，還有其他我們采取的測(cè)試，我依舊發(fā)現(xiàn)我們依舊很難在我們看到的和我們都熟知那些人輸出的結(jié)果之間發(fā)現(xiàn)聯(lián)系。這些情況一再重復(fù)，相同的人遭遇相同的情況，用相似的方式做事，得到相似的結(jié)果而沒有試圖明白為什么。（最近我開始嘗試一項(xiàng)研究關(guān)于揭秘一項(xiàng)關(guān)于認(rèn)識(shí)的成見—人們總是經(jīng)常忽視一個(gè)人優(yōu)于他人的證據(jù)，并假設(shè)他們一樣優(yōu)秀。這就是我們看到的真相）舉例，大家都知道某人不擅長有創(chuàng)造力的工作，結(jié)果被安排了需要?jiǎng)?chuàng)造力的活兒；一個(gè)不注意細(xì)節(jié)的人被安排了細(xì)節(jié)決定成敗的工作，諸如此類，我們需要一套方法得到關(guān)于人們傾向和明確的、顯然易見的數(shù)據(jù)，所以我開始為我的雇員制作“棒球卡”列舉他們的狀態(tài)值。想法就是這些卡片能在分配工作時(shí)傳遞和參考。你不會(huì)給一個(gè)大線條的人分配一項(xiàng)需要注意細(xì)節(jié)的任務(wù)。
起初，這個(gè)主意遇到了很多抵制。大家都認(rèn)為棒球卡不準(zhǔn)確，并且造成了大量的時(shí)間損耗，認(rèn)為他們只能通過不公正的分類來取得成功。但是過了段時(shí)間，每個(gè)公開探求這項(xiàng)措施的人的態(tài)度都發(fā)生了180讀的翻轉(zhuǎn)。大多數(shù)人發(fā)現(xiàn)擁有這些公開信息能讓人更開放而不是約束因?yàn)楫?dāng)卡片開始變得正常化，人們獲得了一種舒適的感覺-感覺來源于他們?cè)诠ぷ髦凶鲎约壕拖窦彝コ蓡T在家里彼此之間的那種舒適和放松的感覺。
因?yàn)檫@種操作是如此的不同尋常，一些行為心理學(xué)家來到橋水開始評(píng)估這種方法。我強(qiáng)烈建議你閱讀他們的評(píng)估報(bào)告，都是一面倒的贊成。哈佛心理學(xué)家鮑勃科干管橋水叫“一種證明-商業(yè)杰出和探索和個(gè)人成就的搜索不必彼此孤立，而是能，實(shí)際上能成就彼此。”。
我應(yīng)當(dāng)也解釋下那時(shí)候我周圍的情況也將我拉向心理學(xué)和神經(jīng)病學(xué)。當(dāng)然大多數(shù)章節(jié)我都會(huì)極力將我的家人排出本書也是為了保護(hù)他們的隱私，我會(huì)告訴你這個(gè)關(guān)于我的兒子保羅的故事因?yàn)檫@個(gè)故事很重要并且保羅愿意公開它。
自從紐約大學(xué)電影學(xué)院畢業(yè)后，保羅就奔向洛杉磯找了份工作。一天他在停留期間的酒店前臺(tái)尋找一套公寓結(jié)果砸了他們的電腦。他被捕并投入監(jiān)獄，在哪里他被獄警痛扁，最終他被診斷為兩級(jí)失調(diào)，被釋放由我來監(jiān)護(hù)，并公開承認(rèn)受到了一所醫(yī)院的精神病監(jiān)護(hù)。
這是三年過山車式的騎行的開始，帶著保羅、芭芭拉、我領(lǐng)略了保羅的狂躁和深深的消沉，這三年交織在健康護(hù)理系統(tǒng)和與那些著名的護(hù)理心理學(xué)家、精神病專家、神經(jīng)科學(xué)家的討論中。對(duì)于病痛和必須的護(hù)理沒有任何值得鼓勵(lì)的事情。而這給我?guī)黼p重的感受。那時(shí)候我感覺盡管我我抓著保羅卻總感覺保羅就像在懸崖邊晃蕩會(huì)隨時(shí)脫離我的掌控—每天，我永遠(yuǎn)也不明白我是該抓住他還是他會(huì)溜走。我和他的看護(hù)者緊密工作以便于明白怎樣才能不墜入深淵，因?yàn)樗呀?jīng)貢獻(xiàn)了他不曾擁有的但卻需要的的力量。保羅曾經(jīng)有段時(shí)間整天在外晃蕩，混亂無序，抽大麻喝酒—但他現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)完全恢復(fù)正常，每天很早睡覺，不再吸毒和爛醉。他有著創(chuàng)意的天賦卻缺乏紀(jì)律性。現(xiàn)在他兩者都擁有。結(jié)果他現(xiàn)在更加的富有創(chuàng)新能力，很幸運(yùn)也結(jié)婚了，并成為了兩個(gè)孩子的父親，一個(gè)成功的電影制作人和雙重失調(diào)癥患者的救助運(yùn)動(dòng)參與者。
保羅對(duì)于雙重失調(diào)癥的坦白和他對(duì)于其他患者的坦誠一直在激勵(lì)我。他的第一個(gè)正片，觸火，收到了大量的肯定，給了那些因雙重失調(diào)癥而失去性命的患者希望和指引道路。我記得他錄制了基于真實(shí)訪談-我們，他作為患者而我努力探尋原因。我能同時(shí)看到保羅飾演的角色在他低谷的時(shí)候和他最好的時(shí)候一個(gè)真正的保羅，現(xiàn)場導(dǎo)演，就像我看到的，我的腦海里閃過他整個(gè)旅程—從他深深的低谷，到他的變態(tài)再到站在我面前的強(qiáng)力英雄-一些人會(huì)幫助其他人通過他們已經(jīng)走過的路。
地獄之旅給了我很深的理解—我們應(yīng)該怎樣看待和為什么我們看待事物的差異性。我了解到我們?cè)鯓铀伎际切睦韺W(xué)問題并且是能改變的。舉例，保羅的瘋狂的行為 都可以歸因于多巴胺分泌的不一致性和其他一些他腦中的化學(xué)反應(yīng)，所以他能改變通過控制那些化學(xué)反應(yīng)和活動(dòng)，刺激影響他們。我了解到創(chuàng)新性天賦和瘋狂兩者非常接近，同樣的化學(xué)變化比如頓悟也可能導(dǎo)致畸變，并擠壓在人的大腦中造成可怕的威脅。當(dāng)保羅處于瘋狂他總是相信他的不合邏輯的論點(diǎn)，而不論他們聽起來是多么奇怪的。處于兩級(jí)失調(diào)的人更容易陷入這種極端，我在大多數(shù)人身上都看到過。我也知道認(rèn)識(shí)怎么樣控制他們大腦的工作方式以產(chǎn)生戲劇性的效果。這些遠(yuǎn)見幫助我更加高效的處理這些人，我將在第四章詳細(xì)解釋，理解那些人是非常不同的。
讀后感：這種辦法好，每個(gè)人都有一張工作卡，標(biāo)記清楚個(gè)性、特長、擅長、缺點(diǎn)等，這樣在分配工作時(shí)就不會(huì)有大的出入，工作和人的匹配度高，任務(wù)完成的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)不會(huì)很大，起碼在資源充分的情況下，不會(huì)出現(xiàn)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。
作者突然轉(zhuǎn)到保羅的病史這個(gè)情節(jié)，我很不理解，但估計(jì)是為后面服務(wù)的，應(yīng)該還是圍繞前面的棒球卡章節(jié)服務(wù)的。也許從保羅的病例分析雷開始關(guān)注員工的心理、精神等指標(biāo)數(shù)據(jù)了。這就比單純的能力值能更好的反映一個(gè)人的綜合能力，比如抗壓性和持久性，這些不好用準(zhǔn)確數(shù)字衡量的指標(biāo)，但這些指標(biāo)恰恰很重要。
也許吧，這些是我猜的。
