Helping Your Team Feel the Purpose in Their Work

?No one wants to be a nine-to-five robot. People want to feel inspired, find meaning, and see the impact their work has on others. And when they do, they're more engaged, innovative, and productive. That isn't a secret or a revelation. It's common sense.

沒人愿意成為朝九晚五的機(jī)器人。人們希望獲得靈感，找到存在的意義，期望看到自己的工作影響到他人。當(dāng)員工看到工作的意義后，他們會(huì)更投入，更具創(chuàng)新性，更高效。這并非什么秘密或意外的發(fā)現(xiàn)，而是常識(shí)。

If you're a leader, helping others feel a sense of purpose can be a powerful tool. So, why then do so many leaders have trouble lighting up their employees?

如果你是一位領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者，幫助員工理解目標(biāo)的真正意義便是讓其高效工作的不二法門。那么，為何如此多的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者無(wú)法成功鼓舞員工的士氣？

The simple answer is it's extremely difficult to instill purpose in others. It takes more than motivational talks, lofty speeches, or mission statements to spread purpose. In fact, if overblown or insincere, those methods can backfire, triggering cynical reactions.

簡(jiǎn)單而言，原因在于將目標(biāo)灌輸給他人是一件非常困難的事情。傳播目標(biāo)需要的不止是激勵(lì)性的談話，高談闊論或宣揚(yáng)使命。實(shí)際上，如果過分夸大或者不夠真誠(chéng)，這些方法可能會(huì)適得其反。

Purpose is a grand word, but in the end, it's about helping people see their impact on others and helping them develop a story about why they love what they do. If you keep that in mind, and take a personal, authentic, and perpetual approach, you're likely to find success.

目標(biāo)是一個(gè)很宏大的詞語(yǔ)，但最終它要幫助人們了解自己對(duì)他人產(chǎn)生的影響，并幫助他們打造一個(gè)基于為夢(mèng)想而拼搏的情懷故事。如果能夠牢記這一點(diǎn)，并采取個(gè)性化、真實(shí)性且可持續(xù)性的方法，你很可能會(huì)取得成功。

Make it personal

個(gè)性化

First, purpose needs to be personal, and, because purpose is meant to elicit an emotional reaction, purpose needs to be?felt.?You can't just talk about purpose.

首先，目標(biāo)必須個(gè)性化。同時(shí)，由于目標(biāo)意味著引起情感反應(yīng)，所以人們必須能夠感受到目標(biāo)，而不能只是泛泛而談。

Imagine you're the head of a college fundraising effort to help fund scholarships for underprivileged kids. How would you motivate your volunteers? According to a study by Adam Grant, if you stood in front of the group and talked about the impact of their work, you probably wouldn't improve anyone's performance. But, if you invited a current scholarship recipient to share their personal story, that would be much more impactful. In fact, in Grant's study, after volunteers had listened to a scholarship recipient, they raised almost 400% more money than average.

設(shè)想大學(xué)里有一項(xiàng)為貧困兒童籌集獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金的活動(dòng)，而你是這項(xiàng)活動(dòng)的負(fù)責(zé)人。你打算如何激勵(lì)志愿者？根據(jù)亞當(dāng)·格蘭特（Adam Grant）的一項(xiàng)研究，如果你選擇站在團(tuán)隊(duì)的最前面談?wù)撍麄兊墓ぷ魉軒?lái)的影響，此舉可能無(wú)法提高任何人的表現(xiàn)。但是，如果你邀請(qǐng)獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金獲得者分享他們的親身故事，這將產(chǎn)生更大的影響力。實(shí)際上，在格蘭特的研究中，在志愿者聽取了獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金獲得者的分享后，籌集的資金額幾乎是平均水平的四倍。

When I was telling some leaders from F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, about the fundraising study, one of them lit up and blurted out, “This just happened to us!”

當(dāng)我向全球最大制藥公司之一的霍夫曼·羅氏制藥公司（F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG）的一些負(fù)責(zé)人介紹籌款研究時(shí)，其中一位興奮地脫口而出：“這樣的事剛剛發(fā)生在我們身上！”

She explained how her team worked in the medical-devices division. Her group was sometimes looked down upon by people in the organization who thought that chemistry was “more sexy” than engineering. Many people in the division were not fully engaged, and the morale of the team was pretty low. One day the leader arranged for a customer to tell the team her personal story.

她解釋了自己的團(tuán)隊(duì)在醫(yī)療器械部門的工作情況。她的團(tuán)隊(duì)有時(shí)會(huì)遭到那些認(rèn)為化學(xué)比工程學(xué)“更性感”的同事的鄙視。部門中的許多人沒有全身心投入到工作中，團(tuán)隊(duì)的士氣很低落。有一天，領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者安排一位客戶向團(tuán)隊(duì)講述她的親身故事。

This customer had diabetes and had to test her blood daily to make sure her insulin dose was right. Unfortunately, this poor woman misunderstood how much blood was needed and was pricking her finger more than she needed to in order to get the blood. It not only hurt every day, so that it became something she dreaded, but she also was making a mess of her fingers. She would work her way down one finger from the tip to the knuckle, get it all inflamed and sometimes infected, before moving to the next finger. She said it got to the point where she would sit on her hand to hide the damage from others. She stopped going out to dinner because she was so embarrassed.

該客戶患有糖尿病，必須每天采血以確保胰島素的正確劑量。不幸的是，這位可憐的女士沒有弄清楚需要采集多少血液。為了采集血量，她不得不多次刺破手指，所以采血讓她恐懼不已，不僅因?yàn)槭录旧淼耐纯嘈裕愕氖亲屗氖种副辉靡粓F(tuán)糟。她總是沿著一根手指的指尖一直刺到關(guān)節(jié)處，致使整個(gè)手指發(fā)炎，有時(shí)甚至感染，然后再去刺下一根手指。她說，她甚至到了要盡量少露出自己的手，以避免受到他人傷害的地步。因?yàn)楦械教珜擂?，她不再外出赴宴?/p>

The diabetic then told the group how they had improved her life when they invented a little finger-pricking device. You put it on the end of your finger and click it. It takes the absolute minimum amount of blood, is almost painless and leaves almost no cut at all. She told how, because of this device, her hands have healed, and she can go out to dinner without feeling ashamed about herself. She told the group: “You people changed my life.”

接下來(lái)，這位糖尿病患者告訴研究小組，他們發(fā)明的一種小型的手指刺破設(shè)備如何改善了她的生活。你只需要將這個(gè)裝置放在手指末端，然后按下按鈕就能采集到血液。設(shè)備的采血量絕對(duì)是最少的，而且?guī)缀鯚o(wú)痛，也不會(huì)留有傷口。她說，正是由于這個(gè)設(shè)備，她的雙手已經(jīng)康復(fù)了。現(xiàn)在，她不再為自己感到羞愧，可以出去赴宴了。她告訴研究小組：“你們改變了我的生活?！?/p>

The Roche leader told us that the medical device team was really affected by this patient testimonial. She said that it was very emotional in the room during the meeting. And for months, people felt more purpose.

羅氏制藥的負(fù)責(zé)人告訴我們，這位患者的親身經(jīng)歷確實(shí)對(duì)醫(yī)療器械團(tuán)隊(duì)產(chǎn)生了很大的影響。她說，會(huì)議期間房間里的人員都深受感動(dòng)。幾個(gè)月以來(lái)，人們體會(huì)到了更多的目標(biāo)感。

It doesn't matter what line of work you're in. If people see the cause and effect between their inputs and their team's progress, or understand the impact of a customer getting their product on time, or experience first-hand how their role is necessary to other people, they'll feel a sense of purpose.

一個(gè)人從事的工作類型并不重要。但如果人們看到自己的投入與團(tuán)隊(duì)的進(jìn)步之間有因果聯(lián)系，或者了解到客戶因及時(shí)使用他們產(chǎn)品而給自己的生活帶來(lái)積極的影響，或者親身體驗(yàn)到他們的工作對(duì)別人來(lái)說必不可少，這就會(huì)讓他們有種目標(biāo)感。

Make it authentic

真實(shí)性

But here’s the thing. You need to believe what you’re saying and doing. This makes all the difference. If your attempts at creating purpose do not align with your other leadership behaviors, employees will view your tactics as manipulative rather than inspirational.

不過，有一點(diǎn)需要注意，你要相信自己的所言所行。這會(huì)產(chǎn)生截然不同的效果。如果你試圖建立的目標(biāo)與你的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)行為不一致，員工們就會(huì)認(rèn)為，你使用這些策略就是為了操縱他們，而不是鼓舞他們。

Right after the woman at Roche shared her inspirational story, for example, a man raised his hand on the other side of the room and said, “Yeah, they tried that bullshit on us too.”

例如，剛才那位女士在分享了她的故事后，坐在房間另一側(cè)的一位男士舉起了手，說道：“是的，他們想對(duì)我們胡說八道。”

“I have this boss who has never talked about anything but quarterly profits and hitting shipping targets,” he continued. “Well, he must have come to London Business School and heard you talk about this study because one day he drags a patient in to our weekly meeting and makes her tell us this story of how the drugs saved her life. I mean, trying to exploit our emotions to make us work harder? Using a patient to manipulate us!? That’s pretty low.”

“我們的這位老板，除了為了實(shí)現(xiàn)季度利潤(rùn)和運(yùn)輸目標(biāo)外，從未談?wù)撨^其他任何事情，”他繼續(xù)說，“看來(lái)，他一定是在倫敦商學(xué)院聽過你的故事了。因?yàn)橛幸惶焖晃换颊邅?lái)參加我們的周例會(huì)，讓她給我們講故事，講述我們的藥品如何挽救了她的生命。我的意思是，他想利用我們的情感去激勵(lì)我們更加努力工作嗎？竟然利用病人來(lái)操縱我們！這種把戲也太拙劣了吧！”

We can learn so much through this exchange.

通過這次交流，我們可以學(xué)到很多東西。

If you’re a leader, and you’re trying to sell people on purpose but you haven’t acted consistent with that purpose in the past, your message will backfire. Humans are authenticity-detection machines:?we’re attracted to sincerity and repulsed by lies and insincerity.

如果你是領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者，當(dāng)你試圖向員工兜售目標(biāo)時(shí)，如果你過去的行為與該目標(biāo)不一致，那么你的信息可能會(huì)適得其反。人類就是檢測(cè)真實(shí)性的機(jī)器：真誠(chéng)能夠吸引我們，我們排斥謊言和偽善。

So tread lightly. If you’re personally inspired by listening to customers, and really believe in what you’re saying, then go for it. If you’re not, you might create more feelings of manipulation than inspiration.

所以，要謹(jǐn)慎對(duì)待。如果聽取客戶的意見確實(shí)讓你受到啟發(fā)，而且你確實(shí)相信自己所說的話，那就放手去做吧。否則的話，你給人的感受更多的是操縱，而非鼓勵(lì)。

Make it perpetual

可持續(xù)性

Even if you make purpose personal and authentic, you can’t just do it once. Instead, you need to make it a routine.

即使你的目標(biāo)具備個(gè)性化、真實(shí)性的特點(diǎn)，也不能只完成一次，你必須讓其可持續(xù)性。

Dr. Dorothee Ritz, the General Manager of Microsoft in Austria, encourages her employees to go out in the field and experience the clients’ problems first hand. One small team spent a week out on the street with police officers, trying to understand when and where remote data could help them. Another team spent two days in a hospital to observe and understand what it would really mean to help it become paperless.

微軟公司（奧地利）總經(jīng)理多洛特·麗茲博士（Dorothee Ritz）鼓勵(lì)員工去實(shí)地親身體驗(yàn)客戶們的問題。一個(gè)小團(tuán)隊(duì)與警察一起在街上度過了一周的時(shí)間，試圖了解遠(yuǎn)程數(shù)據(jù)何時(shí)何地可以為他們提供幫助；另一個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)在醫(yī)院待了兩天，觀察并了解幫助醫(yī)院實(shí)現(xiàn)無(wú)紙化的真正含義。

Ritz said these immersion experiences were enlightening for people. She said they came back illuminated, and it was clear to her that employees’ personal experiences increased their sense of purpose, since they witnessed the?why?of their work. Ritz watched employees dive into their projects with more energy and enthusiasm after they had witnessed the clients'?needs themselves.

麗茲說，這些沉浸式體驗(yàn)對(duì)人們很有啟發(fā)。在她看來(lái)，員工的親身經(jīng)歷明顯增強(qiáng)了他們的目標(biāo)感，因?yàn)樗麄冇H眼目睹了自己工作存在的價(jià)值。麗茲看到，在親身了解客戶們的需求后，員工們?cè)诠ぷ髦型度肓烁嗟幕盍蜔崆椤?/p>

So after a year of experimenting with this initiative, Ritz put something more secure in place. She selected a set of key customers (whom she calls partners) across industries ranging from car manufacturing to retailers to hospitals. And then 15 people from Microsoft — a team ranging from senior leaders to associates — go on-site at each company and ask lots of people at lots of different levels: “What are your challenges?” They talked to people in IT, of course, but they also talked with business decision-makers across different functions.

因此，在嘗試這種新方案一年以后，麗茲采取了更加安全的做法。她從各行各業(yè)中挑選了一組關(guān)鍵客戶（她稱之為合作伙伴），這里面既有汽車制造商，也有零售商和醫(yī)院。然后，來(lái)自微軟公司的15人（一個(gè)由高管和合伙人組成的團(tuán)隊(duì)）到每家公司實(shí)地走訪，并詢問許多不同級(jí)別的人：“你面臨的挑戰(zhàn)有哪些？”他們和IT領(lǐng)域以及不同職能部門的業(yè)務(wù)決策者都進(jìn)行了交談。

At Tesla, for example, Ritz told me how Microsoft employees at different levels got to practice a conversation that started with Tesla's needs instead of Microsoft's products. They focused on holes in the process that Tesla needed to address. At a major retailer, a Microsoft employee who was very close to the Xbox asked some very grounded questions about issues with the console. This led to a useful, practical discussion rather than high-level executive speak, which helped move the whole conversation toward practical solutions that the team could go back and work on. These Microsoft teams came away with a few new contacts. But Ritz said what was even more important, these teams understood the purpose of the projects based on witnessing the situation and hearing about the companies' issues first-hand.

比如在特斯拉（Tesla），微軟不同級(jí)別的員工基于特斯拉的需求而不是微軟的產(chǎn)品開始了一場(chǎng)對(duì)話。他們專注于特斯拉在流程中需要解決的一些漏洞。在一家大型零售店，一位非常熟悉Xbox游戲機(jī)的微軟員工針對(duì)控制臺(tái)詢問了一些非常實(shí)際的問題，這引發(fā)了一場(chǎng)有用而實(shí)際的討論，而不是高層管理人員發(fā)表講話。這有助于推動(dòng)整個(gè)對(duì)話朝著實(shí)際解決方案的方向發(fā)展，讓整個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)在回到公司后可以繼續(xù)開展工作。這個(gè)微軟團(tuán)隊(duì)得到了一些截然不同的市場(chǎng)反饋渠道，但更重要的是，這些團(tuán)隊(duì)成員親眼目睹了情況，親耳聽到了公司的問題，并在此基礎(chǔ)上把握了項(xiàng)目的目標(biāo)。

Ritz invested deeply in client experiences that allowed employees to witness the impact of their jobs first-hand, which helped them build emotional connections with the client and the work, and which helped Microsoft explore and learn as an organization.

麗茲在客戶體驗(yàn)方面投入很多，讓員工們可以親眼看到自己的工作所產(chǎn)生的影響。這幫助他們與客戶和工作建立情感聯(lián)系，并且?guī)椭④涀鳛橐粋€(gè)組織進(jìn)行探索和學(xué)習(xí)。

Purpose can be a powerful tool for leaders who want to inspire people to bring their best to work. But most leaders agree that?employees do not “get” their organizations' purpose.?This is because purpose is personal and emotional. It is often managed poorly by transactional leaders who deliver speeches about lofty societal goals rather than helping put employees in direct contact with the people they serve. Purpose can work wonders for employee contributions when leaders start with a personal, authentic, and perpetual approach.

對(duì)于希望激勵(lì)員工發(fā)揮最大工作潛能的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者來(lái)說，目標(biāo)可以成為一個(gè)強(qiáng)大的工具。但是，大多數(shù)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者都承認(rèn)，員工們沒有“弄清楚”組織的目標(biāo)。這是因?yàn)槟繕?biāo)是個(gè)性化的、情感性的。交易型領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者常常管理不善，因?yàn)樗麄冎粫?huì)對(duì)設(shè)定的目標(biāo)發(fā)表高談闊論，而不會(huì)幫助員工們直接接觸他們的服務(wù)對(duì)象。當(dāng)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者開始采取個(gè)性化、真實(shí)性且可持續(xù)性的方式時(shí)，理解目標(biāo)的真正含義就能讓員工們創(chuàng)造業(yè)績(jī)奇跡。

丹·凱布爾是倫敦商學(xué)院組織行為學(xué)教授，最近出版了《激活——如何使團(tuán)隊(duì)跑起來(lái)》(Alive at Work: The Neuroscienceof Helping Your People Love What They Do)一書。