首页
登录
职称英语
Embracing failure is a cliche of the business world. But as Matthew Syed, a j
Embracing failure is a cliche of the business world. But as Matthew Syed, a j
游客
2023-12-26
22
管理
问题
Embracing failure is a cliche of the business world. But as Matthew Syed, a journalist at The Times, shows in a new book, Black Box Thinking, in practice a "
stigmatizing
attitude toward error" pervades everyday life. This has big implications.
Success brings its own rewards, but the world comes down hard on those who are deemed failures. The desire to avoid such opprobrium prompts people to cover up mistakes, argues Mr. Syed. Police fail to drop cases against people accused of committing a crime, even after clear evidence emerges of their innocence. Politicians plough on with policies even when it is obvious they are not working. All are psychological strategies to avoid admitting fault.
Fear of failure can have devastating consequences, as Mr. Syed shows in a story about United Airlines. In 1978, as a plane approached its destination, the pilot worried that the landing gear had not come down. Desperate, he tried to establish what was wrong, becoming blinded to the plane’s dwindling fuel reserves. Eventually the tank was empty, and the plane crashed. The worry of making a mistake — subjecting the passengers to a bumpy landing — blinded him to bigger problems.
The story is a metaphor. Investors hold on to losing stocks longer than they should. Unable to face the shame of a bad return, they end up with a much bigger loss. Fred Goodwin of RBS, a bank, fretted about the color of the carpets at head office while his firm collapsed under the weight of the financial crisis. The medical profession is especially intolerant of mishaps, says Mr. Syed. This means that mistakes are not scrutinized and people do not learn from them. Small wonder that blunders are pervasive. According to one study of acute care in hospitals, one in 10 patients "is killed or injured as a consequence of medical error or institutional shortcomings".
What to do? One solution is making it easy for people to own up or speak up, as the airline industry has learned to do better than any other. Mr. Syed’s more
novel
suggestion, though, is the rigorous testing of business strategies. This forces people to make improvements. The gold standard is the "randomized control trial" (RCT), in which a treatment group is compared with a control group. Capital One, a credit-card company, has used RCTs obsessively — over the fonts it uses, for example, and the scripts at its call-centers — to assess which initiatives fail and which do not. James Dyson, a technology entrepreneur, and Google are other cheerleaders for this hyperrational school of management.
This approach may also hold benefits for governments. David Halpern is the boss of the British government’s Behavioral Insights Team (BIT), known as the "nudge unit," which uses RCTs to improve policy.
Identifying points of failure and making small changes, he argues, reaps
disproportionate gains
. By including a message on a car-tax form appealing to people’s sense of humanity, the BIT sharply boosted organ donations.
Much still needs to be done. Between 2010 and 2012 the BIT saved the British government only £ 300 million ($457 million), a negligible proportion of GDR Few businesses incorporate RCTs as extensively as Capital One. Much more could be done. Hospitals could subject doctors to RCTs, identify the mistake-prone and then help them. Civil servants could randomly test the economic impact of policies, such as changes to income tax, before rolling them out. It sounds extreme, but confronting failure rationally would bring huge rewards. [br] What does the phrase "disproportionate gains" underlined in Paragraph 7 mean?
选项
A、Some rewards seem to be negligible.
B、Small actions will bring big returns.
C、Small changes can lead to failure.
D、Some initiatives can be boosted.
答案
B
解析
语义题。第7段第2句用具体案例(通过在汽车税单上加印激发人性的信息,英国政府的“行为研究小组”极大促进了器官捐赠),证明这种不成比例的收益是指“付出极小收获极大”,故选B(小小的行动将带来巨大的回报)。注意D(有些刚发起的行动得到推进)易误选,这只是例证巨大回报的具体表征。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3306103.html
相关试题推荐
BusinessasUsualVocabularyandExpressionsTuvalupiqueevacuati
Nike’sSuccessNikeperformedwellduringthelastquarter.Businesswasupi
Nike’sSuccessNikeperformedwellduringthelastquarter.Businesswasupi
Nike’sSuccessNikeperformedwellduringthelastquarter.Businesswasupi
Nike’sSuccessNikeperformedwellduringthelastquarter.Businesswasupi
Nike’sSuccessNikeperformedwellduringthelastquarter.Businesswasupi
Nike’sSuccessNikeperformedwellduringthelastquarter.Businesswasupi
Nike’sSuccessNikeperformedwellduringthelastquarter.Businesswasupi
Nike’sSuccessNikeperformedwellduringthelastquarter.Businesswasupi
Nike’sSuccessNikeperformedwellduringthelastquarter.Businesswasupi
随机试题
你单位向灾区发放救灾物资,但是群众发现物资中有霉变的食品,并且有人拍了照片发到网
儿童鼾症最常见的原因是A.支气管肺炎 B.肥胖 C.哮喘 D.腺样体肥大和
A.川贝母、甜杏仁 B.秦艽、白薇 C.丹皮、黑山栀 D.姜半夏、橘红
经高压蒸汽灭菌后的物品,最长保存时间是A.3d B.1~2周 C.3周 D
如图所示的四个实例中,为了减小压强的是:()A. B. C. D.
在以下四大类微生物中,只含DNA或RNA一种核酸的是()。A、真菌 B、真细
大多数金属在温度降到某一数值时,会出现电阻降为零的现象。我们将这种现象称为()A
抑制蛋白质合成的起始阶段,使核糖体分解,抑制有丝分裂的抗恶性肿瘤药是A.长春碱
桥梁扩建加宽,新旧桥梁采用上部结构连接而下部结构分离方式时,下列说法错误的是(
女,56岁。子宫内膜癌术后10天。病理示低分化子宫内膜样腺瘤,侵及深肌层,淋巴结
最新回复
(
0
)