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
2025-01-20
8
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 word "novel" underlined in Paragraph 5 mean?
选项
A、Reliable.
B、Strange.
C、Random.
D、Original.
答案
D
解析
语义题。novel在文中作形容词表示“新奇的,新颖的”,故选D。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3920661.html
相关试题推荐
Chinaisthetopsourcecountryofinternationalstudentsintheworld.Recen
Chinaisthetopsourcecountryofinternationalstudentsintheworld.Recen
Chinaisthetopsourcecountryofinternationalstudentsintheworld.Recen
Chinaisthetopsourcecountryofinternationalstudentsintheworld.Recen
Chinaisthetopsourcecountryofinternationalstudentsintheworld.Recen
Chinaisthetopsourcecountryofinternationalstudentsintheworld.Recen
Chinaisthetopsourcecountryofinternationalstudentsintheworld.Recen
Chinaisthetopsourcecountryofinternationalstudentsintheworld.Recen
Chinaisthetopsourcecountryofinternationalstudentsintheworld.Recen
Chinaisthetopsourcecountryofinternationalstudentsintheworld.Recen
随机试题
It’sdesiredthatshe______toteachusatleasttwiceaweek.A、comesB、willco
Aroundoneinahundreddeathsworldwideisduetopassivesmoking,whichki
WhatisChloeconcernedabout?[br][originaltext]Youwillheartwopeoplecall
MillionsofbooksandanInternet-basedcampusnetworkareavailablefortheUni
Abig【C1】______ofthecriticismofcomputergameshas【C2】______thecontento
()是物流体系中一个重要的环节,既有调节生产和供求的作用,也有创值与增效的功能。
25岁男性患者,双下肢水肿4周,查:血压100/65mmHg,尿蛋白(++++)
城市土地利用从中心到郊区依次是( )。A.居住、商业、工业、农业 B.商业、
根据我国现行投资管理规定,对关系( )的企业投资项目,实行核准管理。A.国家安全
【教材已删除】下列有关消防水泵接合器的作用说法正确的是()。A.灭火时通过
最新回复
(
0
)