出自:国家开放大学-管理英语4
On May 27, 1995, our life was suddenly changed. It happened a few minutes past three, when my husband, Chris, fell from his horse as it jumped over a fence. Chris was paralyzed (瘫痪) from the chest down, 回答
to breathe normally. As he was thrown from his horse, we entered into a life of disability with lots of unexpected challenges. We went from the “haves” to the “have-nots”. Or so we thought.
Yet what we discovered later were all the gifts that came out of sharing difficulties. We came to learn that something 回答
wonderful
得分 0.00/2.00 分 could happen in a disaster. All over the world people cared for Chris so much that letters and postcards poured in every day. By the end of the third week in a medical center in Virginia, about 35,000 pieces of 回答
mail
得分 0.00/2.00 分 had been received and sorted. As 回答
a family
得分 0.00/2.00 分, we opened letter after letter. They gave us comfort and became a source of strength for us. We use them to encourage ourselves. I would go to the pile of letters marked with “funny” if we need a laugh, or to the “disabled” box to find advice from people in wheelchairs or even in bed living happily and 回答
successfully
得分 0.00/2.00 分. These letters, we realized, had to be shared. And so here we offer one of them to you.
The Right Way to Motivate Employees
It.s important for a CEO to be passionate and enthusiastic, but there.s a line of professionalism that must always be maintained.
According to a report from the technology website Venture Beat, PayPal CEO David Marcus wrote a critical letter to his employees blaming them for not using PayPal products and encouraging them to leave if they didn.t have the passion to use the products they work for.
According to the website, part of the leaked letter reads:
“It.s been brought to my attention that when testing paying with mobile at Cafe 17 last week, some of you refused to install the PayPal app, and others didn.t even remember their PayPal passwords. That.s unacceptable to me, and the rest of my team, everyone at PayPal should use our products where available. That.s the only way we can make them better, and better.”
“In closing, if you are one of the folks who refused to install the PayPal app or if you can.t remember your PayPal password, do yourself a favor, go and find something that will connect with your heart and mind elsewhere.”
While not obvious at first, the letter reveals a problem of morale and culture at PayPal. As an executive, you certainly want your employees to use and promote your products. However, when faced with a situation where staff isn.t embracing what they make, you need to investigate the root of the problem -- not threaten.
When faced with internal problems, good executives start by asking “why”. They reach out to their executive team first and then to the entire staff to find the root of a problem and how to fix it. Sending out a one-sided note about the problem is not leading, it.s retreating.
Leadership starts by listening. Good executives need to get out among the staff and ask questions and listen without judgment or reaction. The fact that company employees are not embracing and using its products is a failure of leadership that Marcus needs to address by self-reflection. At the end of the day, if his employees have to be forced to use the app, how can he expect consumers to want to willingly pay to use it? Marcus should have focused on three questions:
• Why are you not using the app?
• What is it that we can do to ensure you use our app?
• What do you need from me?
操作提示：正确选T，错误选F。
1. A CEO only needs to be passionate and enthusiastic.回答
2. It is not professional that PayPal CEO blames his employees not to use PayPal or forget PayPal passwords.回答
3. “A one-sided note” refers to the root of PayPal.s problem.回答
4. When faced with internal problems, good executives find the root of a problem in their executive team first.回答
5. Good executives need to give feedback immediately when they are listening to the staff.回答
Communication Failure
The meaning of “communication” goes a lot deeper than people often think. Communication is about conceiving, sending, receiving, and interpreting messages as well as confirming reception of these messages. A failure at any point in this chain can result in ineffective communication.
Ineffective communication can be disastrous. There is a famous story of a British Army Commander who sent the message “Send reinforcements, we.re going to advance.” back to his Command Center, through a long chain of subordinates. When the message finally reached the Command Center, it had “mutated” to become -- “Send three and four-pence, we.re going to a dance.” The reinforcements never arrived.
You can demonstrate this same principle, albeit on a less dramatic scale, by trying to play Chinese Whispers with more than 20 people. It is highly unlikely the same message you started with will be the one you end with.
In a business, there are three main types of communication failure. Each has its own indicative signs.
•The first type is known as allocative failure. This occurs when a firm is not gathering enough intelligence about its market or (most often), the information is not reaching the right points. The firm will not be allocating resources in step with the shifts in demand. If demand is rising but the firm is suffering from allocative communication failure, then stocks will fall and there will be understaffing. If the inverse happens, there will be a surplus of stocks and overstaffing.
•The second type is executive failure, where communication to trigger specific events/actions is either late, lacking or in error. The symptoms of this are a general loss of direction in the company or departments, a loss of co-ordination and an increase in complaints from customers as things happen late or not at all.
•The final type is human failure. This occurs when the general culture of a business or the relationships between particular individuals or departments do not foster effective communication. This leads to alienated staff, an increase in staff turnover, an increase in absenteeism and general frustration among staff. Creativity, especially that which takes place across departmental boundaries, is likely to suffer hugely as team synergy slips.
操作提示：通过题目后的下拉选项框选择正确答案。
1. Confirming reception of the sent messages means 回答
.
A. the messages are sent to right receivers
B. the messages are correctly understood
C. the messages are correctly understood by right receivers
2. In the famous British Army Commander story, which step probably did NOT go wrong in the communication chain?回答
A. Conceiving.
B. Sending.
C. Receiving.
3. What is Chinese whispers?回答
A. Who whispers in Chinese.
B. A game to pass message around in a whisper.
C. Chinese people who don.t normally talk very loudly.
4. Allocative failure does NOT happen when 回答
.
A. the right information goes to the right place
B. a company gathers false information
C. the correct information is not received by the right department or person
5. According to the passage, which of the following cases does NOT belong to human failure?回答
A. Decreasing creativity across departments.
B. Inadequate communication between departments.
C. Increasing customer complaints.