经济学人下载:巴托比职场专栏--企业可以从艺术中学到什么(1)

Business
来源于《商业》版块

Bartleby
巴托比职场专栏

Conduct yourself
表达自己

What businesses can learn from the arts
企业可以从艺术中学到什么

Picture a lecture session at a business school and you probably envisage students gazing at screens filled with equations and acronyms. What you might not expect is choristers attempting to sing “O clap your Hands”, an eightpart anthem composed by Orlando Gibbons and first performed in 1622. But Bartleby was treated to this delight, and others facing MBA students, on a visit to Saïd Business School in Oxford earlier this year.
想象一下商学院的一场讲座，你可能会想象学生们盯着满是方程式和首字母缩写的屏幕。你可能想不到的是，合唱团会尝试唱《拍手吧》，这是一首由奥兰多·吉本斯创作、于1622年首次演唱的由八部分组成的圣歌。但今年早些时候，在访问牛津大学赛德商学院时，巴托比和其他面对MBA学生的人都进行了这种有趣的活动。

There was a catch. Some of the students had to try conducting the choir. The first to take the challenge was a rather self-confident young man from America. It didn’t take long for him to go wrong. His most obvious mistake was to start conducting without asking the singers how they would like to be directed, though they had the expertise and he was a complete tyro.

这里有一个陷阱。一些学生不得不尝试指挥合唱团。第一个接受挑战的是一个相当自信的美国年轻人。没过多久他就出了差错。他最明显的错误是，在开始指挥时没有询问歌手他们希望如何被指挥，尽管他们有专业知识，而他是一个完全的新手。

The experience was doubtless chastening, but also instructive. The session, organised by Pegram Harrison, a senior fellow in entrepreneurship, cleverly allowed the students to absorb some important leadership lessons. For example, leaders should listen to their teams, especially when their colleagues have specialist knowledge. All they may need to do, as conductors, is set the pace and then step back and let the group govern itself.
这种经历无疑很有惩戒性，但也是有益的。该课程由创业学高级研究员佩格拉姆•哈里森组织，巧妙地让学生们吸收了一些重要的领导力课程。例如，领导者应该倾听他们的团队，特别是当他们的同事拥有专业知识的时候。作为指挥家，他们可能需要做的就是设定步调，然后退一步，让团队自行管理。

It was noticeable, too, that the choir managed fairly well even if the conductors were just waving their batons in an indeterminate fashion. The lesson there, Mr Harrison said, was that leaders can only do so much damage—provided they do not attempt to control every step of the process. The whole exercise illustrated it is possible for a lesson to be instructive and entertaining at once.
同样值得注意的是，尽管指挥们只是以一种不确定的方式挥舞着警棍，唱诗班还是做得相当好。哈里森先生说，这里的教训是，如果领导者们不试图控制整个过程的每一步，他们所能做的也就只有这么多了。整个练习说明，一堂课可能同时具有启发性和娱乐性。

Other business schools have also realised that their students can learn from the arts. At Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Leanne Meyer has introduced a leadership-training programme that includes poetry, art installations and a book club. Involvement in such pursuits can help develop empathy in future leaders, she argues; for example, reading a novel helps students get into the mind of a character. She also believes that the programme benefits students in terms of how they promote themselves to recruiters.
其它商学院也意识到，学生可以从艺术中学习。在匹兹堡的卡内基梅隆大学，琳娜•迈耶推出了一项领导力培训计划，内容包括诗歌、艺术装置和一个读书俱乐部。她认为，参与这些追求可以帮助培养未来领导者的同理心；例如，阅读小说可以帮助学生进入角色的思想。她还认为，该项目有利于学生向招聘人员推销自己。