职场英语小故事：从橡皮筋看管理(2)

　　幸运的是，我有了一个解决办法，并把它装进大牛皮纸信封里寄给了格林。它就是一本查尔斯?都希格(Charles Duhigg)所著的《习惯的力量》(The Power of Habit)，这本书指出，重振一个衰落组织的最佳方式是找出一个坏习惯，然后改正它。因此当保罗?奥尼尔(Paul O'Neill)在上世纪80年代末接管美国铝业(Alcoa)的时候，他决心将事故发生率降至零。股东们起初感到骇然，但随后感到惊奇——在改善安全的过程中，沟通、信任、效率和利润全都有所改善。

　　I wonder if rubber bands couldn't do the same for Royal Mail. To stop them disfiguring the nation's doorsteps would involve understanding why they get dropped in the first place. I suspect the reasons are complex and many. The fact you often see postmen running to do the job in time may be part of it. It may be that Royal Mail, despite its protestations, doesn't care about rubber bands because they are too cheap. But I am pretty sure that low morale, high absenteeism and above all poor management will have something to do with it too.

　　我怀疑橡皮筋是否无法为皇家邮政带来同样的契机。要想让它们不再弄脏英国家庭的门口，首先需要理解它们为何会被丢弃。我怀疑原因很复杂而且有许多。你经常看到邮递员急匆匆地赶着时间投递邮件，这可能是原因之一。另一个可能的原因是，皇家邮政尽管嘴上说得漂亮，但实际上因为橡皮筋过于廉价而并不重视。但我非常确信的是，纪律涣散、高旷工率以及管理不善(这一点最重要)也脱不了干系。

　　If Ms Greene were to declare that she had only one aim – to win the rubber band war–everyone would think she'd gone mad, especially as the company is preparing for privatisation next year. But if she kicked this one habit, she would unearth deeper problems and start to solve them too. She would also be saved from all the faux-important stuff that chief executives so often get deflected by.

　　如果格林宣布她只有一个目标——打赢橡皮筋之战，所有人都会认为她疯了，尤其是该公司准备在明年私有化。但如果她从这一积习开刀，她就会发掘出更深层次的问题，并且也会着手解决它们。她还将免受所有那些伪重要事务的困扰——首席执行官们往往被这些事务分散了精力。

　　On the organisation's website it says its aim is to "deliver a market-leading corporate responsibility agenda". All I want Royal Mail to deliver is my mail-without a rubber band.

　　皇家邮政在其官方网站上表示，其目标是“投递市场领先的企业责任”。而我只想要皇家邮政投递我的邮件——没有橡皮筋的邮件。

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（实习编辑：高奕飞）