【中英双语】团队为何需要菜鸟

Why Your Team Needs Rookies

招聘主管虽然知道新员工是公司长期的资产，但也常常觉得他们是短期负担：这些人必须要有人带、有人培训，工作适应期工作量又相对少一些，结果就影响了其他人的工作进程。

Hiring managers often view newcomers to their organizations as not only long-term assets but also short-term burdens:  people who need to be inducted, trained, and given lighter loads as they get up to speed, inevitably slowing everyone else down.

但这一点并非必然。我们在对没有经验的员工如何应对艰难挑战的研究中（有的刚从大学毕业，也有的是刚从其他公司或部门过来的有经验专业人员），发现新员工的表现常常是好得出奇。

But that doesn’t have to be the case. In my research studying how inexperienced people tackle tough challenges, I’ve consistently found that rookies (whether they are freshly minted university graduates or experienced professionals coming from other organizations or functions) are surprisingly strong performers.

正因为新手在知识或技能上的不足，反而让他们更警觉、动作更快、也更能找出聪明的工作方式。虽然他们还不适合需要熟练技巧的任务、也还不能担任一出错就全盘皆输的工作，但他们却是在快速变化的环境下，从事具备创新性质的知识工作的适合人选。比如科技领域，信息量每9个月就增加一倍，而且每年又有30%会过时，也就是说一个人脑中的科技知识大概只要5年就全部成了过时信息。对现在的许多专业人员来说，学习能力要比累积的知识重要多了。

Because they face significant knowledge or skill gaps, they are alert, move fast, and work smart. While they’re not well-suited for tasks that require technical mastery or where a single mistake is game-ending, they are particularly adept at knowledge work that is innovative in nature, when speed matters and the environment is quickly changing. Consider science and technology, fields in which information is doubling every nine months and decaying at a rate of 30% a year, thereby rendering as much as 85% of a person’s technical knowledge irrelevant in five years’ time. For many professionals today, the ability to learn is more valuable than accumulated knowledge.

我们的研究发现，新手特别擅长三件事：

Our study found three things rookies are especially good at:

1.运用专家资源。新手因为知识和见解不足，因此不怕请教他人。我们的研究发现，新手请求他人协助的机率是其他人的4倍，而且愿意接受忠告的机率也高出50%。与经验丰富的同事相比，他们寻求专业人士帮助的机率高出40%。

1. Tapping networks of experts.  Having little knowledge and insight themselves, newcomers have no qualms about seeking guidance from others. Our study found that rookies are four times more likely to ask for help and 50% more likely to listen. They seek expertise 40% more than their experienced peers, and when they do, they connect with five times as many people.

让我们用金融服务公司Vanguard的一位IT经理Jeff为例。当初他突然受指派负责以前从未接触过的供货商管理工作，一时六神无主。但他仅在短短几周内，就有条不紊的找到了该领域的25位专家，建起了具有相当规模的专家咨询网。

Take Jeff, an IT manager at the financial services firm Vanguard. When he was abruptly put in charge of vendor management, an area in which he had no experience, he felt completely out of his element. But his response was to systematically reach out to 25 people with deep experience in the field, and within a few weeks, he had built a big network of experts to tap for advice.

如果你想取得更多知识，不妨就让新手担任那个职位，告诉他不必事事都懂。让专家担任某个职位，你得到的就是一位专家；但若让新手来做，反而能接触到许多位专家。

If you want access to more knowledge, consider putting a rookie on the job and telling her it’s OK not to have all the answers herself. With one expert, you’ll get one expert; with a newcomer, you get access to many more.

2.建立新领域。当面对一个不可能或者很难实现的新构想或机会时，新手反而能开拓出新领域。有了成功的压力而又无路可退，新手就更会临机应变、抓住手边所有资源，努力达到最基本的要求以推动原本成功机率很低的项目。

2. Forging new territory. Clueless about whether a new idea or opportunity is impossible (or just plain hard) to achieve, rookies readily explore new frontiers. With added pressure to succeed and nowhere to retreat to, they are also more likely to improvise, get resourceful, and focus on meeting basic needs to push their long-shot projects through.

举例来说，Reputation.com的CEO Michael Fertik从来不会告诉负责开拓新业务的员工，该怎么开始销售流程或是评估交易案的规模。他解释道：“新员工若是不知道这些事，常常就会直接去找对方的公司高层，很多时候达成的交易规模都远远大于那些有丰富经验的员工。”

For example, at Reputation.com, CEO Michael Fertik never tells new business development staff how to start the sales process or size deals. “In absence of knowing, they often just start the conversation at the top of the organization [and] many of them end up bringing in far greater-sized deals than the experienced staff does,” he explains.

如果你希望员工完成一项艰难的任务、或是抓住某项前所未闻的机会，用新手或许是最好的选择。

If you want someone to tackle a tough challenge or seize an unheard of opportunity, a rookie might be your best bet.

3.加速创新。新手的学习曲线比较陡，但也因为他们深知自身不足而又着急站稳脚跟，所以常常更快地出成果。在我们的对照研究中，新手及时完成工作的概率是有经验员工的60%。他们一开始收集资料、研究情况时，会比较谨慎保守，但一旦真正起步，行动就很迅速，因此十分适合处理小型、灵活的开发项目。

3. Accelerating innovation. Newcomers face a steeper learning curve, but, because they’re mindful of the gap and want to gain ground, they often deliver results faster. In our comparative study, rookies scored 60% higher than experienced colleagues on the timeliness of their output. They’re cautious at first as they gather data and study a situation, but once they jump in, they move quickly, making them perfectly suited for lean and agile development projects.

eBay重新打造新人训练课程，以确保新员工不仅了解公司，更能够立刻对公司有所贡献，结果得到惊人的成效。2013年招募的大学毕业生，一旦公司要求他们立刻开始提出意见、无所保留，他们就在开始工作的短短几个月间提出许多专利提案，数量平均比其他员工多25%，而且其中许多也成了正式的专利申请案。

When eBay revamped its induction program to ensure that new hires weren’t just learning about the company but also immediately contributing to it, the results were impressive. Once directed to jump in and share their ideas without holding back, the 2013 college recruits submitted an average of 25% more ideas for patents, and more that led to formal submissions, in their first few months of work than the rest of the company.

好好运用新员工以提出新颖的构想、推动实验、迅速发挥作用，以及很快取得顾客的回馈意见。

Use your rookie talent to generate fresh ideas, experiment, deliver quick functionality, and get rapid feedback from your customers.

新手远比大多数人所想的还要能干。与其再让他们接受基本训练，还不如让他们立刻推动改变。他们不一定需要接受更多管理，而是需要立刻进入真正的情境、指导他们正确的方向，而且获得授权采取行动。

Rookies are far more capable than most people expect. Instead of putting them through basic training, ask them to make a difference right away. They don’t necessarily need more management; they need to be put in the game, pointed in the right direction, and given permission to play.

最后一点：任何人都能展现这种我所称的“新手的智慧”。真正扭转战局的关键是整个团队都能够、也愿意在必要的时候，不论年纪、职位高低，都能采用新手的心态：运用专家资源、开拓新领域、加速创新。

One final note: Anyone can display what I call “rookie smarts.” The real game-changer is ensuring that your entire team is able and willing to adopt the newcomer’s mindset when necessary—mobilizing experts, forging new territory and accelerating innovation – no matter their age or career stage.

（linjunhong/译    腾跃/编）

Liz Wiseman 是 “Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work”和“Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter”的作者。