In public discussion of business, we take certain values for granted. Today I’m going to talk about four of them: collaboration, hard work, creativity and excellence. Most people would say they’re all ‘good things’. I’m going to suggest that’s an over-simple view.
The trouble with these values is that they’re theoretical concepts, removed from the reality of day-to-day business. Pursue values by all means, but be prepared for what may happen as a result. They can actually cause damage, which is not at all the intention. 【Q31】
Business leaders generally try to do the right thing. But all too often the right thing backfires, if those leaders adopt values without understanding and managing the side effects that arise 【Q32】. The values can easily get in the way of what’s actually intended.
OK. So the first value I’m going to discuss is collaboration. Er, let me give you an example.On a management training course I once attended, we were put into groups and had to construct a bridge across a stream【Q33】, using building blocks that we were given. The rule was that everyone in the team had to move at least one building block during the construction. This was intended to encourage teamwork.
But it was really a job best done by one person. The other teams tried to collaborate on building the structure, and descended into confusion 【Q34】, with everyone getting in each other’s way. Our team leader solved the challenge brilliantly. She simply asked everyone in the team to move a piece a few centimetres, to comply with the rule, and then let the person in the team with an aptitude for puzzles like this build it alone. We finished before any other team. My point is that the task wasn’t really suited to teamworking, so why make it one?
Teamwork can also lead to inconsistency – a common cause of poor sales. In the case of a smartphone that a certain company launched, one director wanted to target the business market, and another demanded it was aimed at consumers. The company wanted both directors to be involved, so gave the product a consumer-friendly name, but marketed it to companies. The result was that it met the needs of neither group. It would have been better to let one director or the other have his way, not both. 【Q35】
Now industriousness, or hard work. It’s easy to mock people who say they work hard: after all, a hamster running around in a wheel is working hard – and getting nowhere. Of course hard work is valuable, but only when properly targeted. Otherwise it wastes the resources that companies value most – time and energy. And that’s bad for the organisation. 【Q36】
There’s a management model that groups people according to four criteria: clever, hard-working, stupid and lazy. Here ‘lazy’ means having a rational determination not to carry out unnecessary tasks 【Q37】. It doesn’t mean trying to avoid work altogether. Most people display two of these characteristics, and the most valuable people are those who are both clever and lazy: they possess intellectual clarity, and they don’t rush into making decisions. They come up with solutions to save the time and energy spent by the stupid and hard-working group. Instead of throwing more man-hours at a problem, the clever and lazy group looks for a more effective solution.
Next we come to creativity. This often works well – creating an attention-grabbing TV commercial, for example, might lead to increased sales. But it isn’t always a good thing. Some advertising campaigns are remembered for their creativity, without having any effect on sales. This happened a few years ago with the launch of a chocolate bar: subsequent research showed that plenty of consumers remembered the adverts, but had no idea what was being advertised 【Q38】. The trouble is that the creator derives pleasure from coming up with the idea, and wrongly assumes the audience for the campaign will share that feeling.
A company that brings out thousands of new products may seem more creative than a company that only has a few, but it may be too creative, and make smaller profits. Creativity needs to be targeted, to solve a problem that the company has identified 【Q39】. Just coming up with more and more novel products isn’t necessarily a good thing.
And finally, excellence. We all know companies that claim they ‘strive for excellence’, but it takes a long time to achieve excellence. In business, being first with a product is more profitable than having the best product. A major study of company performance compared pioneers – that is, companies bringing out the first version of a particular product – with followers, the companies that copied and improved on that product. The study found that the pioneers commanded an average market share of 29 percent, while the followers achieved less than half that, only 13 percent 【Q40】 – even though their product might have been better.
Insisting on excellence in everything we do is time-consuming, wastes energy and leads to losing out on opportunities. Sometimes, second-rate work is more worthwhile than excellence. ‘Make sure it’s excellent’ sounds like a good approach to business, but the ‘just-get-started’ approach is likely to be more successful.
Complete the notes below.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.
听前预测：定位词 vaules；提示词 result in。此处应填名词，且根据 result in 这个词组的意思，预测答案应该是一个表示负面效果的名词。
题目解析：文中提到“Pursue values by all means, but be prepared for what may happen as a result”，先是出现了定位词 values，然后在转折连词 but 之后出现了提示词的名词形式 result，所以答案就在后面。“They can actually cause damage”中的 cause 对应题干 result in，因此答案为 damage。
听前预测：定位词 managers；提示词 understand、deal with、potential、may result。此处应填名词，且根据语境可以预测答案应该是一个表示负面效果的名词。
题目解析：在转折连词 but 之后出现了定位词 managers 的同义替换 leaders，接着出现了答案对应信息“without understanding and managing the side effects that arise”，其中 manage 对应题干 deal with，arise 对应题干 result，因此答案为 side effects（副作用）。
听前预测：定位词 training course；提示词 team、build、a。此处应填单数名词。
题目解析：首先听到了小标题 Collaboration，然后听到逻辑信号词 an example, 紧接着出现了题干中的定位词 training course 以及提示词 team 的同义替换 group，答案对 应信息随即出现：“…had to construct a bridge across a stream.”其中 construct 和题干提示词 build 为同义替换，因此答案为 bridge。题干动词和形容词在听力中
多半会发生同义替换，所以注意不要死守原词。
听前预测：定位词 Other teams；提示词 experienced、collaborate。此处应填抽象名词。
题目解析：本题定位词、提示词和答案一起出现，原文对应信息为“The other teams tried to collaborate on building the structure, and descended into confusion”，虽然定位不难，但是文中的 descend into 这个词组难度较大，意为“往一种不好的趋势发展”，整个词组的意思为“最终变成一团糟”，与题干 experienced 对应，因此答案为 confusion。
听前预测：定位词 Sales；提示词 a、poor、because of、collaboration。此处应填名词，且为某一种产品。
题目解析：文中先出现逻辑连词 also，告诉我们已经从上一个观点转到 35 题所在的观点，紧接着出现了答案对应信息“…a common cause of poor sales. In the case of a smartphone…”。其中 cause 对应题干 because of，表因果关系；poor sales 为题干定位词和提示词；in the case of a 相当于题干 of a，因此答案为 smartphone。此外，“one director…but marketed it to companies”整段都是在对应 collaboration 一词。
听前预测：定位词 Hard work；提示词 bad use、company。此处应填名词。
题目解析：在听到定位词 Hard work 之后，出现“but only when properly targeted”， 转折连词 but 之后便出现了答案对应信息“Otherwise it wastes the resources that companies value most—time and energy. And that’s bad for the organisation”，其中 bad 为提示词，that’s 告诉我们答案在这个词之前，that 在此指代的是 wastes the resources that companies value most，也就是 wastes company resources，因此答案为 resources。
听前预测：定位词 lazy；提示词 in this context、avoid、tasks。此处应填形容词，修饰 tasks。
题目解析：本题的定位词、提示词和答案在一起出现，答案对应信息为“Here ‘lazy’ means having a rational determination not to carry out unnecessary tasks”，其中 here 对应题干 in this context，not to carry out 对应 avoid，因此答案为 unnecessary 或其同义表达 not necessary。
听前预测：定位词 advertising campaign；提示词 a、memorable、failed to、boost sales。此处应填单数名词，且该名词应该表示一种产品。
题目解析：定位词 advertising campaign 之后先是出现了 remembered 和 without having any effect on sales，分别对应题干提示词 memorable 和 failed to boost sales，然后马上出现了答案对应信息“This happened a few years ago with the launch of a chocolate bar”，因此答案为冠词 a 之后的 chocolate bar。
听前预测：定位词 Creativity；提示词 should、response、particular。此处应填名词。
题目解析：定位词和答案一起出现，具体对应信息为“Creativity needs to be targeted, to solve a problem that the company has identified”，其中 needs to 对应题干 should，that the company has identified 对应 particular，solve 对应 be used as a response，因此答案为 problem。
听前预测：定位词 study、pioneers 和 followers； 提示词 average、higher than。 此处应填名词。
题目解析：我们先是听到了三个定位词，然后听到 the study found that，研究的结果是我们需要关注的重点，接下来出现了答案对应的信息“the pioneers commanded an average market share of 29 percent, while the followers achieved less than half that, only 13 percent”，其中 less than half that 对应题干 far higher than，因此答案为 market share（市场份额）。