14.《赋能》The Empowerment

The book we are talking about today is called Empowerment. The book focuses on how an organisation can improve the collaboration of its team members. The book uses the example of the Navy SEALs to show how atomised individuals can be cobbled together into a small super team with a high level of mutual trust.
For example, the SEALs are famous for their devilish training methods: six months of super-high intensity physical training, various corporal punishments, "hell week" with only four hours of sleep in five days, and so on. The aim of this training is to create extreme situations in order to sharpen the minds of the soldiers and at the same time strengthen their mutual trust and understanding.
 Of course, in the business world, it is impossible to replicate this type of team building. But there are times when an organisation faces a sudden crisis, and this is an extreme situation for the organisation. At this point, leaders must not panic, but take the initiative to use the crisis to strengthen the team and build team cohesion.
The most important thing to do is to share information. In extraordinary times, the lack of transparency of information is the biggest source of panic. So, you need to answer the questions that people are most concerned about first. For example, during the new crown epidemic in 2020, the first thing leaders should do is to explain to their employees exactly what the damage to the company is, what the worst outcome will be, etc.
Very often, leaders always feel that I have to be strong in front of my subordinates, and as a result, they are fighting in silence and alone. This is not true. At this time, the leader has to take the initiative to show weakness, so as to mobilise everyone to fight.
For example, during the epidemic, the old boss of Xibei wrote an article in which he said that Xibei only had three months of cash flow. He had tens of thousands of employees who needed to be paid, but the business would most likely not have revenue coming in for a few months. The boss didn't say this to shrug it off, saying that the company is not working and everyone should just scatter. Rather, he was telling everyone the actual situation, and at the same time, the whole staff was working together to come up with ways to tide over the difficult times. It is a fact that "poor people's children are early adopters" and that employees in distress grow up fast.
译文：
 今天要聊的这本书叫《赋能》。这本书主要讲的是，一个组织怎样提升团队成员的协作能力。书中以海豹突击队为例，讲了怎样把原子化的个人捏合成一个高度互信的超级小团队。
比如，海豹突击队著名的魔鬼式训练法：长达6个月的超高强度体能训练、各式各样的体罚措施、五天加起来只能睡四个小时的“地狱周”等等。这种训练的目的，就是要通过营造一种极端情况，来磨炼战士们的心智，同时加强他们之间的互信和默契。
 当然了，在商业领域，我们不可能照搬这种团队建设方式。但有时候，组织会面临突然的危机，这对组织来说就是一种极端情况。这时候，领导者不能慌乱，要主动利用危机，来加强团队建设、打造团队凝聚力。
最重要的一点，就要是做到共享信息。在非常时期，信息的不透明是恐慌的最大来源。所以，你要先把大家最关心的问题给回答了。比如，在2020年新冠疫情期间，领导者首先要做的，就是向员工说明，公司到底损失情况如何，最坏的结果是什么等等。
很多时候，领导者总觉得，我在下属面前要坚强，结果就是自己默默一个人在战斗，独自地去承受。其实不对。这时候，领导者要主动示弱，从而调动大家去战斗。
比如，疫情期间，西贝老总写了一篇文章，他说西贝的现金流只有3个月。他有数万的员工需要发工资，但是企业很可能这几个月都不会有收入进来。老板这么说，并不是为了甩锅，说公司不行了大家各自散了吧。而是把实际情况告诉大家，同时，全员群策群力，一起来想办法共渡难关。“穷人的孩子早当家”，危难下的员工成长快，都是一个道理。