The story of the emperor’s new clothes is one of Andersen’s best-known fables. Conmen (骗子) fool the emperor into believing they have made him a fabulous suit that the unworthy will be unable to see. Courtiers (侍从) dare not say that the emperor is naked; it takes a child to point out the obvious.
The moral is that people are often too hidebound by social tradition to state their views. How many companies have ploughed ahead with expensive projects that were favoured by the chief executive, even when other managers have had doubts?
People from different backgrounds approach problems from different angles—that much should be blindingly obvious. It is not just about selecting people for teams from both sexes and various ethnicities. Hire only Cambridge politics graduates or Harvard MBAs or Stanford software engineers and they will have studied under the same professors and absorbed similar world views regardless of their gender or skin colour.
In the modern world, with all its complexity, co-operation is essential if breakthroughs are to be made. In science and engineering, 90% of papers are now written by teams rather than individuals. Analysis of American patent fillings since 1975 showed teams dominate in every one of the 36 defined categories.
There is another element to selecting a good team: ensuring that those viewpoints are heard and respected. That may not happen if those in charge are overbearing. A study of over 300 projects by the Rotterdam School of Management found that those led by junior managers were more likely to succeed than those led by senior managers—maybe because other team members were less scared about pointing out potential dangers to someone lower down the pecking order (权力等级).
The ability to speak up within an organization, without fear of punishment, is known as “psychological safety”. Mr. Syed cites a study of teams at Google, which found that self-reported psychological safety was by far the most important factor behind successful teamwork at the technology giant.
One way to overcome shyness while brainstorming, for instance, is for everyone to write down their ideas but ensure their names are never known. That way, opinions about thoughts are less closely tied to the seniority of the thinker and can be tested against each other with less fear or favour.
【小题1】The author mentioned one of Andersen’s best-known fables to ______.| A．confirm the popularity of Andersen’s fables |
| B．argue children’s wisdom over adults |
| C．indicate the importance of different opinions |
| D．make fun of the foolishness of some people |
| A．close themselves to a fixed mind | B．pay more attention to other’s behavior |
| C．advocate traditional way of thinking | D．hesitate to participate in team activities |
| A．Employing graduates from the same excellent university. |
| B．Appointing senior managers with the right of leading a team. |
| C．Establishing a team with people of various backgrounds. |
| D．Hiring people assembling their chief executives in thoughts. |
| A．Co-operation and teamwork contribute to the complexity of the world. |
| B．The less identity a person releases the more he is ready to air views. |
| C．Viewpoints from different perspectives are likely to cause conflicts. |
| D．There exists the danger of pecking order in a team led by junior managers. |
