向前一步:第109期 真实地表达自己的想法与情绪(5)

 Truth is also better served by using simple language. 简洁的语言也有助于真实想法的表达。

Office-speak often contains nuances and parentheticals that can bury not just the lead but the entire point. 办公语言在措辞上常有的细微之处和附加说明，不仅会模糊要点，还会让人不知所云。

Comedies like Office Space ring true for a reason. 例如，像《上班一条虫》之类的喜剧看上去那么真实就是有原因的。

People fear insulting others, especially the boss, so they hedge. 人们害怕得罪别人，尤其是老板，所以会避重就轻。

Rather than stating, "I disagree with our expansion strategy," they say, 他们不会说“我不同意这项扩张战略”，而会说：

"While I think there are many good reasons why we are opening this new line of business and I feel confident that the management team has done a thorough¹ ROI analysis, “我认为开展这种新业务有许多很好的理由，也相信管理团队已经进行了周密的投资回报分析。

I am not sure we have completely thought through all of the downstream effects of taking this step forward at this time." Huh? 不过，我不太确定我们是否考虑到目前采取这种策略会产生什么影响？”

With all of these caveats², it's hard to decipher what the speaker actually thinks. 附加了这么多说明，就很难搞清楚说话的人心里到底是怎么想的。

When communicating hard truths, less is often more. 当传达令人难以接受的事实时，通常要遵循“少即是多”的原则。

A few years ago, Mark Zuckerberg decided³ to learn Chinese. 几年前，马克·扎克伯格决定学习中文。

To practice, he spent time with a group of Facebook employees who were native speakers. 为了练习口语，他会花时间与公司里以中文为母语的员工交流。

One might think that Mark's limited language skills would have kept these conversations from being substantively⁴ useful. 有人认为扎克伯格有限的语言能力会让这类对话起不到什么实际作用，

Instead, they gave him greater insight⁵ into what was going on in the company. 然而正相反，这些员工让扎克伯格更深刻地了解到公司的情况。

For example, one of the women was trying to tell Mark something about her manager. 比如，有个女员工想跟扎克伯格谈谈自己的经理。

Mark didn't understand so he said, "Simpler, please." 扎克伯格听不明白，便说“请说得简单点”。

Then she spoke⁶ again, but he still didn't understand, so he had to ask her to simplify further. This happened a few more times. 她又说了一遍，扎克伯格还是没听懂，不得不让她说得再简单点。反复几次后。

1 thorough   

adj. 彻底的，完全的，精心的

参考例句：

• He made a very thorough analysis on the situation.他对形势的分析很透彻。
• The committee reported its findings after a thorough investigation.委员会在彻底调查以后报告了调查结果。

2 caveats   

警告

参考例句：

• I would offer a caveat for those who want to join me in the dual calling. 为防止发生误解，我想对那些想要步我后尘的人提出警告。 来自辞典例句
• As I have written before, that's quite a caveat. 正如我以前所写，那确实是个警告。 来自互联网

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 substantively   

adv.真实地；实质上

参考例句：

• WTO-consistency had to be secured substantively as well. 与WTO的一致性还必须获得实质性的保证。 来自互联网
• What is called quantum information science is substantively to research information science encoding with quantum states. 量子信息学是近几年迅速发展起来的一门新兴交叉学科，它是量子力学和信息科学相结合的产物。 来自互联网

5 insight   

n.洞察力，洞悉，深刻的见解

参考例句：

• Good teachers have insight into the problems of students.好的教师能洞察学生的问题。
• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms.这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。