工作互换：你准备好了吗？

    五月的一个早晨，纳迪姆•侯赛因开车去上班，参加每周销售预测会议，与营销团队碰头，并对广告信息给出反馈。唯一不同寻常的是，这并不是他的办公室，也不是他的工作，甚至都不是在他自己的公司。

    就像电视节目《交换夫妻》（ Wife Swap）一样，侯赛因正在进行高管职位互换。侯赛因是旧金山客户评估服务提供商PowerReviews公司的营销副总裁，他与加州圣马特奥市软件公司Marketo的营销副总裁兼联合创始人乔恩•米勒互换职位一天，希望通过别人的工作，加深对自己的职位的认识。

    这种方式确实发挥了作用。由于PowerReviews公司（目前已被顾客评价平台Bazaarvoice收购）是Marketo公司的客户，因此，米勒对于首席营销官们面临的问题有更透彻的理解。而侯赛因返回PowerReviews时，则带回了厚厚的笔记，其中记录了如何激励销售团队，如何吸引大品牌，和如何开发新客户等。他说：“一个崭新的环境经常能很好地激发出新鲜的想法。”

    虽然工作交换可能还不太常见，但却反映出时下公司领导者学习方式的转变。越来越多的高管开始求助于公司外部资源，比如聘用高管教练，与同事合作，或互换工作一天等。人事服务公司Robert Half高级执行董事保罗•麦克唐纳德称：“以前的做法是‘限制在内部，要保守自己的秘密。’如今的优秀高管则开始突破公司的界限，从外部寻求帮助。”

    工作互换的情况在普通员工中最为常见：据人力资源管理协会（Society for Human Resources Management）2012年的一份调查显示，约38%的雇主会提供交叉培训。如今，高管们也开始通过这种方式提高自己的能力。哈米斯•沙哈便是如此。今年四月的一天，作为波士顿互联网营销公司HubSpot.com的首席技术官，哈米斯•沙哈与波士顿旅游公司Kayak.com的首席技术官保罗•英格里斯互换了职位。沙哈希望更多地了解如何为其快速增长的初创公司招聘优秀的工程师。

    交换结束后，他根据自己在Kayak公司的所见所闻制定了一个大体类似的计划。其中包括：“沙发规定”，即要求每一位员工要向坐在大厅的所有人致意，跟他们聊天。另外一条是“红色电话规定”，即随机将客户支持电话转到工程设计部；任何靠近电话的员工，不论他正在做什么，都必须立即接客户的电话。沙哈和英格里斯计划未来再次互换工作。沙哈说：“我知道，在我以后的工作中，我会从中得到很大的好处。”

    然而，工作交换也伴随着风险。很可能你自己的团队更喜欢与你交换的人，所谓“家花没有野花香”。而且，工作交换确实耗费时间：米勒就承认，当自己的公司在规划项目时，自己却离开团队，这让他感觉很内疚。

    不过，最大的担忧还是保密性问题。涉及机密的担忧就让在线视频初创公司MyPod Studios的CEO杰伊•米列茨基对外部互换望而却步。米列茨基称：“每家公司都会有自己的商业机密。”于是，他最终选择与自己公司内的一名开发人员互换工作一天。

    手机广告公司Velti的首席业务拓展官苏尼尔•维尔玛也采取了同样的方式。他每个季度都会与管理层的高管们互换工作，以培养团队精神，促进沟通。去年一月，他让公司两名销售经理互换工作一天，解决了两人之间的矛盾。互换结束后，他们都理解了对方面临的需求；于是双方重归于好。

    One morning in May Nadim Hossain drove to work, sat in a weekly sales forecast meeting, met with the marketing team, and gave feedback on ad messaging. Only it wasn't his office, his job, or even his company.

    À la the TV show Wife Swap, Hossain, then vice president of marketing at San Francisco-based PowerReviews, was in the midst of an executive job swap. He traded roles for the day with Jon Miller, VP of marketing and co-founder of San Mateo, Calif., software firm Marketo, hoping to gain some insight into his own role by experiencing someone else's.

    It worked. Since PowerReviews -- now owned by Bazaarvoice -- is a Marketo customer, Miller came away better understanding the issues facing chief marketing officers. Hossain, for his part, returned to PowerReviews with pages of notes on ways to motivate his sales team, woo big brands, and identify leads. "A fresh environment is always a good way to generate new ideas," Hossain says.

    A job swap may not yet be commonplace, but it reflects a marked shift in how today's leaders learn. Executives are increasingly seeking outside help, whether it's hiring executive coaches, collaborating with peers, or trading jobs for the day. Says Paul McDonald, senior executive director at staffing services firm Robert Half: "Old school was 'Keep it in-house and keep your secrets to yourself.' Executives today, the good ones, are going out and getting help."

    Switching roles is most common among rank-and-file employees: An estimated 38% of employers offer cross-training of some kind, according to a 2012 survey by the Society for Human Resources Management. Now the C-suite is looking to build skills in much the same way. That was the case for Dharmesh Shah. The chief technology officer at Boston Internet marketing firm HubSpot.com traded roles with Paul English, the CTO at Boston travel company Kayak.com, one day in April. Shah wanted to learn more about how to recruit top engineers to his fast-growing startup.

    He came back to work with a plan to copy much of what he saw at Kayak. Among the ideas: "the couch rule," which requires every employee to greet and chat with anyone sitting in the lobby, and "the red-phone rule," which randomly sends customer-support calls to the engineering department; anyone nearby must answer the customer call regardless of what he's doing. Shah and English both plan to do swaps again elsewhere. "I know I will get mileage out of it for the rest of my life," Shah says.

    But job swapping comes with risks. There's the grass-is-greener threat that your own team might actually like your replacement better than you. Also, it's time-consuming: Miller admits that he felt guilty leaving his team when his company was planning projects.

    The biggest worry, however, is confidentiality. Concerns about privacy would squelch any external swap for Jay Miletsky, CEO of online video startup MyPod Studios. "Any company has its own little trade secrets," says Miletsky. Instead, he changed roles with a developer in his own office for a day.

    That's the same approach taken by Sunil Verma, chief business development officer at mobile-ad company Velti. He trades jobs every quarter with fellow C-level executives to boost teamwork and improve communication. He even used it to help solve a dispute between two Velti sales managers, making them switch roles for a day last January. They came away with an understanding of the demands the other person faced; that led to a truce.