偶尔关掉智能手机也无妨

    戒掉“黑莓”依赖症

    哈佛商学院（Harvard Business School）教授莱斯丽•佩罗在波士顿咨询集团（the Boston Consulting Group）的波士顿办事处发起了一个项目，它的本意旨在实现工作与生活的平衡，没想到却通过减少智能手机的开机时间，重新定义了团队合作的意义。佩罗认为，大多数咨询顾问都给自己施加了不少自我暗示的压力，认为必须要通过黑莓手机与同事时刻保持联系。实际上客户一般不会要求顾问随叫随到，大多数下班后的对话都发生在同事之间。大多数顾问都不敢离开自己的黑莓手机，甚至连关机一个晚上也不放心。

    佩罗在她的著作——《与智能手机共眠》（Sleeping with Your Smartphone）一书中把这种行为称为“应答怪圈”。2008年，她开始与波士顿咨询集团的三支团队一起工作，研究如何能改变人们共事的方式，减少不必要的通讯。为了打破这个怪圈，佩罗引入了一种小变化，她称之为“可预测的休息”。比如当一名顾问在周三晚上6点关掉黑莓手机后，到第二天早上之前，如果发生紧急事件，他的一名同事可以为他顶上，让他可以安心休息。此外，团队每周要会面一次，讨论这个计划的执行情况。

    当然，在一周的其它6天里，客户还是随时可以通过手机联系到这些顾问。因此这个试验并没有显著减少顾问们的应答责任。佩罗称：“它并不能使一项艰难的工作变轻松，只能使它变得更好。”

    波士顿咨询集团波士顿办事处咨询与商业服务负责人迪波拉•洛维奇指出：“我们的员工并不介意努力工作，他们缺少的只是对生活的可预测性。”但是现在他们可以在订餐的时候知道，他们不会突然因为工作的事而被迫放弃这顿饭了。过去，波士顿咨询集团的顾问们并非每周七天、每天24小时全天候工作，但必须保证随叫随到。

    佩罗指出，当公司要求员工必须把手机关机一天后，这种做法鼓励了员工将他们的任务进行优先排序，重新安排自己的时间，甚至团队的工作效率也提升了。这个项目取得了巨大的成功，现在波士顿咨询集团在北美的顾问中，有69%的人每周都会把他们的黑莓手机关掉一天。

    佩罗选择了两组顾问进行研究。一组顾问每周将黑莓手机关掉一天；另一组顾问作为参照组，他们的手机仍然保持每周7天、每天24小时开机。然后佩罗把他们对公司的忠诚度以及他们的工作与生活的平衡度进行了对比。结果第一组中有58%的员工表示愿意继续留在公司。相比之下，第二组中只有40%的员工持同样的态度。另外，第一组有54%的员工表示他们的工作与生活的平衡度较为稳定，而这个比例在参照组中只有38%。

    佩罗还调查了客户对波士顿咨询集团的顾问每周关机一晚持何态度，大多数客户表示他们并没有注意到任何变化，这说明大多数顾问要么是自行把7*24小时开机的要求强加到自己身上，要么就是因为来自同事的压力。

    每周关机一晚，让同事为你“值夜班”，可以“产生更多的开放性，并且让人能够讨论更多有关工作和私人生活的问题。它可以产生更多激情，”佩罗说。

    译者：朴成奎

    The Blackberry time-suck

    What started as a project to boost work-life balance at the Boston office of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) by Leslie Perlow, a professor at Harvard Business School, turned into a way to redefine teamwork by reducing 24/7 BlackBerry access. Perlow concluded that most consultants created self-induced pressure to stay in touch with colleagues via BlackBerry. Clients weren't demanding full-time access, and most non-work hour conversations were among teammates. Most consultants balked about relinquishing the use of their BlackBerry, even for one night.

    In her book Sleeping with Your Smartphone, Perlow called this behavior "the cycle of responsiveness." She started working with three teams at BCG in 2008 (which eventually turned into a study of 1,000 teams) to determine how they could change how they work together and reduce the 24/7 communication. To break this cycle, Perlow introduced small changes she called "predictable time off." When one consultant took a BlackBerry break Wednesday night after 6 p.m. until the next morning, a colleague would cover in case of an emergency, freeing the consultant from worry. Moreover, the team met weekly to discuss how the plan was working.

    Of course, BCG consultants were still reachable by BlackBerry 24/7 the other six days a week, so this experiment didn't radically diminish their on-call responsibilities. Perlow said, "It doesn't make a tough job easier; it just makes it better."

    "Our staff didn't mind working hard, but what they missed was the lack of predictability in their life," explained Deborah Lovich, head of consulting and business services at BCG's Boston office. Now they could make a dinner reservation and know they wouldn't miss it because of work. In the past, BCG consultants didn't work 24/7, but they were on call 24/7.

    When the firm's staff was forced to turn off their gadgets for one day, it encouraged them to prioritize their tasks, rethink how they were spending their time, and even work better as a team, Perlow says. The project has been so successful that 69% of all consultants in BCG North America now turn their BlackBerrys off one day a week.

    Perlow surveyed two types of consultant groups: those who took a day off from Blackberry use and a control group of employees who didn't and compared their attitudes on staying at the firm and work life balance. Fifty-eight percent of the BCG employees who separated from their BlackBerrys said they were likely to stay at the firm. By comparison, just 40% of those who had continued with their normal smartphone use said the same thing. And 54% of the BlackBerry blackout group reported a solid work life balance, compared to 38% in the control group.

    When Perlow surveyed clients about BCG's consultants taking a night off from availability, most hadn't noticed any change, underscoring the theory that most consultants either impose the 24/7 approach on themselves or are responding to peer pressure.

    Taking that one night off and keeping communication lines with your coworkers open "creates more openness and ability to discuss issues about work and personal life. It creates more passion," Perlow said.