Johnson P T
Harv Bus Rev. 1993 Jan-Feb;71(1):56-60, 62, 64-6.
When Peter Johnson was an executive in the private sector, he viewed conflict with company outsiders as, at best, an annoyance. But when Johnson became the administrator of Bonneville Power Administration in Portland, Oregon, he realized that outsiders had the power to bring the organization down. To survive, BPA had to listen to the people affected by the agency's decisions-BPA's harshest critics. BPA had long been respected, but by the time Johnson arrived in 1981, the agency was reviled. People were put off by BPA's father-knows-best approach to decision making, whereby the agency first made decisions and then explained them. So Johnson took what many thought was an unimaginable risk. Despite the warnings of attorneys and his own deep apprehensions, he opened up BPA's decision making to the public. The first attempts to involve BPA's critics were full of fireworks, but thanks to BPA's rock-solid commitment to public involvement, success soon followed. Experiences early on proved to Johnson that involving the public in BPA's decision making was a practical alternative to litigation. Moreover, BPA's stakeholders--once the agency's adversaries--became BPA's partners in making better decisions, and the agency gained authority and legitimacy.
彼得·约翰逊在私营部门担任高管时，他认为与公司外部人员发生冲突往好里说是一种麻烦。但当约翰逊成为俄勒冈州波特兰市邦纳维尔电力管理局的行政长官时，他意识到外部人员有能力搞垮这个组织。为了生存，邦纳维尔电力管理局必须倾听受该机构决策影响的人们——也就是该机构最严厉的批评者的意见。邦纳维尔电力管理局长期以来一直备受尊敬，但到1981年约翰逊上任时，该机构已遭人唾弃。人们对邦纳维尔电力管理局那种自以为是的决策方式感到反感，即该机构先做决策，然后再解释。于是约翰逊冒了许多人认为不可思议的风险。尽管律师们发出了警告，他自己也深感忧虑，但他还是将邦纳维尔电力管理局的决策过程向公众公开。最初让邦纳维尔电力管理局的批评者参与的尝试充满了激烈交锋，但由于邦纳维尔电力管理局对公众参与坚定不移的承诺，很快就取得了成功。早期的经历向约翰逊证明，让公众参与邦纳维尔电力管理局的决策是一种切实可行的替代诉讼的办法。此外，邦纳维尔电力管理局的利益相关者——曾经是该机构的对手——成为了邦纳维尔电力管理局做出更好决策的合作伙伴，该机构也因此获得了权威和合法性。
