Hallowell E M
Harvard Medical School, MA, USA.
Harv Bus Rev. 1999 Jan-Feb;77(1):58-64, 66.
In the last decade or so, technological changes--mainly voice mail and e-mail--have made a lot of face-to-face interaction unnecessary. Face-to-face contact has also fallen victim to "virtuality"--many people work at home or are otherwise off-site. Indeed, most people today can't imagine life without such technology and the freedom it grants. But Edward Hallowell, a noted psychiatrist who has been treating patients with anxiety disorders--many of them business executives--for more than 20 years, warns that we are in danger of losing what he calls the human moment: an authentic psychological encounter that can happen only when two people share the same physical space. And, he believes, we may be about to discover the destructive power of its absence. The author relates stories of business-people who have dealt firsthand with the misunderstandings caused by an overreliance on technology. An e-mail message is misconstrued. Someone forwards a voice-mail message to the wrong people. A person takes offense because he was not included on a certain circulation list. Was it an accident? Often the consequences of such misunderstandings, taken individually, are minor. Over time, however, they take a larger toll--both on individuals and on the organizations they work for. The problem, however, is not insoluble. The author cites examples of people who have worked successfully to restore face-to-face contact in their organizations. The bottom line is that the strategic use of the human moment adds color to our lives and helps us build confidence and trust at work. We ignore it at our peril.
在过去十年左右的时间里，技术变革——主要是语音邮件和电子邮件——使得大量面对面交流变得不再必要。面对面接触也成为了“虚拟性”的牺牲品——许多人在家工作或以其他方式不在工作场所。的确，如今大多数人无法想象没有这类技术及其赋予的自由的生活。但是爱德华·哈洛韦尔，一位知名的精神病医生，他治疗焦虑症患者——其中许多是企业高管——已有二十多年，他警告说我们正面临失去他所谓的“人际时刻”的危险：一种只有当两个人共处同一物理空间时才会发生的真实心理交流。而且，他认为，我们可能即将发现其缺失所带来的破坏力。作者讲述了一些商界人士的故事，他们亲身经历了因过度依赖技术而导致的误解。一封电子邮件被误解。有人将语音邮件转发给了错误的人。一个人因为未被列入某个传阅名单而生气。这是意外吗？通常，单独来看，这类误解的后果并不严重。然而，随着时间的推移，它们造成的损失会更大——对个人及其工作的组织都是如此。不过，问题并非无法解决。作者列举了一些人成功在其组织中恢复面对面接触的例子。关键在于战略性地利用人际时刻能为我们的生活增添色彩，并帮助我们在工作中建立信心和信任。忽视它我们将自担风险。
