《10到25岁》第三章(4)：桥接职场代沟

Who is the opposite of former Whole Foods CEO John Mackey? Meet Ole. He’s in his late thirties, he didn’t go to college, and he manages the most overperforming branch of the Obs supermarket chain in Norway. Under Ole’s management, his branch climbed from the fiftieth percentile in total profits to the third-ranked store nationwide, despite having a much smaller client base than other stores. Ole doesn’t have Mackey’s problem of slacker teens, and if he does, they shape up quickly. In extensive interviews with Ole, his assistant managers (both of whom were former prison guards, interestingly), and his frontline employees, I saw an eager and resilient young staff, always ready to seek out feedback. Nobody was staring blankly forward, leaving customers helpless. No one sneaked into the stockroom to smoke or take a nap. Ole created an independent work ethic because he formed a treaty over meaning. That made his store impressively profitable while also making it the kind of place where people wanted to work.

谁是前全食超市CEO约翰·麦基的对立面？来认识一下奥勒。他三十多岁，没有上过大学，管理着挪威Obs连锁超市中表现最佳的分店。在奥勒的管理下，他的分店从总利润的第五十百分位攀升至全国第三名，尽管其客户群比其他店铺小得多。奥勒没有麦基那种懒散青少年的问题，即使有，他们也会迅速改正。在与奥勒、他的助理经理（有趣的是，他们都是前监狱看守）以及一线员工的大量访谈中，我看到的是一个热切且坚韧的年轻团队，总是乐于寻求反馈。没有人茫然地凝视前方，让顾客无助。没有人偷偷溜进储藏室抽烟或打盹。奥勒创造了一种独立的工作伦理，因为他建立了一种关于意义的契约。这使得他的店铺利润惊人，同时也成为人们愿意工作的地方。

Ole’s twenty-three-year-old employee told me a story that drove this point home. When she first started working at the store straight out of high school, she was paired with an older woman who was jaded and wanted to game the system. The older worker taught her bad habits, like hiding in the break room or waiting to be told to do anything. Ole called the young employee into the office one day and gave her a tough talking-to. He said she wasn’t living up to the standard in the supermarket and she needed to shape up. I asked the young employee if she’d felt offended or threatened to quit. After all, that’s basically what happened in the control group in the wise-feedback study (see the introduction). The young employee looked at me like I was a lunatic. She told me that Ole was right. She hadn’t been living up to her potential, but she wanted to. Ole also made it clear to her that she had the potential to be a leader at the store. Now she’s an eager and proactive employee. She’s shadowing her manager to prepare for a promotion and attending a leadership academy that Ole sent her to. Apparently, Ole’s high standards didn’t provoke a war of words because his meaning was clear: I care about you and your future, and that’s why I’m upholding this high standard. “It’s fundamentally about trust,” Ole told me. And how does he build it? “Everyone knows I want the best for the store and the people,” he answered. Even when he’s harping on the day’s sales numbers on the walkie-talkie, the meaning is clear: “I care about you too much to give you no standards,” he says to his employees. It’s the grocery store version of the mentor mindset.

奥勒的23岁员工给我讲了一个故事，生动地说明了这一点。当她高中毕业后直接开始在店里工作时，她被安排和一个愤世嫉俗、想钻系统空子的年长女性一起工作。这位年长员工教她一些坏习惯，比如躲在休息室里或等着别人告诉她该做什么。有一天，奥勒把这位年轻员工叫到办公室，狠狠地训斥了她一顿。他说她没有达到超市的标准，需要改进。我问这位年轻员工是否感到被冒犯或威胁要辞职。毕竟，在智慧反馈研究的对照组中，基本上就是这样的（参考介绍部分）。年轻员工看着我，好像我是个疯子。她告诉我奥勒是对的。她确实没有发挥出自己的潜力，但她想这么做。奥勒还明确告诉她，她有潜力成为店里的领导者。现在，她成了一个热切且积极主动的员工。她正在跟随经理学习，为晋升做准备，还去了奥勒送她去的领导力学院。显然，奥勒的高标准并没有引发口水战，因为他的意图很明确：我关心你和你的未来，这就是我坚持高标准的原因。“这根本上关乎信任，”奥勒告诉我。他是如何建立信任的呢？“每个人都知道我希望店里和大家都好，”他回答道。即使他在对讲机上唠叨当天的销售数字时，意图也很明确：“我太在乎你们了，不能没有标准，”他对员工说。这是超市版的导师心态。

Is Ole’s success just a by-product of the socialist culture in Norway? No, because similar supermarkets in other countries also do a much better job motivating their young retail employees than Whole Foods. For example, Wegmans, a grocery store chain on the East Coast of the United States, leads with this philosophy: “Every day at Wegmans, you’ll have the opportunity to learn and grow. Because when good people get together and work toward a common goal, they can achieve anything.” That sounds like wise feedback—and a whole lot more. Wegmans has half the proportion of one- or two-star reviews that Whole Foods has on Indeed.com. Frontline retail workers attest that Wegmans “respects you as a person” and is “the best place Pve ever worked” and “made time fly by.” Why? Because, as they said, they were “surrounded by great coworkers and friendly managers. They treat their employees extremely well… It taught me a lot about people and respect.”

奥勒的成功仅仅是挪威社会主义文化的副产品吗？不，因为其他国家的类似超市也比全食超市更好地激励了他们的年轻零售员工。例如，美国东海岸的韦格曼斯超市连锁就秉持这样的理念：“在韦格曼斯的每一天，你都有学习和成长的机会。因为当好人聚在一起，朝着共同目标努力时，可以成就一切。”这听起来像是智慧反馈——而且远不止于此。韦格曼斯在Indeed.com上的三星或二星评价比例是全食超市的一半。一线零售员工证实，韦格曼斯“尊重你作为一个人的存在”并且是“我工作过的最好的地方”，“让时间飞逝”。为什么？因为他们说，他们“被优秀的同事和友好的经理包围着。他们对待员工非常好……这教会了我很多关于人和尊重的道理。”

Think about that. In Mackey’s worldview, he’s paying you for your time, so he doesn’t have to respect you as a person. When you don’t work hard, then you’re lazy and violating the terms of his contract. It’s a fair economic exchange that he plans to enforce. But in Wegmans’ worldview each party’s needs are valued. They respect people and their purposes first. Then people are willing to work so hard that they lose track of time. That could explain why Wegmans is number one on the Forbes list of best employers in retail and Whole Foods isn’t even on the list.

想想看。在麦基的世界观中，他付钱买你的时间，所以他不必尊重你作为一个人的存在。当你不努力工作时，你就是懒惰，违反了他的合同条款。这是一种他打算强制施行的公平经济交换契约。但在韦格曼斯的世界观中，双方的需求都得到重视。他们首先尊重人和他们的目的。然后人们才愿意如此努力工作，以至于忘记了时间。这或许可以解释为什么韦格曼斯在《福布斯》最佳零售雇主榜单上排名第一，而全食超市甚至没有上榜。