Being able to do this well is crucial in the “knowledge” economy.
能否培养这些特质在知识经济时代非常重要
 
This statement has become a perennial mantra of sorts, blazoned across everything from trade show booths to billboards to websites for software companies. I don’t disagree with the statement. But, the majority of conversation about the way in which the world of work is changing ignores the most important and powerful potential for c hange.
这句话已经成为一种经久不衰的咒语，从展台到广告牌，再到软件公司的网站，到处都有它的纹章。我不反对这一说法。但是，大多数关于工作的方式的讨论忽略了最重要和最有潜力的改变。
 
On his last day as the CEO of General Electric Corporation, Jeffrey R. Immelt said, “Leadership is this intense journey into yourself.” His message was clear: Leadership doesn’t necessarily equate with output. It’s much bigger, and much more personal.
杰弗里•R•伊梅尔特(Jeffrey R. Immelt)在担任通用电气公司(General Electric Corporation)首席执行官的最后一天说:“领导力是发现自己的一次紧张旅程。”他传达的信息很明确:领导力并不一定等同于产出。它包含更多方面、更个人化。
 
What the current conversation about the changing world of work neglects to acknowledge is that the biggest opportunity for change isn’t in migrating to cloud computing, offshoring (or repatriating) jobs, upgrading your internal employee communication tools, or optimizing your supply chain. All of these changes are external, extrinsic; namely, leadership and work as an inner experience. That’s because today, what we think of “work” is almost exclusively represented by what I call outer work.
当前关于变化的职场的讨论忽略了一个事实:改变的最大机会不是从事云计算、外包(或回收)工作、升级内部员工通讯工具或优化你的供应链。所有这些变化都是外在的; 也就是说，领导和工作是一种内在的体验。这背后的原因是，如今我们所认为的“工作”几乎完全是由我所谓的外在工作来代表的。
 
This work encompasses activities that are external to us, such as sitting in meetings, analyzing, making presentations, interacting with customers, and even collaborating with teammates. Outer work consists entirely of what you do and what others do. For the vast majority of professionals, outer work is where most people spend 99% of their workday. In fact, we devote so much time to outer work, we hardly even think about it– and that’s part of the problem.
这项工作包括了我们外部的活动，比如开会、分析、做演示、与客户互动、甚至与队友合作。外在工作完全由你做什么和别人做什么组成。对于绝大多数的上班族来说，外在工作几乎就是他们的所有工作内容了。事实上，我们花了很多时间来做外在工作，我们甚至都没想过——这就是问题所在。
 
Because when it comes to making tough decisions, coming up with creative solutions to problems, and being an inspiring leader, outer work plays a small role. I’d argue that in a knowledge economy, what we’re really getting paid to do each and every day is fueled by critical inner work. And there’s a profitable side effect of doing it, which is exponentially elevating the value of our decision-making and productivity.
因为在做出艰难决定的时候、想出有创意的解决方案、成为一个鼓舞人心的领导者时，外在工作起着很小的作用。我认为在知识经济中，我们每天都在做的事情是由关键的内在工作推动的。这样做有一个有利的作用，那就是大幅提升我们的决策和生产力的价值。
 
WHAT’S INNER WORK, ANYWAY?
那么到底什么才是内在工作？
There’s a famous slide in Netflix’s culture deck that I’m sure you’ve seen before; it highlights that the best inventive work is 10 times better than average, as compared to the best non-creative decision, which is only two times better than average.
在Netflix的文化平台上有一个著名的幻灯片，我相信你们以前见过;它表明，最佳的非创造性决策的价值是平均决策的两倍，单最好的创造性工作比平均水平高出10倍。
 
The reality is that when we’re buried deep under a pile of outer work, it’s difficult to get to that optimal place. That’s because good knowledge work is about how you think. And, how you think isn’t outer work. It’s inner work.
现实情况是，当我们埋头于一堆外在工作之下时，很难找到最理想的地方做内在工作。这是因为良好的知识工作是关于你如何思考的。而且，你的想法并不是外在工作，而是属于内在工作。
 
Inner work is centered on the inner experiences of yourself and others. Thinking about inner experiences in the context of work is not something we’re accustomed to doing. It’s a lot harder to visualize than outer work. One reason it’s so much harder to understand inner work is because we don’t have a clear picture of our inner world.
内在工作指的是你自己和他人的内心体验。在工作环境中思考内心体验不是我们习惯做的事情。这比外在工作更难想象。其中一个原因是，我们很难理解内在工作，因为我们对自己的内心世界没有清晰的认识。
 
Based on this understanding, inner work consists of:
基于上述信息，内在工作主要包括：
• Mental acts or activities focused in your inner world to achieve a purpose or result. That purpose could be to “the good ordering of your mind”, gaining clarity as to why a particular coworker bothers you so much through self-reflection, or meditating on your values or principles.
• 精神活动集中在内心世界以达到目的或结果。这个目的可能是“清晰的逻辑”，你可以通过自己思考或者考虑自己的价值观和原则来清楚地了解到，为什么自己会讨厌某个同事。
 
• More advanced inner work can consist of things like quieting your own thinking and feelings so you can deeply listen to what others are feeling.
• 更高级的内在工作还包括让自己的想法和感觉安静下来，这样你就能深入倾听别人的感受。
 
 
IN PURSUIT OF GUILT-FREE INNER WORK
追求无负担的内在工作
Prior to the industrial revolution, people actually spent a lot of time doing what I call inner work–contemplating, reading, meditating.
在工业革命之前，人们实际上花了很多时间来做我所谓的“内在工作”——思考、阅读、冥想等等。
 
Admittedly, if you work in a textile factory, inner work likely isn’t moving the needle on the value you create. But if you work in the knowledge economy where creativity and leadership–not routine manual labor–produce value, then inner work is indispensable.
不可否认的是，如果你在一家纺织厂工作，你的内在工作很可能对你的帮助不是很大。但是，如果你在知识经济领域工作，这种情况下的创造力和领导能力——而不是常规的手工劳动创造的价值，是非常需要内在工作的。
 
HOW WE’RE PRIORITIZING INNER WORK AT BETTERUP
如何处理内在工作的顺序
Without inner work, we’re vulnerable to depression, stress, and burnout, and consequently, lower-quality decisions and decreased creative output. I would argue that one reason there is so much disengagement or toxicity in the workplace is because people come to work with the expectation that their job is only to do outer work and make no time for inner work.
如果没有内在工作，我们就容易受到抑郁、压力、倦怠等因素的影响，因此，我们会做出更低质量的决定，并减少创造性的产出。我想说的是，工作场所中多数人都有这种问题，是因为人们开始工作时认为他们的工作仅仅是做外在工作，而没有时间去做内心的工作。
 
As I reflect on episodes in my career where I wasn’t performing at my best as a manager, one common theme is that I lacked is the internal clarity around what was important to me to prioritize, personally and professionally. We’ve all been there: unanchored, flailing, desperately trying to gain a sense of control, knowing all along that every frantic step we were taking was only further diffusing our impact instead of fastening our footing.
当我回顾我的职业生涯时，我发现自己在经理这个职位上并没有最大化展现自己的价值，与其他很多人一样，我的问题是没有自己清楚认识到在我的职业生涯和个人生活中，什么是最重要的。我们都有过这样的经历:漂泊着、挣扎着、拼命地想要获得一种控制感，知道我们所采取的每一个疯狂的步骤都只是在进一步加强我们的影响，而不是巩固我们的基础。
 
The biggest opportunity our world affords us is to reinvent the very concept of work: away from busyness of our to-dos, and inward toward developing ourselves so that we lead more fulfilling lives outside of work, too. As a culture, we’ve become obsessed with quantity and speed, but we spend less and less time doing the important inner work required to drive quality and well-being. It won’t be easy. In fact, it’ll be hard (inner) work, but it will be well worth it.
我们的世界给我们提供的最大的机会就是彻底改造我们的工作理念:让我们从忙碌的工作中抽离出来，多探求内心的想法，这样我们就能在工作之外更有成就感。我们沉迷于数量和速度，以至于这几乎变成了一种文化和习惯。但我们花费越来越少的时间来做重要的内在工作来提升工作质量和幸福感。做大这一点并不容易。事实上，这将是一项艰巨的工作，但这是值得的。