Is there someone on your team who seems unusually productive? Someone who gets a huge amount done — without working longer hours?
你的团队中是否有人看起来效率很高?他看起来没有加班很久,但是却做了很多工作。
 
Super-productive people are in every industry. The most productive software developers write nine times more usable code per day than the average developer, according to research by Michael Mankins. He also found that the best fish butcher at Le Bernardin Restaurant in New York can prepare three times as much fish as the average, the best blackjack dealer keeps their table playing five times longer, and the best sales associate at Nordstrom sells eight times more clothes.
每个行业都有这样高效率的人。据迈克尔•曼金斯(Michael Mankins)的研究,最高效的软件开发人员每天编写的可用代码是普通程序员的9倍。他还发现,纽约的Le Bernardin餐厅最好的鱼贩能做的鱼的数量是一般厨师的三倍,最好的发牌员能让玩家多玩5倍的时间,而诺德斯特龙(Nordstrom)最好的销售助理卖的衣服比其他人多8倍。
 
How do they do it? That’s what their coworkers usually wonder. We wanted to know too.
他们是怎么做到的?这是他们的同事经常想知道的。我们也想知道。
 
We collected data on over 7,000 people who were rated by their manager on their level of their productivity and 48 specific behaviors. Each person was also rated by an average of 11 other people, including peers, subordinates, and others. We identified the specific behaviors that were correlated with high levels of productivity — the top 10% in our sample — and then performed a factor analysis.
我们收集了7000多员工的数据,他们的经理评估了他们的生产力水平和48个具体行为。另有11人对每个员工进行打分,得出平均分。这些评审人员包括员工的同龄人、下属和其他人。我们从中选取了前10%作为高效率的具体行为,然后进行因子分析。
 
Seven consistent clusters emerged that identified the skills that the most productive people regularly practiced:
最终我们确定了七个高效率职员的共同特征:
 

Set stretch goals. Think about your last day off. Did you decide to do some projects around your house or apartment? Maybe you puttered around, doing a few small tasks in a random way. Or maybe you selected a major project to tackle and were amazed at how much you were able to get done in a day.
设定大目标。 想想休息日的最后一天要做些什么,是在房子或公寓周围做一些项目吗? 也许你也可以随机做一些小任务。 或者,也许你选择了一个重大项目来解决问题,这样你会惊讶地发现自己一天中完成了很多事情。
 
A big project encourages you to pick up your pace and eliminate all distractions. There is some great magic that occurs when people become riveted by the thought of achieving a stretch goal. The people in our study who got the most done made setting stretch goals a habit.
一个大项目鼓励你加快步伐,消除所有分心项目。 当人们被实现大目标的想法所吸引时,会出现一些伟大的魔力。我们研究中最有效率的人都有这种习惯。
 
Show consistency. We all know people who are 100% reliable. If they say, “It will be done,” it will get done. In our study, the most productive people did not see their productivity ebb and flow over time; they didn’t procrastinate only to pull all-nighters later on. Instead, they figured out how to consistently deliver results, week after week and month after month. There was a cadence and a rhythm to their work that seemed to keep them going.
保持速度。 我们都了解100%可靠的人是什么样的。 如果他们说,“这将完成”,它会完成。 在我们的研究中,最有效率职员的生产力不会随着时间的推移而下降, 他们不会拖延。 相反,他们想出了如何始终如一地保持速度的方法,一周又一周、一月又一月。 他们的工作很有节奏,让他们继续前进。
 
Have knowledge and technical expertise. Few things kill productivity faster than a lack of knowledge or expertise. When you know what you’re doing, you don’t have to sacrifice quality for speed. You can get things done both quickly and well. You don’t need to spend time searching online for a good tutorial, or asking a colleague for advice. The most productive professionals in our study didn’t hesitate to ask for help when they needed it…but they didn’t need it that often. They also intentionally acquired new skills and worked to expand their expertise. That helped them be skillful, exacting, and quick in their execution.
有知识和技术专长。缺乏知识或专业知识是最快杀死生产力的东西。 当你知道你在做什么时,你不必为了速度而牺牲质量。 你可以快速完成任务。 你不需要花时间在网上搜索一个好的教程,或者向同事寻求建议。 我们研究中最富有成效的专业人员在需要时毫不犹豫地寻求帮助......但他们并不经常需要这种帮助。 他们还有意识地去获得新的技能,并努力学习专业知识。 这有助于他们在执行过程中保持熟练、精确和快速。
 
Drive for results. Most people are willing to accept responsibility for accomplishing goals and to work at a reasonable pace to achieve expected results. But there are a few people who have a great desire to accomplish results sooner and quicker. They are overjoyed to be able to check something off their to-do list. They’re competitive — and they compete not only with their colleagues but also with themselves. They like to set new records for performance and then beat their own best.
实现目标的动力。 大多数人愿意承担完成目标的责任,并以合理的速度工作以实现预期的结果。 但有些人渴望更快地完成结果。 他们非常高兴能够检查他们的待办事项列表。 他们很有竞争力,不仅与他们的同事竞争,还与他们自己竞争。 他们喜欢创造新的纪录,然后不断打败自己。
 
Anticipate and solve problems. The most productive people are great problem-solvers. They come up with innovative solutions and accomplish work more efficiently. They also tend to anticipate roadblocks and begin working on solutions in advance, and so avoid some of the problems that other people run into. Social psychologists call this mental contrasting — thinking about what you want to achieve and what might get in the way of your achieving it — and have found that it helps people achieve their goals.
预测并解决问题。 最有生产力的人是伟大的问题解决者。 他们提出了创新的解决方案,并更有效地完成工作。 他们也倾向于预见路障并提前开始解决问题,因此避免其他人遇到的一些问题。 社会心理学家称这种为心理上的差异 -- 考虑你想要达到什么目标,以及可能阻碍你实现目标的方式,这样可以帮助人们实现目标。
 
Take initiative. For many people, the hardest part of getting a job done is starting. The most productive people start quickly, and they never wait to be told to begin. They ask for forgiveness, not permission. And indeed, their bias for action can get them into trouble sometimes — they might start executing a project before all parties have bought in, say. But their bosses rarely complain, because their results tend to speak for themselves.
主动。 对于很多人来说,完成工作最难的部分就是开始。 最富有成效的人开始迅速,他们永远等待被告知开始。 他们要求原谅,而不是允许。 事实上,他们的行为偏见有时会让他们陷入麻烦 - 他们可能会在各方买入之前开始执行一个项目。 但是他们的老板很少抱怨,因为他们的结果往往是为自己说话
 
Be collaborative. So far it might sound like we’re describing a person who is a brilliant individual worker but can’t work well with others. But that’s not what our study showed. In today’s complex organizations, very little gets done by someone acting alone. Everything is highly interdependent. The most productive people in our study were highly collaborative and worked well with others.
合作。 到目前为止,前面的特征似乎听起来让大家觉得这些高效率的人都是智商很高但不擅长团队合作的人。但事实并非如此。在当今复杂的公司中,只有合作行动才能完成任务。 一切都是高度相互依赖的。 我们研究中最有成效的人是高度协作的,并且可以很好地与其他人一起工作。 
 

If you want to be more productive yourself, take a look at this list and ask if there’s something you can improve. Do you struggle to get started? Could you be more consistent? If you’re a manager trying to help one of your employees get more done, ask yourself if there’s something here that could help. Maybe your employee is working hard but doesn’t have the skills they need to really increase their productivity. Can you help them get those skills? Can you help them set motivating stretch goals?
如果您想自己提高生产效率,可以根据这七个特征来看看自己是否有可以改进的地方。觉得难以开始?能保持自己的工作速度么? 如果你是一位经理,试图帮助你的一位员工完成更多工作,问问自己是否有什么可以帮助员工。 也许你的员工正在努力工作,但没有真正提高他们的生产力所需的技能。 你能帮助他们获得这些技能吗? 你能帮助他们设定激励弹性目标吗?
 
The most productive people might seem to get it all done through magic — or cutting corners — but as it turns out, extreme productivity is just a set of skills. Skills that more of us can acquire and use.
最富有成效的人似乎可以通过魔法或者偷工减料来完成这一切--但事实证明,高效的生产力只是一套技能。更多的人可以获得和使用这项技能。