如何跨越现实和梦想之间的鸿沟

以上内容改编摘录自《创造性的信心：释放我们的创造潜力》（Creative confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All）。作者：汤姆•凯利和大卫•凯利。

Many of us get stuck between wanting to act, and taking action. The uncertainty of the uncharted path ahead can be daunting. Sometimes it feels as if circumstances are conspiring against us, and we find ourselves riveted in place.

我们当中有许多人在想要行动和采取行动之间摇摆不定。前方未知的道路充满变数，令人望而却步。有时境况仿佛与我们处处作对，我们发现自己寸步难行。

In corporate cultures, that hesitation can translate into what professors Bob Sutton and Jeffrey Pfeffer call the "knowing-doing gap:" the space between what we know we should do and what we actually do. The "knowing-doing gap" can lead to company paralysis when talk becomes a substitute for action.

鲍勃•萨顿和杰弗里•普费弗教授将企业文化中的这种犹豫称为“知行差距”，也就是我们知道自己应该做的事与我们实际做的事两者间的差距。当空谈取代了行动时，“知行差距”可能会导致公司的瘫痪。

After learning about the knowing-doing gap, we began to see it everywhere. For example we witnessed it first-hand at Eastman Kodak Company. On a cold spring day in the mid-1990s, an IDEO team travelled to Rochester, New York for an audience with the Kodak executive team. We found a group of leaders with deep expertise who at least intellectually understood that the future of photography was digital.

了解到知行差距之后，我们会发现它在生活中无处不在。比如，我们曾在伊士曼柯达公司（Eastman Kodak Company）亲眼见到它的存在。20世纪90年代中期的一个寒冷的春天，艾迪欧公司（IDEO）的一个小组来到纽约州罗契斯特市，参观柯达管理团队。在那里，我们发现这个领袖团队具有渊博的专业知识，他们至少在理性上知道，摄影的未来将是数字化。

Looking back, business historians may be tempted to suggest that Kodak's leadership was naïve. But that was not the case. In fact, we had to race to keep up with CEO George Fisher's agile mind. And no one could say Kodak lacked knowledge of digital photography. They had actually invented the digital camera in 1975, and later pioneered the world's first megapixel sensor. Kodak had a head start that should have yielded lasting advantage. So why didn't all that knowledge and first-mover advantage turn into decisive action?

回顾往事，商业史学家很容易将柯达失败的原因归结为管理层太过天真。但事实并非如此。实际上，我们必须加快速度，才能跟上柯达的首席执行官乔治•费舍尔那活跃的思路。没人能说柯达缺乏数码摄影的知识。实际上他们在1975年就发明了数码相机，随后研发了全世界首个百万像素级传感器。柯达占据先机，本应获得长久的优势。那么为何所有的这些知识和先动优势转化成为果断的行动？

For starters, tradition got in the way of innovation. Kodak's glorious past was just too alluring. Kodak had essentially owned consumer photography for a hundred years, with market shares in some segments as high as 90%. By contrast, digital ventures all seemed so risky, and Kodak wasn't providing enough "soft landings" for managers willing to take career risks in those new areas. Facing strong global competitors in the digital market, Kodak knew that it would struggle, and fear of failure transfixed the management team.

首先，传统阻碍了创新。柯达辉煌的过去太过诱人。实际上，柯达已经在过去的一百年中占领了消费者摄影行业，在一些市场的占有率甚至高达90%。相比之下，数码化的冒险似乎风险过高，而柯达也并没有给愿意在全新的领域赌上自己职业生涯的管理层提供足够的“软着陆措施”。面对数码市场强有力的全球竞争对手，柯达知道前路荆棘密布，对失败的恐惧让它的管理层裹足不前。

Caught in the knowing-doing gap, Kodak clung too closely to the chemistry-based business that had been so successful for them in the 20th century, under-investing in the digital world of the 21st. What we saw at Kodak was not a lack of information but the failure to turn insight into effective action. As a result, one of the most powerful brands in America lost its way.

柯达深陷于知行差距的沟壑之中，它们依然牢牢依附于20世纪给他们带来巨大成功的化学胶片业务，没能对21世纪的数码时代进行充分的投资。我们在柯达看到的并不是是信息的匮乏，而是将愿景转化为有效行动的缺失。身为美国曾经最强大的品牌之一，柯达最终迷失了方向。

No company that falls behind the competition is guilty of standing completely still. But sometimes our efforts fail because of the level of commitment to change. "I'll try" can become a half-hearted promise of follow-through rather than decisive action. Stanford d.school academic director Bernie Roth demonstrates this idea with a brief exercise that his students say delivers a lasting message. He holds out a water bottle and asks them to try to take it from him. Facing grey-haired Bernie, a 50-year veteran of the Stanford Design Program, students usually hesitate as they try to grab it from him. Their initial efforts yield nothing. His grasp just grows more ironclad as the strapping 20-year-olds and powerful CEOs try to wrestle the bottle away from the octogenarian.

在竞争中落后的公司没有哪家是因为完全的原地踏步才失败的。不过有时候我们的努力会由于投入变革的程度不足而付诸东流。“我会试试的”更有可能会变成三心二意、半途而废的承诺，而非果断的行动。斯坦福大学设计学院（Stanford d.school）教务主任伯尼•罗斯通过一个实验验证了自己的这个观点。他的学生说，实验虽然简短，传达的信息却意味深长。他抓着一瓶水，让学生们试着把它从他手中拿走。面对这位头发花白，在斯坦福设计项目组（Stanford Design Program）工作了50年的老教授，学生们在抢走水瓶时往往会犹豫。他们最初的尝试毫无所获。面对着高大魁梧的年轻人和位高权重的首席执行官的争夺，这位八十多岁老人的手抓得越来越紧。

Bernie then reframes the exercise. He says to stop trying and just do it -- take it from him. The next person strides forward and successfully wrenches the bottle away. What changed? As Bernie explains it, a subtle excuse lies in the idea of "trying." It's as if today is for attempts, and the real action will happen at some vague future moment. To achieve your goal, to topple the barriers that stand in your way, you have to be focused on getting it done now. Or as Yoda, another wise-and-seasoned master, put it to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, "Do or do not. There is no try."  

之后，伯尼订立了新规则。他让大家不要试着把水瓶抢走，而是直接夺走。下一个人跨步上前，成功地抢下了水瓶。是什么改变了？按照伯尼的解释，“试一试”的想法隐藏了一个微妙的借口。仿佛今日只是试试罢了，真正的行动会在将来不确定的某一刻开始。而为了达到目标，冲破你面前的阻碍，你必须专注于马上解决问题。或者按照另一位充满智慧、经验丰富的老师尤达所言，把它看作星球大战（Star Wars）中的卢克•天行者，“要么做，要么不做，没有尝试一说。” 

Many who have witnessed Bernie's exercise took his message to heart. An editor for a prestigious international business journal who had struggled for years to find time for her true passion -- writing fiction -- was spurred to begin work in earnest on her new novel. A psychology professor planning to spend a year "gathering more information" on his research topic scrapped that plan and initiated a series of workshops to quickly prototype the final version of his work. And a computer graphics researcher who has been dabbling on and off with a music technology project switched from saying "one day ..." to saying "today." He wrote a proposal and met with an international development foundation that funds music initiatives.

许多见证了这个实验的人将伯尼的话谨记于心。一家著名国际商业杂志的编辑挣扎数年，想要抽出时间来从事她真正的爱好——写小说。受此触动，她开始认真地撰写她的全新长篇小说。一位心理学教授本打算花一年时间来为他的研究“收集更多信息”，后来他放弃计划，开展了一系列研讨活动，很快便完成了这项工作。一位电脑绘图研究员曾断断续续地参与到一个音乐技术项目中，他从说：“等到有一天……”变成了说：“今天。”他撰写了一份倡议书，遇到了一家为音乐创意筹资的国际发展基金会。

Sometimes, despite the determination to jump in, the enormity of an important task can stop you in your tracks, especially at the beginning. Getting started can be hard. The writer faces the blank page; the teacher, the first day of school; businesspeople, the launch of a new project.

有时候，尽管有了投身于其中的决心，一项其他的重要任务却可能会让你止步，尤其是在开始阶段。迈出第一步会很困难。作家要面对空白的稿纸，教师要面对第一天开学，商务人员要面对新项目的启动。

Bestselling writer Anne Lamott famously captures this idea in a childhood story from her popular book, Bird By Bird. Her 10-year-old brother had been assigned a school report about birds and hadn't started on it until the night before it was due. "We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'"

畅销书作家安妮•拉莫特在著名作品《一点一点来》（Bird By Bird）中讲述了一个童年故事，极好地描述了这一观点。她10岁的哥哥要写一篇关于鸟类的报告交给学校，却在截止日的前一天晚上还没开始动笔。“我们在波里那斯的家庭小木屋里度假。他坐在厨房的餐桌边，周围满是活页纸、铅笔和还没打开过的鸟类书籍。面对这一庞大的任务，他不知所措，都快要哭出来了。这时，我的父亲坐到他旁边，用胳膊搂住他的肩膀说：‘一点一点来，孩子。一点一点来就好。’”

We both summon that phrase "bird by bird" when confronted by an intimidating task, sometimes actually saying it out loud. Those three words remind us that, no matter how large the chasm, we can narrow the knowing-doing gap one step at a time.

当面对让人望而生畏的任务时，我们都能想起这个短语“一点一点来”，有时候实际上还会大声说出来。这五个字提醒我们，不论知行差距有多大，我们都能一点一点地缩小这个差距。

In other words, to ultimately reach a creative breakthrough, you just need to start, regardless of small failures that may occur along the way. It's unlikely that your first try at anything will be a success. But that's okay. It's hard to be "best" right away, so commit to rapid and continuous improvements. The messiness of such trial and error may seem uncomfortable at first, but action allows most of us to learn at a faster rate; it's almost a prerequisite for success. Otherwise, the desire to be best can get in the way of getting better.

换句话说，要想实现创造性的突破，你只需迈出第一步，而不要顾虑途中可能出现的任何小挫折。首次尝试就成功不太可能，不过即使失败也没关系。正因为很难立刻做到“最好”，所以才要快速且不断地改进。这种不断尝试的混乱开局可能会让人感到不适，但实践会让我们大多数人学得更快，这几乎是成功的先决条件。否则，想要做到最好的渴望可能反而会阻碍你变得更好。