生活英语听力文章 第11期:有评价才有提高(1)

 The title of today's lesson is You Can’t Improve What you Don’t Measure 今天的话题是有评价才有提高。

The old adage 1 “Measure twice and cut once” is practical advice for everyone, especially carpet layers, tailors, and carpenters. 老话说得好：“三思而后行”。这是对所有人的实用性建议，尤其是对于地毯铺设工，裁缝和木匠。
My lesson today is on measurements; however, it’s about a different kind of measurement. It’s about the importance of measuring your performance. 今天我要谈谈评价，但和普通意义的评价不一样，我谈的是关于评价自己行为的重要性。 
Dr. H. James Harrington has been involved in quality and performance improvement projects since the 1950s. He summarizes well what this lesson is all about.  20 世纪50年代有一个项目，叫质量和性能改善计划。哈林顿博士就是这个项目中的一员。
“Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it.  正好可以用他的总结来说说我们本课的内容：评价让你能控制最终做出改进的第一步。如果你无法对一件事情作出评价，你就不能把它弄明白;
If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.” 弄不明白就不能控制它;如果你无法控制，就得不到改进。
It’s not a stretch to say that any team, organization, or person who wishes to perform better or accomplish more has meaningful points of measurement. 这不是说想表现更好的任何团队，组织或个人就能实行这个评价。
To clarify my point, consider if: 想要明白我的意思，思考一下，如果：
Baseball players never knew their batting average 垒球运动员不知道自己的击球率
Consider if advertisers did not measure the number of people who responded to an ad 广告商不考虑广告的覆盖范围
Imagine if golfers did not keep track of their scores 高尔夫球员不记录自己的得分
What if online shopping sites did not track the conversion 2 rate of website visitors to customers 线上购物网站不记录浏览网站的人转变为顾客的几率
Consider if students never knew the results of their tests 学生从不知道考试结果
Imagine if customer service centers did not measure how long customers were on hold 客户服务中心不考虑顾客的等待接听时间
What if companies did not measure their sales 公司不考虑销售
If they didn’t measure their performance, how would they know if they improved? 如果像以上所说，他们又怎么能知道自己有没有提高呢?
Quite simply, what gets measured gets done. Think about it. The very nature of knowing that something is being monitored causes us to work harder and perform better.  想想一个很简单的道理——可以评价的工作才能完成。大家都知道，如果被监督完成某项工作，我们会更努力，完成得更好。
There’s actually proof of this—it’s called the Hawthorne Effect. 这一点证明了霍桑效应。
Coined in 1955 by Henry Landsberger, the Hawthorne Effect describes a form of reactivity on the part of people  霍桑效应是亨利·兰茨贝格在1995年提出来的，
whereby 3 they improve an aspect of behavior being measured simply in response to the fact that the measurement is taking place! Amazing, isn’t it? 指的是人们在知道评价自己某方面行为的工作正在进行时，他们会在被评价部分的表现有所改进的这样一种反应形式。很惊异吧? 
When you measure your own performance, positive things happen: 评价自己表现时，会产生一些积极效果：
You are able to set goals and evaluate your progress. 你能设立目标并对进展作出评价。
You always know exactly where you stand. 你总能清楚知道自己的当下状况。
You can identify key aspects you want to refine. 你能分出想要的精炼部分。
You are able to see the results of your refinements 4. 你可以看到自己的进步。
You can quickly and accurately 5 trouble shoot your problems. 你能够快速准确地解决问题。
I can tell you firsthand how absolutely critical it was to my success that I measured my results.  我可以直白告诉你们评价自己对我的成功是多么的关键。
Throughout my sales career, I measured things such as the number of calls I made, the number of calls that were answered,  贯穿我的整个销售生涯，我对销售中做的每件事都作出评价。比如打了多少个电话又有多少人接了电话;
the number of appointments I set, the number of appointments that resulted in new clients,  约了多少人又有多少人最后成为了我的客户。
as well as the size of each sale. I measured everything I did in the entire sales process. 再比如每单销售的大小。我对销售过程中的每一件事情都做了评价。
Doing so not only showed me how I was doing, it brought attention to the key elements of my performance and motivated me to strive 6 harder to improve in each area. 这样我不仅知道我在干什么，还能集中精力更加努力做得更好，改进每个方面的工作。