你知道会议中较有影响力的两个字?"What's the magic word? " my mother would always ask me when I was a child and begging for something. It turns out Mom was wrong. The "magic word" for getting what you want isn't "please" — it's "yeah. " “要说哪个神奇词语啊? ”小时候每当我希望得到些什么时,我的母亲总会这样问我。 事实证明妈妈错了。 可以让你得偿所愿的“神奇词语”不是“请”——是“没错。 ” According to a paper published recently by professor Cynthia Rudin, Ph. D. , and Been Kim, Ph. D. , researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, "yeah" is the most persuasive word for getting a proposal or suggestion accepted at a business meeting.
根据来自麻省理工斯隆商学院的两位教授,Cynthia Rudin 博士和Been Kim 博士较近发表的遥,想要在商务会议上获得计划书或意见通过,较有说服力的词汇是“没错”。
"We looked at data from 95 meetings," Rudin tells Yahoo! Shine. "We wanted to examine if persuasive words even exist. " The researchers began their study with some skepticism and were surprised to find that, again and again, the word "yeah" was correlated with success. The researchers did not analyze vocal enthusiasm of the speaker but simply the number of times words were correlated with a positive outcome.
Wouldn't you like to make your next meeting more constructive? Productivity could be only four letters away.
难道你不想让你的下遥会议变得有建设遥一些吗? 或许离高产量只有两个字的距离了。
According to the study, "In the United States alone, an estimated 11 million meetings take place in a given day. " As most workers know, meetings can eat up hours of each working week, and managers spend between 25 and 50 percent of their time each day convening with their colleagues. "If we understand general things about meetings," says Rudin, "such as how to make your meeting more effective, it helps us plan ahead and be more productive. " 根据这项研究,“仅在美国,每天就有1100万的会议在进行。 ”正像每位工作者知道的那样,会议会占去一周工作中的数个小时,经理们每天将25% 到50% 的时间都花在召集他们的员工上。 “如果我们对会议有基本的了解,”Rudin说,“比如如何使你的会议变得遥力,这将会帮助我们提前计划并更具生产力。 ” Analyzing the language used in meetings, the researchers asked, "Are there patterns in suggestions that are accepted versus rejected? Can we use this to improve how we present ideas to the team? " 分析会议中的语言,两位研究者提出,“在被接受和被拒遥的建议中有没有一些规律? 我们可遥以用这些规律去改善我们向团队提想法的方式? ” They found that, indeed, adding "yeah" to a proposal made the idea "come across as if it were in line with previous thoughts by others," which gives it a greater shot at being accepted. An example might be, "Yeah, the color black would be a great way to go," when you are first proposing that color. The authors mention that a key principle in Dale Carnegie's 1936 classic How to Win Friends and Influence People was to let people think the idea was theirs.
The word "yeah" came into common use around the turn of the 20th century as a casual way of saying yes. Interestingly, "yes" didn't even appear in the study's top 20 most persuasive words. Rudin suggests that is probably because "yeah" is now used more frequently in conversation than "yes. " It also is perhaps a more nuanced word and less of a directly affirmative answer to a specific question.
The second and third most successful words, according to the authors, were "give" and "start. " "Give" was used in the context of offering something to a customer or adding something to a product, and also to "indicate suggestions are based on previous data" — for example, "given these parameters. " 与遥相关的词汇中,根据作者们所说,排在第二和第三位的是“给予”和“开始”。 当提供一些东西给消费者或者在一个产品上加些什么时,会用到“给予”,同时“给予”也用来“指出这些建议是建立在过往数据的基础上”——比如,“被给予这些参数。 ” The word "start" builds alliances, especially when used early in meetings, and provides an opportunity for the group to agree on basic suggestions — for example, "How about we start with the key issues? " “开始”这个词可以建立起联盟,特别当用在会议的开头并给整个团队同意某个基本提议的遥——比如,“不如我们从较关键的问题开始如何? ” The authors say that the science of meetings is still in its early stages and that they plan to design more studies and dig deeper. One key goal is to help people communicate more effectively and make wrap-up times more predictable. Shorter meetings? Hell, yeah!