评论
打印
Why you should think like a lawyer
为什么你应该像律师一样思考
Lawyers are often seen as the most tedious of professionals. And the most derided ("What do you know when you find a lawyer up to his neck in concrete? Someone ran out of concrete").
律师常被视为是最乏味的专业人士。也是最受嘲笑的（"当你发现一个律师被混凝土埋到脖子时，说明什么？说明某人的混凝土用完了。"）
Yet that damning reputation is undeserved: lawyers are in fact role models. The method and meticulousness entrenched in the legal style of thought has something to teach other knowledge workers and their managers.
然而，这种负面的名声是不公平的：律师实际上是榜样。法律思维方式中根深蒂固的条理性和细致性能教给其他知识工作者及其管理者一些道理。
In "One L", a book about his first year at Harvard Law School, Scott Turow describes the slow, arduous progress of going over his first case as "stirring concrete with his eyelashes".
在《法学院一年级新生》一书中，斯科特·图罗描述了他在哈佛法学院第一年的经历，他将自己首次处理案件的缓慢而艰难的进程描述为"用睫毛搅拌混凝土"。
But legal education is not about specific cases or statutes. It is, as Mr Turow later understands, about processing a mountain of information and exercising judgment.
但是法学教育并非关于某一个具体的案件或法规。而是关于如何处理堆积如山的信息并运用判断力，这一点图罗后来才明白。
It teaches how to infer rules from patterns, use analogies, anticipate what might happen next, accept ambiguity and be ready to question everything.
它教导人们如何从模式中推断出规律，如何进行类推，如何预测接下来可能发生的事情，如何接受模糊性，以及如何准备好质疑一切。
Managers also have something to learn from the adversarial legal system, central to common-law jurisdictions like America's and Britain's, where advocates represent their parties before an impartial arbiter (usually a judge and a jury).
管理者也能从对抗性法律制度中学到一些东西，这种制度是美国和英国等普通法司法审判的核心，在这种司法中，辩护律师在中立的裁决者（通常是法官和陪审团）面前代表他们的当事人。
In preparing for trial, lawyers attempt to identify and rehearse both sides of litigation. By putting themselves in their opponents' shoes they are forced to engage with a line of reasoning with which they may disagree.
在为审判做准备时，律师试图确定并预演诉讼的双方。通过设身处地地站在对手的立场上，他们必须去理解一种他们可能不同意的推理思路。
In so far as managing employees is, like arguing a case before a court, about persuasion, managers would be wise to adopt some of the same tactics. That means avoiding emotional reactions (lawyers may try to appeal to jurors' feelings but they never let their own get in the way).
就像在法庭上辩论案件一样，管理员工也是关于说服他人的，就这方面而言，管理者明智的做法是采用一些和出庭辩论相同的策略。这意味着要避免情绪化的反应（律师可能会试图从情感上打动陪审员，但他们自己绝不会让情绪妨碍工作）。
It also means considering the strongest criticism of their own reasoning. This not only makes their own arguments bulletproof but is liable to look fair in the eyes of employees and fellow managers. (Plus, a friendly but thorough performance review is essentially a mock cross-examination of your witnesses.)
这也意味着要考虑到对他们自己推理的最强烈的批评。这不仅使他们自己的论点无懈可击，而且在员工和其他管理者眼中也会显得公平。（另外，一次友好但彻底的绩效审查本质上就是对你的证人的模拟盘问。）
The purposefulness and heady resolve that characterise most lawyers are attributes that executives, too, should cultivate. There is no room for passivity when something goes wrong, only for action.
大多数律师所特有的目标性和强烈决心也是高管们应该培养的特质。出现问题时，没有被动等待的余地，只能采取行动。
Perhaps the most valuable lesson from lawyers is both the most obvious and the most scorned. The antidote to work anxiety is not taking your mind off work with meditation or Netflix. It is disciplined preparation.
或许从律师那里学到的最有价值的经验，既是最明显的，也是最被人轻视的。应对工作焦虑的解药不是通过冥想或看网飞剧集来转移注意力。而是严格的准备。
