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Business
商业版块
Bartleby
巴托比专栏
Corporate rituals
公司仪式
From the public to the private, ceremonies pervade business life.
从公开的到私密的，仪式在商业生活中无处不在。
For a public demonstration of the importance of ritual, the coronation of King Charles III on May 6th will be hard to beat.
在向公众展示仪式的重要性方面，国王查尔斯三世在5月6日的加冕礼将是无可匹敌的。
The ceremony will take place at Westminster Abbey, where monarchs have been crowned since William the Conqueror in 1066.
仪式将在威斯敏斯特大教堂举行，自1066年征服者威廉登基以来，君主一直在这里加冕。
There will be anointing, homage-paying, oath-taking and all manner of processing.
到时候将有涂油、致敬、宣誓等各种程序。
In any other circumstances this kind of behaviour would warrant a medical diagnosis.
在任何其他情况下，做出这种行为的人都有理由接受医学诊断。
But the alchemy of tradition means that it will instead call forth a sense of continuity and the idea of shared history.
但传统的神秘力量意味着，这种行为将唤起一种延续感和历史认同感。
Rituals are also a big part of corporate life.
仪式也是企业生活的重要组成部分。
There is nothing to match coronation levels of weirdness, much as some chief executives might like the idea of robes and a throne.
没有什么能比得上加冕仪式的怪诞程度，尽管有些首席执行官可能喜欢长袍和王冠。
But firms have their own ceremonies and rites.
但公司有自己的仪式和规矩。
Some are internal: the repetitive rhythms of performance reviews and weekly meetings, budget processes and farewell cards are all ritualistic.
有些仪式是内部的：周而复始的业绩评估、周会、预算流程和离别贺卡都是例行的仪式。
Others are more public, from investor days to conference calls with analysts.
其他仪式则更加公开，从投资者日到与分析师的电话会议。
The pandemic spawned a host of new customs, from regular events designed to lure people into the office to dedicated times of the week devoted to concentrated work.
疫情催生了一系列新的习俗，从旨在吸引人们来办公室的定期活动，到一周中专门用于集中工作的时间。
Business rituals can arise spontaneously -- those informal games of office bingo for when the boss uses their favourite bit of jargon.
商业仪式可能是自发出现的--当老板使用他们最喜欢的行话时，可以玩办公室宾果这种小游戏。
They can also be entirely private.
仪式也可以是完全私密的。
No rule exists to say that, on entering a hotel room, the business traveller must check the minibar; that if the hotel manager has written a letter welcoming him, he must feel absurdly pleased; that if there is a plate of fruit, he must immediately eat all of it.
没有规定说，在走进酒店房间时，出差的客人必须检查一下小冰箱；如果酒店经理给他写了一封欢迎信，他必须感到受宠若惊；如果有一盘水果，他必须马上把水果都吃掉。
Yet all of these things are as if ordained.
然而，所有这些似乎都是规定好了的。
The prime example of the set-piece ceremony is the annual shareholders’ meeting.
这种精心安排的仪式的一个典型例子就是一年一度的股东大会。
As a way of getting things done, this format is dreadful.
作为一种完成工作的方式，这种形式糟糕透顶。
Any information that shareholders actually need is available to them elsewhere.
股东真正需要的信息都可以在其他地方获得。
Many people delegate their voting rights to others.
许多人已经将投票权委托给其他人了。
Plenty come just for the sandwiches.
还有很多人来开会只是为了吃三明治。
But as a ritual it matters.
但作为一种仪式，这种大会很重要。
The board of directors enter and sit on a podium; some of them may say absolutely nothing.
董事们进入会场并坐在讲台上，他们中的一些人可能不会说一句话。
The bosses give presentations to show that shareholders could not wish for a better set of managers.
然后老板们汇报工作，表明股东们不可能希望找到更好的经理人。
A succession of small shareholders then take the microphone and harangue the company’s management for being totally useless.
然后，许多小股东接二连三地拿起麦克风，滔滔不绝地指责公司管理层毫无用处。
It is performative, to be sure, but a bit of a performance doesn’t go amiss for something as bloodless as corporate governance.
这当然是一种表演，但对于像公司治理这样冷血的事情来说，有一点表演也没什么大碍。
The annual meeting offers a useful physical reminder of who is accountable to whom.
年度会议实实在在地提醒人们，谁对谁负有责任。
Standard rites of this sort can evolve into company-specific ones.
这类标准仪式可以演变为公司特有的仪式。
Amazon has attached a copy of its very first letter to shareholders, from 1997, to every one it has published since as a way of demonstrating that an underlying ethos endures even as the world around it changes.
亚马逊在发布的每一封致股东的信中，都附上了来自1997年的第一封致股东的信的副本，以此表明即使周围的世界在变化，公司的底层精神也会坚守不变。
Rituals are also used as a way of building culture and team spirit.
仪式也被用于建立企业文化和团队精神。
The financial industry has a long-established custom of giving “tombstones” out to clients and bankers when a transaction closes.
金融业有一个由来已久的习俗，即在交易完成时向客户和银行家发放“墓碑”。
The original tombstones were ads in newspapers, so called because they were laid out in a way that resembled gravestone inscriptions.
最初的墓碑是报纸上的广告，之所以叫墓碑，是因为它们的排版和墓碑铭文很像。
The modern versions are sometimes known as “deal toys”.
现代的墓碑有时也被称为“交易玩具”。
Lucite may not have much intrinsic value but the ritual survives as part-reward, part-commemoration, part-brag.
这种树脂做的墓碑本身可能没有太多价值，但这个仪式既作为奖励，又作为纪念，也作为自夸而存在。
Plenty of firms have less involved celebratory rites, like ringing bells or banging gongs when they hit certain sales milestones.
许多公司的庆祝仪式没有这么复杂，比如当他们达到某个销售额里程碑时，只是敲钟或敲锣。
Even simple rituals can encourage a sense of community and purpose among employees.
即使是简单的仪式也能鼓励员工形成集体意识和使命感。
A paper published in 2021 by Tami Kim of the University of Virginia and her co-authors asked volunteers to participate in a set of physical movements before starting out on a brainstorming exercise.
弗吉尼亚大学的塔米·金和她的合著者在2021年发表了一篇论文，要求志愿者在开始头脑风暴练习之前一起做一套身体动作。
Some looked at each other during this warm-up and others did not.
在这个热身过程中，一些人互相看着对方，另一些人则没有。
The people who maintained eye contact rated the subsequent brainstorming as more meaningful.
保持眼神交流的人认为随后的头脑风暴更有意义。
But turning everything into a ritual also risks being tiresome.
但是把一切都变成一种仪式也有可能令人厌烦。
The only thing worse than an unnecessary meeting is an unnecessary meeting with stretching beforehand.
比不必要的会议更糟糕的，只能是在不必要的会议开始之前还要伸展一下身体。
Hosting colleagues at a regular meal and calling it “Fabulous Friday” is going to be most appealing to those who would otherwise be having a “Friendless Friday”.
招待同事吃一顿普通晚餐，然后将其称为“美妙的星期五”，这对那些原本会过一个“没朋友的星期五”的人来说才最有吸引力。
And one person’s ritual is another person’s ordeal.
而且一个人的仪式可能会让另一个人想去世。
Ms Kim’s paper mentions a digital agency that holds regular sessions in which employees share personal stories about moments that changed their lives.
金女士的论文提到了一家数字机构，该机构定期举行分享会，让员工们分享改变他们人生的时刻和个人故事。
This is indeed a ritual, but so is hanging, drawing and quartering.
这确实是一种仪式，但对叛国者实施的绞刑、车裂、大卸八块三件套也是一种仪式。
If there is a golden rule of corporate ritual, it is that it should make people feel as if they belong.
如果说企业仪式有什么金科玉律的话，那就是仪式应该让人们感觉他们属于这里。
