要求听众关手机?
I am asked to present at various internal and external forums and I get increasingly frustrated with the lack of attention from the audience who are looking at their electronic devices. Some even work on laptops with no sign of embarrassment. Maybe it is me that is the problem, but I used to get the audience’s full attention. At the risk of being seen as a dinosaur from the 1980s, should I ban all use of electronic gadgets – or accept it as part of modern-day life and hope they are listening, really?
我被邀请在公司内外的多个论坛上发表演讲，但听众只顾盯着自己的电子设备而不注意听我讲话，这让我产生了越来越强烈的挫败感。在我演讲时有些人甚至在自己的笔记本电脑上工作，而没有流露出任何尴尬的表情。也许问题出在我自己身上，但我曾经能够吸引听众的全部注意力。我是否应该禁止听众使用任何电子设备呢，虽然这可能让我看起来像是来自二十世纪八十年代的老古董？或者我应该将这种现象作为现代生活的一部分接受下来，并寄望于台下确实有听众在听我讲话？Male, chief executive of a bank, 56
一家银行的首席执行官，男性，56岁Lucy’s answer
露西的回答
You could ban gadgets, but I’m not sure what you would achieve, apart from making your audience’s lack of attention less obvious to you. Everyone would simply revert to doing what they always used to do during interminable presentations – daydream, snooze and doodle.
你可以禁止听众使用电子设备，但我不确定你能收到多大效果。这种举措只会让听众注意力分散的问题变得没那么明显。每个人都可以转而去做他们在听冗长报告时总是会做的那些事——比如做白日梦、打瞌睡以及涂鸦。I suggest that you think of the gadgets as a way of gathering information. When I’m giving a talk I use the BlackBerry count as a painful form of instant feedback. The minute the audience whip out their gadgets I know I’m being too boring.
我建议你将电子设备看做是一种信息收集工具。但当我在发表演讲时，我将有多少听众在查看黑莓(BlackBerry)看做是一种对演讲感到痛苦的实时反溃当听众从包里掏出电子设备时，我就知道自己当前的讲述实在是太无聊了。The trouble is that most of us aren’t fascinating, charismatic or funny and, whatever all those people who flog classes in presentation skills tell you, it is not easy suddenly to become so. Especially, I fear, at the age of 56. As chief executive, you at least have authority on your side, which it sounds as if you are using to your advantage. If you were a little scarier the gadget count might fall; but suddenly becoming scary is not easy either.
问题的关键在于，像你我一样的绝大多数人都不具备足够的吸引力、感召力或是幽默感。而且无论那些举办演讲技巧培训班的人是怎么对你说的，想要突然变成一位“抓得住”听众的演讲者绝非易事。恕我直言，特别是在您今年已经56岁的情况下。作为一名首席执行官，你至少在公司内部具有权威，而且根据你的讲述，似乎你已在利用这种权威。如果你的态度更强硬威严一些，使用电子设备的听众数量或许会有所下降。但突然变得威严也不是一件容易的事。The best and simplest solution to the problem of giving presentations to which no one listens is to give fewer of them. Next time you get asked to speak at some grim external function, just say no. Most banking conferences are a terrible waste of time: you can simply eliminate them from your life without losing anything – thereby gaining more time to ensure your underlings are not losing billions in unauthorised trading.
对于发表演讲时无人聆听这一问题，最好、也是最简单的解决办法就是少做演讲。下一次有人邀请你在一项令人不快的外部活动上发表演讲时，你完全可以直接说不。绝大多数的银行业会议都是对时间的严重浪费：你可以轻轻松松地把它们从你的生活中剔除而不会有任何损失——并能因此腾出时间来确保你的下属没有擅自进行未授权交易从而造成数十亿元损失。As for the internal ones, you need to find a smarter, less boring way of doing it. For a start, stop calling them presentations. The very word is an invitation to the audience to start playing Angry Birds in a frenzy of boredom. Instead, call them “Ten minute talks”. Limit yourself to that amount of time and don’t run one second over.
对于公司内部的演讲，你则需要找到一种更聪明、并且不会令人感到无聊的演讲方式。首先，不要再把这类活动称作“报告会”。对于听众来说，这个词等同于邀请他们在极度无聊中玩《愤怒的小鸟》。把这类活动称为“十分钟讲话”则会好很多。把你的演讲时间限制在十分钟以内，绝不要超时哪怕一秒。That will serve two important ends. It will mean you have no time to waffle and are forced to get to the point; and the audience will know they don’t have to listen for long and had better pay attention or else they might miss something. Follow your talk with questions, which will solve the gadget problem at one stroke. I’ve never seen anyone play with a gadget when they are the ones doing the talking.
这种安排能起到两大作用。首先，这意味着你没时间夸夸其谈，而必须快速切入主题。其次，听众们会知道他们不用聆听长篇大论，因此最好聚精会神以免漏掉重要信息。在演讲结束后给出提问时间，这可以轻易解决你提到的电子设备问题。我从未见过有谁在轮到他们发言时还在继续玩电子设备。Your advice
读者的建议One of you leave
有一方得离开Research shows we are all hopeless at multitasking. Start your talk like the cinema ads and ask people to turn off all devices. If someone continues to use one, ask them if your talk is so boring. If yes, either you should stop or they should leave.
研究显示，人类对于同时处理多项任务有无法抑制的偏好。像电影院的广告那样开始你的演讲，并要求听众关掉他们所有的电子设备。如果有人继续使用，问他们你的演讲是否非常无趣。如果他们给出了肯定的回答，要么你停止演讲，要么他们离开。Consultant, female
咨询师，女性It’s not them
这不是听众的问题It is one thing if you are a mid-ranking manager and people play on their BlackBerrys and laptops during internal meetings, but you are the CEO. I do not think that the gadgets are the problem.
如果你是一名中层经理，员工在内部会议上玩黑莓手机和笔记本电脑尚可理解。但你是位高权重的首席执行官，我不认为电子设备是问题的关键。Investment manager, male
投资经理，男性Fightback?zone
设置一个电子设备隔绝区The only recourse is to create a zone of electronic inoperability. This can be done with WiFi and cellphone jammers that are widely available for sale on the internet.
唯一的办法是规划出一片电子设备无法使用的区域，以此对付电子设备。这可通过互联网上随处有售的WiFi以及手机信号干扰器实现。Manager, male, 50s
经理，男性，年过50A good yarn
我来分享一个不错的小故事To avoid people fidgeting with their gadgets during our weekly executive committee meeting, I asked my grandchildren to design felt pouches embroidered with each senior manager’s name. As they enter the room they must put their gadget in their designated pouch and leave it in a basket. The meeting is shorter and more focused. We all gain.
为了防止与会者在我们每周一次的管理委员会会议上摆弄他们的电子设备，我让我的孙子们设计了绣有每位高级经理名字的小袋子。当他们进入会议室时，他们必须将自己的电子设备放入绣有自己名字的袋子中并将口袋留在储物筐内。此举不仅缩短了会议时间，还使会议变得更加重点突出。我们都从中受益。Banker, male, 60
银行家，男性，60岁Get trained
你应该接受相关训练What a self-important prig you sound. I find 95 per cent of what is said in such forums is not relevant. Multitasking seems a good compromise. Maybe a course in improving your presentation skills could improve your audience’s attention span.
你听起来像个十足的道学先生。我觉得各种论坛中的发言大约有95%都无关紧要。这个时候干点别的似乎是一个好的折中选择。也许参加一项提升演讲技巧的培训有助于使你的演讲得到听众的更多关注。Director
主管Question-time
用好提问时间Don’t try to ban gadgets, try to incorporate them. Here is an example from academia, where the lecturer asks the students to keep their mobiles on as they will be used to answer multiple-choice questions during the lecture, with the lecturer having immediate access to the results.
不要试图禁止使用电子设备，而要尝试在你的演讲中利用它们。这里有一个来自学术界的例子。有位讲师在授课时要求学生保持手机开机，因为学生们将被要求用手机作答随堂给出的选择题，通过这种形式教师可以立刻得到学生的答题结果。Lecturer
讲师My confession
我忏悔I think I’ve been to one of your talks. I didn’t play around with my phone, but I confess it was me that started the Mexican wave.
我想我听过你的一次演讲。我没有拿着我的手机大玩特玩，但我必须承认是我掀起了人浪场面。Anon
匿名
