从跨国巨头到乐土CEO:一个三文鱼船长的Unboss运动
晚上好,首先要非常感谢今晚参加文化会的每一位乐土合伙人。同时,我想向刘如银董事长表达我的感激之情,感谢您给予我这个机会。我承诺会全力以赴,帮助乐土实现您的愿景。也要感谢我们所有的同事和乐土合伙人,感谢你们在致力于为全球患者提供优质药品的过程中展现的坚定决心和付出的贡献。希望我们能共同努力,为全球医疗保健系统即将迎来的模式转变做出积极贡献。
借此机会,我想分享一下我年轻时的一些经历,这些经历一直影响着我的整个职业生涯。同时,我也想提出一些看法,或许会对你们的人生道路有所启发。我相信这些思考将有助于我们共同提升乐土,也因此提升人类健康水平。
我12岁时打了第一份暑期工,在阿拉斯加一家三文鱼罐头厂的锅炉房工作。我还负责在下班后打扫包装车间,以便工人们第二天可以安全地开展工作。16岁那年,有位甲板员工受伤了,我就出任接替了他,在一艘92英尺长的三文鱼驳船上,成为公司有史以来最年轻的甲板工。18岁时,我实现了自己的第一个梦想,被提升为同一艘船的船长,成为公司当时最年轻的船长。在大学和法学院的那几年里,我每年暑假都会在他们那里工作。
这段经历深刻地塑造了我的世界观,教会我尊重他人的重要性。尊重不仅是我们的绝对要求,也是我们相互合作的基础。在阿拉斯加的三文鱼罐头厂,大多数工人未受过高等教育–也正因为这个他们才会在那里工作–但这并不意味着他们缺乏智慧。实际上,许多人在各自的领域都拥有深厚的专业知识,这使得我在向他们学习时感到谦卑和敬畏。
我认识到,我们所拥有的能够改善世界的最强大武器就是领导力。事实上,我们拥有的最宝贵的资源也是领导力。如果我们所有人都能接受自我探索和实现领导力的旅程,那么我们就能够成就非凡的事业。在过去的一个世纪里,社会之所以能够取得如此非凡的成就,是因为各界领袖带领普通人做了非凡的事情。但这也需要我们每个人认识到:领导力不是一种权利,也不是一个职衔,它需要我们每天都去努力争取。
或许有人会问:如何走好这段领导力发现之旅?如何真正抓住领导力带来的机遇,应对我们面临的一些最严峻的挑战?在这里我想跟大家分享我的三点心得,以供大家思考。
我们每个人在各自的领导力旅程中,面临的一个巨大挑战是保持旺盛的斗志,坚持追求“乐土梦”的宏伟目标,同时也为中国和全球创造非凡成就。我们在日常工作中会面临负面情绪,会因为其他人的风凉话甚至恶意中伤而动摇意志。当你走上这段属于你自己的领导力之旅时,当面对挑战时,你一定会面临这样的问题:你是否想要放弃你的梦想?你是否想要放弃改善人类生活的机会?
我这里想跟大家分享的第一点是:不断重温并强化自己的目标。对我来说,我惊叹于医学的神奇以及它能够医治患者的魅力:当我们能够找到或研发出一种药物,一种存在于掌间的奇迹,它可以治愈疟疾或癌症,能够极大地改善患者的生活,这都是非常了不起的事情。每一种新药的诞生,都意味着科技之光照进了40亿年的进化历程。因此,我鼓励大家找到自己的励志故事,并找到传播这些故事的方式。这不仅有助于你身边的人保持斗志,还将深刻影响你自己的精神状态。
我想分享的第二点是:保持强烈的好奇心。我认为这在当今社会是一项相当困难的任务,尤其是面对不断涌来的社交媒体信息和人工智能新闻推送,它们试图削弱我们的好奇心,将我们的思维局限在狭窄的空间。作为一个领导者,要在这个极其复杂的世界里发挥作用,必须保持强烈的好奇心。你必须时常问自己:我能从眼前的这个人身上学到什么?我能从别人的观点中学到什么?如果我们想取得卓越成就,我们就需要具备善于提问和保持好奇心的能力。
另外,关于好奇心还有一个更为困难的层面,那就是对自我保持好奇。领导力需要深刻的自我认知,我们必须对自己的思维模式和内心世界都充满好奇。世人都在追寻货真价实的领导力。实际上,真正的领导力并非源于外部世界,而是存在于我们的内心。因此,我希望大家能够对自我保持深切的好奇心。
我想分享的最后一点是“Unboss”这一概念,并将其融入我们的乐土文化中。我们知道,企业界正在逐渐开始借鉴古人的智慧。回溯到公元前四世纪中国的《道德经》,里面讲的都是“服务型领导力”。然而,在向前发展的过程中,我们不知不觉地失去了这一理念。【编者按:Unboss直译为“去老板化”,是近年来出现的一种挑战传统企业管理思维的新型理念,以“权力去中心化”和赋能团队、发挥成员潜能为主要目标,以求实现从“有限责任公司”到“无限发展社区”的企业质变,因此也被看作是一个社会运动。】
当Frederick Winslow Taylor在福特汽车公司推行科学管理体系的时候,那时他们需要工厂流水线,以及在车间工作的工人,因此制定了相应的等级流程和组织架构,这成为当时公司经营的常规方式。在过去的100年中,我们不知不觉地进入了知识工作者的时代,这也是乐土的现状。但是,我们不能像管理工厂中的螺丝钉那样管理知识工作者。我们必须承认,对于最复杂的问题,创意和解决方案其实就在我们周围的人中。
我相信,如果我们在乐土和每个团队中都能够接受“Unboss”的理念,我们将使企业更加强大。当然这并不意味着我们没有职衔制度或领导。我想强调的是,我们要对自己能够控制的事情负责,为团队提供方向,并在集体发展的过程中相互支持。管理的核心在于,领导力的源泉不在于组织架构图上的位置,而在于我们为周围人创造可能性的能力,这也是我们唯一的力量源泉。如果人们追随你,仅仅因为你在组织架构图上的位置,那么你就已经失败了。人们追随你,应当是因为他们相信你的理念,相信你的价值观。成为一个“Unboss”吧。让我们的企业,我们每个人,都成为自己和团队的“Unboss”。如果你工作的目的是取悦上级,那么你应该慎重思考一下,这是否是工作和人生的真正目的,你是否应该有更深层次做事的动机。
我思考了很多关于我们人类这个物种的独特之处,很多巨著已经对此进行了论述。我认为在相互沟通以及讲故事方面,我们是很独特的。然而,我认为人类最独特的地方在于想象力。当我们能想象一件事物的时候,我们可以让不可思议的事情发生。正是人类的想象力,不断在推动当前这个科学世界的巨大进步。
那么你们知道我正在想象什么吗?我想象,所有人在今晚文化会之后,都会充满动力去成为更好的领导者。我想象,我们都会Uboss(放飞)自我,Unboss(解放)团队。我想象,这将释放出企业甚至社会发展所需的巨大能量,这样即使在一个问题重重的世界,我们也能像人类社会过去几个世纪所做的那样,切实解决这些问题。我也想象,当我们重聚在今晚这样的会议时,会为我们所取得的进步感到无比自豪。我们所有人都有责任去想象,优秀领导力将带来的伟大成就。我们能合力应对乐土和世界面临的挑战,我的世界的未来掌握在你们的手中。我们一起,将把乐土打造成中国乃至世界的伟大企业。
最后,我想感谢大家给我这个机会在这里发言,也感谢你们为乐土的成功所做的一切。让我们一起迈步走向更美好的未来。谢谢大家。
【原文有删节。翻译:马炯,李楚皓;责任编辑、美术编辑:马炯】
For me, an important takeaway that has helped shape how I look at the world is respect for people should be our absolute requirement and fundamental base on how we work with one another. In the salmon canneries in Alaska, most workers do not have a lot of advanced education. In fact, it is the opposite. Most people working in the canneries do this because they don’t have high levels of education. This does not mean that they are not smart – in fact, many of these people are so street smart and have such deep expertise in their respective lines of work that I felt humbled and awed to learn from them.
I think this is true in every role I have ever had, and I always embrace a deep respect for learning from others – and I pledge to carry this mentality with me here at Cheerland. I expect everyone to exercise respect for people, and you can expect this of me – that I will treat you with respect at all times. This means no shouting, yelling or baiting. This applies to everyone at all levels. This does not mean we cannot be human. We should support one another, interact and laugh together, but it is also important that interactions be kept on a respectful and supportive basis.
One of the greatest challenges that all of us will have in our respective leadership journeys is to stay deeply inspired; to keep dreaming about doing very big things for Cheerland, which in turn means doing big things for China and the world. The opportunities to give in to cynicism, rumor and innuendo are all around us, we may encounter negativity in our daily work. As you go through this leadership journey, your leadership journey, as you face challenges, you will surely face the question of do you want to give up on your dreams? Do you want to give up on the possibilities of improving human life?
My invitation to you is to find places where you can deeply reflect on your purpose. In my own world, I marvel at the magic of medicine and how they can help patients. The fact that we can find or develop a medicine, a miracle that fits in the palm of your hand, that can dramatically improve a patient’s life, to cure malaria or cure cancer, is pretty extraordinary. We unpack 4 billion years of evolution with every single medicine that is created. So, find your story of inspiration. Find your way of communicating that story of inspiration. That will not only help those around you stay inspired, but it will also have a powerful effect on your own state of mind.
The second invitation I have for all of you is to stay deeply curious. I think this is one of the hardest things to do, especially in our modern world today where we are bombarded by WeChat, AI newsfeeds – things that are trying to make us less curious. Trying to lock our minds into a single point of view. The truth is, in order to operate in an incredible complex world as a leader, you have to stay deeply, deeply curious. You have to ask the question of what can I learn from the individual in front of me? What can I learn from the alternative point of view? If you want to make big things happen, that’s the power of questioning and the power of curiosity.
Alongside of that, there’s a harder part of curiosity. It’s the journey of self-curiosity. Leadership requires deep self-awareness. You have to be curious about your own mindset. You have to be curious about what is going on insider of you. This is actually the key to authenticity. Everybody is in search of authentic leadership. The source of authentic leadership is not outside of you, it is by looking inside of you. So please stay deeply curious about yourself.
My last invitation is to be an “Unboss” and to bring this to our Cheerland culture. You see, the corporate world is slowly learning the wisdom that we actually had in the ancients. When you go back to the Tao Te Ching in 4th century B.C. in China, it is all about “Servant Leadership.” Somehow along the way, we lost that.
When Frederick Winslow Taylor worked at the Ford Motor Company, they realized they had factories, they needed people to work in the factories. They needed hierarchies, org charts – that was how to run a company. Somehow along the way in the last 100 years, we’ve moved to a world of knowledge workers. But we cannot manage knowledge workers like cogs in a factory. We have to accept for the most complex problems, the ideas and solutions are actually in the people around us.
I believe that if we embrace the notion of Unboss in Cheerland and within everyone’s respective organizations, we can make this an even more powerful company. Don’t misunderstand me – I am not saying we have no hierarchy and we no longer of have bosses. Rather, take responsibility for what you can control, look for direction when needed and support one another as we advance on our collective journey. Here’s the thing, the source of power for leadership is not where you sit on an org chart. The source of power for a leader is your ability to create possibilities for the people around you. That is your only source of power. If people are following you because of your org chart, you have already lost. People have to follow you because they believe in your ideas and they believe in your values. So be an Unboss. Let’s Unboss our organization and Unboss ourselves. If the reason you pursue something is because you want to please the hierarchy, you have to ask yourself is that really the right reason or do you want a deeper accountability in yourself as to why you do things.
Now, when we look at human beings as a species, I reflect a lot as to what is unique about our species; some great books have been written about this. We are a very unique species in our ability to communicate, to tell stories. But what I think is most unique about us, is our ability to imagine. When we imagine things, we can make incredible things happen. The power of the human mind to imagine possibilities is what has allowed a science based world to have so much progress.
Thank you all for the opportunity to speak with you and for all you do to make Cheerland a success. Let’s have a fun and wonderful journey together. Thank you.
(Script by Daniel Brindle; edited by John Ma for length, clarity and accuracy, and emphasis added.)