Fortune’s annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” listprovides useful insights into how we collectively view corporate culture. Most of us flip through the pages or click through the screens hovering over pictures and blurbs highlighting gourmet chefs, nap rooms, yoga instructors and other signifiers of “great” workplaces.
《财富》杂志一年一度的“最适宜工作的100家公司”榜单，为我们如何从整体上看待公司文化提供了有用的观察角度。大多数人会草草翻阅杂志或在电脑上不停翻页，只看那些美食大厨、午休室、瑜伽老师以及其他代表“伟大”工作场所的图片和夸张的描述。
That said, the true “Best Companies to Work For” have the right culture and aren’t just great workplaces.
尽管如此，真正“最适宜工作的公司”都有正确的公司文化，而且它们不止是“极好的工作场所。”
Fortune itself is aware of this, even assigning one of its top writers to argue that being a “Best Company to Work For” has little to do with the jaw-dropping (and mouth-watering – trying biting into Google’s lavender pecan cornbread) employee perks these organizations offer.
《财富》也意识到了这一点，并委派了一名高级作者为这些公司能够入选“最适宜工作的公司”提供佐证，这些佐证与它们提供的令人瞠目结舌或垂涎三尺（比如谷歌的淡紫色山核桃玉米面包）的员工福利无关。
“Knockout perks aren’t the reason any company makes this list,” writes Fortune’s Geoff Colvin. “The essence of a great workplace is just that: an essence, an indispensable quality that determines its character.”
《财富》记者杰奥夫•科尔文写道：“令人印象深刻的福利，并非任何一家公司入选榜单的理由。伟大工作场所的本质在于：一种内在的精髓，一种决定公司特质的不可或缺的品质。”
Personally, I’m always thrilled to see the “Best Companies” list. I never stop being impressed that a publication like Fortune, which for decades has tracked companies based on “how much” (revenue, market capitalization, etc.), also makes such a sustained effort to measure the more human virtues of workplace quality.
从个人角度而言，“最适宜工作的公司”榜单总是让我非常兴奋。《财富》数十年来一直根据“多少”（收入、市值等）来跟踪公司，同时也在努力衡量工作场所品质中更人性化的优点，这种方式始终令我印象深刻。
Being the “best” on Fortune’s list (or just aspiring to one day make it) means you’re on the right track. It shows you care about your people, appreciate their passions and want to make them comfortable in the workplace. Every yoga class and gourmet meal is an investment in doing business in a more human way, a big step toward having the right corporate culture.
入选《财富》杂志“最适宜工作的公司”榜单意味着，一家公司走在正确的轨道上。这表明，这家公司关心员工，欣赏他们的热情，希望让他们在工作场所感到舒适。瑜伽课和美食都是为了更人性化经营进行的投资，是向正确的公司文化迈出的一大步。
Merriam Webster’s 2014 “Word of the Year” – the most searched term on the dictionary’s website – was “culture.” Examining culture is deeply tied to the current moment. Why? In our era of ever-growing interconnection, we can peer deeply into an organization better than ever, learn about its past and present, discuss its behaviors and even advocate for change.
《韦氏词典》2014年的“年度热词”——即在词典网站上搜索最多的词汇——便是“文化”。研究文化是目前的一个主流趋势。原因何在？因为在当今相互联系日益密切的时代，我们可以更深入地研究一家公司，了解它的过去与现在，讨论其行为，甚至敦促其做出改变。
Think about the way we react when something goes wrong within an organization today. People no longer tend to accept surface-level explanations. When a student is sexually assaulted on a college campus or an unarmed man is killed by police, people now talk about “rape culture” and “police culture.” We want to know about the larger context that’s informing individual thinking and the forces that animate individual behavior. We’ve come to understand that attitudes, actions, mindsets and beliefs come from a deep place in our collective character.
想想当一家机构出现某种错误时我们的反应。人们不再习惯于接受肤浅的解释。当一名学生在大学校园遭遇性侵，或一名手无寸铁的平民被警察杀害时，人们会谈论“强奸文化”和“警察文化”。我们希望了解启迪个人思考的更大背景，以及推动个人行为的力量。我们开始明白，态度、行动、心态与信念均源自我们作为集体角色的内心深处。
We’ve grown less interested in bad apples and much more interested in the trees that create them. “Culture” is our word of the year because we want the deepest explanation possible. Although we don’t automatically ask the same questions when something goes spectacularly well, we ought to. In some realms, like sports, this shift has already started.
我们不再对坏苹果感兴趣，而是对长出苹果的树更感兴趣。“文化”之所以成为年度热词，是因为我们希望得到更深层次的解释。尽管当事情发展顺利的时候，我们不会下意识地问同样的问题，但事实上，我们应该如此。在某些领域，例如体育运动中，这种改变已经开始。
The San Antonio Spurs have demonstrated an incredible and rare record of long-term success in professional basketball. Though other franchises want to imitate this, instead of rushing to poach the Spurs’ star players, smart teams are doing their best to reinvent their entire team system (e.g. how they hire, scout, coach, budget, train, play, recruit free agents, etc.) to emulate the Spurs culture, which values unselfish play above all else. While it’s impossible to duplicate the Spurs’ exact culture, learning from the Spurs is already paying off for this year’s regular season leader, the Atlanta Hawks.
圣安东尼奥马刺队创造了职业篮球历史上令人难以置信的、罕见的连胜纪录。虽然其他球队希望复制这样的成功，但聪明的球队并没有选择挖走马刺队的明星球员，而是尽最大努力改造整个团队系统（包括如何招聘，如何物色优秀球员，如何指导球队，球队预算，训练，比赛，招募自由球员等），竭力模仿以无私分享球权著称的马刺文化。虽然不可能完全模仿马刺队的文化，但通过效仿马刺队，亚特兰大老鹰队已经成为今年NBA常规赛的领跑者。
Organizational culture runs just as deep as individual human character. And character, in the words of Heraclitus, determines fate. Just as one family can never duplicate another family, no business can exactly replicate another company’s culture. Business is about gaining proprietary advantage by doing that which you can’t copy, right? Since culture is potentially the most differentiated asset a company owns, shouldn’t leaders get a lot more intentional and deliberate about shaping, nurturing and scaling it? Too often, we get stuck on shaping and managing the things – benefits, perks and workplaces – that exist only on the very surface of culture.
组织文化如同一个人的性格。赫拉克利特曾经说过，性格决定命运。就像一个家庭无法模仿另一个家庭一样，没有公司能够完全模仿其他公司的文化。经商的核心就是通过做别人无法模仿的事情来获得专属优势，不是吗？而文化可能是一家公司最差异化的资产，因此，公司领导者是否应该更用心、更认真地考虑如何塑造、培养和扩大公司文化？不过，一旦涉及公司文化，我们往往就被困在如何塑造和管理诸如福利、津贴和工作场所等公司文化的表层区域。
That said, any emphasis on culture is a promising sign. The “Best Companies to Work For” list chronicles companies that care about their people and have taken immense strides toward humanity. But those of us in the corporate world have far more progress – and difficult culture-building work – ahead of us.
尽管如此，重视文化依然是一个很好的迹象。“最适合工作的公司”榜单记录了那些关心员工，并且在人性化管理方面取得重大进步的公司。但企业界的各位同仁还需要继续努力，还要去完成艰难的文化建设工作。
The first step in this work is cleaning house and getting rid of the ghosts of old and outdated thinking.
第一步是进行“大扫除”，抛弃过时的旧思维模式。
The words “how much” have always haunted business, politics and our personal lives: How much revenue can we squeeze into this quarter? How much debt can we tolerate? How much growth can we generate?
“多少”这个问题一直在困扰着企业、政治和我们的个人生活：我们可以将多少收入记入这个季度？可以承受多少债务？可以实现多大程度的增长？
But “how much” questions aren’t the right questions – not in an ever changing, increasingly interconnected world, and not in a business realm where competitive advantage cannot be sustained via out-producing, outspending or out-selling. Instead of reflexively asking “how much,” we should examine “how”. Not just “How much square footage can we afford for the new nap room?” but “How transparent is our company?” or “How fair is our decision making process?” If your company is really the “right” place to work, you don’t just measure “how much”, your measure “how” to create organizations, societies, institutions and businesses that mirror our deepest values: trust, collaboration, resiliency, and freedom.
但在这样一个日新月异，联系日益密切的世界中，通过扩大生产、加大开支或增加销售已经无法保持竞争优势，因此，有关“多少”的问题已不合时宜。所以，我们不能条件反射般地询问“多少”，还应该有更深入地思考。不仅要问“我们可以为新午休室提供多大面积？”还要问“我们的公司有多透明？”或者“我们的决策过程有多公平？”如果你的公司真的是一个“适合”工作的地方，你便不能仅衡量“多少”，还要衡量“如何”创造出能够体现信任、合作、乐观与自由等人类深层价值的组织、社会、机构和公司。
A growing body of research shows us that it is exactly the sort of work that is now more important than ever.
一家处在增长期的研究机构告诉我们，这件事现在变得越来越重要。
In his article, Colvin points to a Wharton analysis showing that a portfolio of publicly listed organizations on Fortune’s Best Companies list (from 1984 until 2009) surpassed its expected rate of risk-adjusted return by 3.5 percent annually. My own firm LRN’s research into “How” metrics, indicates that 93% of employees at businesses with high-trust and values-based cultures observe financial performance greater than their competitors; only 48% of those at low-trust organizations observe the same.
科尔文在文章中提到沃顿商学院的一篇分析报告。该报告显示，在《财富》最适宜工作的公司榜单（1984年至2009年）中，许多上市公司每年的风险调整后收益率超出预期3.5%。我执掌的LRN公司对“如何”指标的研究显示，在拥有高度信任和价值导向文化的公司，93%的员工财务业绩优于竞争对手；而在低信任度的公司中，仅48%的员工有同样的表现。
I appreciate that so many different entities—Big 4 accounting firms, tech giants, top B-schools, business publications and even dictionary publishers— are beginning to point to the importance of workplace environment and culture. But recognizing the importance of a great workplace is comparatively easy. Anyone can buy a Ping-Pong table for the break room or bring in a beer cart on Fridays. Building the right culture in your business takes years of hard work, because you have to build every facet of it for yourself— from the ground up. Leaders who commit to building the right culture better prepare to take their lumps: it isn’t easy, and it isn’t or the faint of heart.
如今，许多机构已经开始指出工作环境与文化的重要性，比如四大会计事务所、科技巨头、顶级商学院、商业刊物，甚至还包括词典出版商。但承认好的工作场所的重要性相对简单。任何人都可以买一张乒乓球桌放在休息室里，或在周五运来一车啤酒。为公司建设合适的文化需要经过多年努力，因为你必须从头开始，自己去建设文化的每一个方面。致力于建设合适公司文化的领导者，最好做好吃苦头的准备：这并不是个容易的过程，也不是胆小者能够承担的任务。
But we can, and need to, go deeper. Most of our collective thinking and doing has barely scratched culture’s surface; it focuses primarily on the relationship between employee and company. A great workplace does not guarantee that the company has great relationships with its customers, investors, communities or the environment. Nor does a high work/life quality (something nearly all of us would very much want) necessarily bring about a high-quality employee-employer relationship. For that, deep, uncomfortable questions need to be asked: how trustworthy is our company? How do we convey and instill a sense of values throughout our organization?
但我们可以并且必须深入思考。我们的集体思维与行为大多只涉及文化的表面；核心应该是员工与公司的文化。一个好的工作场所无法保证公司与客户、投资者、社区和环境建立良好的关系。好的工作/生活质量（这几乎所有人都想要的）也不见得能够带来高质量的员工-雇主关系。因此，我们必须提一些会令人不适的深层问题：我们的公司有多高的可信度？我们如何在公司内传播和灌输一种价值观？
Efforts like Fortune’s “Best Companies to Work For” list have helped show us that we can measure organizations in ways that extend beyond revenue, shareholder value and market share. Now that we’re doing this, we might as well go all the way to the core. Building the “right” kind of organizational culture requires us to recognize and measure the “right” foundational elements, such as:
诸如《财富》“最适宜工作的公司”榜单这类努力让我们知道，除了收益、股东价值和市场份额，我们还有其他方式来衡量一家公司。既然我们已经开始从其他角度衡量公司，不妨直接触及核心问题。建设“合适的”公司文化需要我们承认和衡量“合适的”基础元素，例如：
• An organizational purpose that inspires employees and animates the culture;
• 能激励员工和促进文化的组织目标；
• Leaders who also inspire employees and elevate their behavior;
•能激励员工和提高员工行为的领导者；
• The most human and sustainable organizational values that recognize business as a deeply human endeavor and that call for employees and stakeholders to endeavor together in a healthy and long-standing way;
• 最人性化和最可持续的公司价值，即承认公司是一个更深层次的人类事业，需要员工和利益相关者通过健康持久的方式共同努力；
• Behaviors that generate trust;
• 可带来信任的行为；
• A recognition that building the right kind of culture requires a journey, one worthy of the dedication and loyalty we ask of the humans who work for our companies.
• 承认建设合适的文化需要经过一个漫长的过程，这个过程值得我们要求公司员工为之做出贡献、表达忠诚。
Managing culture in an intentional, strategic and deliberate way requires us to get to the human core: that which fundamentally and enduringly gets us out of bed in the morning and guides us through our days and lives. There is no short cut for building or rebuilding a corporate culture. You can’t just hold a seminar or put up a poster and call the problem solved. What Aristotle said about an individual’s excellence – that it is not a single act, but a habit – applies to organizations as well. The ultimate winners will start developing and strengthening these habits because most companies now know how to make great workplaces. What distinguishes the best organizations from the rest of the pack, are leaders who understand the depth that separates a great place to work from the right place to work.
使用一种带有目的性、战略性，并经过深思熟虑的方式管理文化，要求我们触动人类的本质，即从根本上持续促使我们每天早上从床上爬起来，引导我们过好每天生活的动力。建设或重建公司文化没有捷径。你不可能召开一次研讨会或张贴一张海报，便认为万事大吉。亚里士多德说过，人的优秀是一种习惯，而不是一次行为，这种说法同样适用于公司。最终的赢家必须开始培养和加强这些好习惯，因为大多数公司现在都知道如何创造好的工作场所。最好的公司之所以能够脱颖而出，是因为它们的领导者知道，一个好的工作场所与一个合适的工作场所是有区别的。
Dov Seidman is the chief executive of LRN, a company that helps corporations develop values-based cultures and leadership, strengthen their ethics and compliance efforts. He is also the author of HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything.
本文作者多弗•塞德曼为LRN公司首席执行官，该机构旨在帮助公司培养价值导向的文化与领导力，加强道德与合规工作。他还著有《成功企业的尺度》（HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything）一书。
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