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學習臨機應變

本文總計1044字

預計閱讀5分鐘

（英文文章在中文文章之后）

能夠臨機應變是我們在工作中都需要使用的重要能力，因為無論我們對日常工作多么熟悉，我們都永遠不知道什么時候會發生意外情況。

菲爾·貝曼是英國皇家空軍的戰斗飛行員。他的飛行紀錄中有超過4,500小時的飛行時間。他幾乎經歷了所有戰斗飛行員該經歷的一切。他不僅自己執行了無數次任務，而且還訓練了其他飛行員。紅箭隊（英國皇家空軍特技飛行隊）的許多飛行員都是他以前的學生。

戰斗飛行需要面對許多極端的需求。除了來自敵方導彈的外部威脅和惡劣天氣帶來的風險外，還有諸如高重力帶來的生理挑戰。菲爾解釋說：「戰斗飛行是一場國際象棋的盛大游戲，有很多很多變量。如果有什么事情要出錯 -你的飛機，你的身體，或者你的團隊 - 你必須決定把那只試圖爬上你的船，大鱷魚(意外)并首先處理它。

但為了做到這一點，你需要保持你的智慧，這樣你才可以在正確的時間對正確的事情做出反應。換句話說，你需要能夠快速而恰當的作出臨機應變。

但是，你不能太沖動，因為如果你采取錯誤的行動，這可能會使事情變得更糟。貝曼對他教的飛行員有一句口頭禪：「當事情出錯時，把你的手放在屁股下，數到十。很少東西不能在這么短時間內等待。過早沖動行事，采取你沒有想到的行動路線，會有很大的危險。

為什么坐在你的手上很重要？答案是，我們需要時間來確認我們周圍的各種信號，這些信號會告訴我們問題的本質，以便知道你該如何做出適當的反應。這樣的反應可能涉及臨機應變，因為情況并不正常。當你處理緊急情況時，或者當你感到疲倦或壓力很大時，你的注意力往往會縮小到一個點。我們稱之為具有隧道視野。雖然聚焦通常很好，但聚焦太窄會導致你錯過其他重要信號。因此，你需要確定你面臨的最緊迫的問題或鱷魚，用貝曼的話說。

然后，一旦你確定了那只鱷魚，你就可以立即采取適當行動。例如，如果一只鱷魚爬上了你的船，你可以擊中鱷魚的鼻子，或者你可以把它從你的船上踢下來，想辦法達到更安全的水域。或者你可能會把汽油扔進它的眼睛里。關鍵是這是一個緊急情況，你可能需要及時確定一個臨時解決方案，直到你能想出一個更永久的解決方案。

我們如何在工作中學會臨機應變？最好的方法之一是，觀察我們的主管如何處理具有挑戰性的情況。每個資深工作人員在應對挑戰時都有自己的個人風格，他們可以教給資淺工作人員。問問你的資深主管；你的工作中可能發生什么意想不到的情況，以及他或她將如何處理這些意外情況。然后嘗試將這些建議付諸實踐。但不見得一定要完全尊重你的主管，不要害怕用自己的想法和解決方案，在你對眼前的情況有了很好的觀察之后，你就采取行動。

Learn to Improvise

Being able to improvise is an important ability that we all need to use in our work because, no matter how familiar we are with our routine jobs, we never know when an unexpected situation will happen.

Phil Bayman is a RAF combat pilot. He has over 4,500 flying hours in his logbook. He has seen pretty much everything that combat pilots experience. Not only has he flown countless missions himself but he also trains other pilots. Many of the pilots of the Red Arrows (a RAF aerobatic team) are his former students.

Combat flying requires facing many extraordinary demands. In addition to external threats from enemy missiles and the risks from bad weather, there are physiological challenges such as those imposed by high G-forces. Phil explained: “Combat flying is a big game of chess and there are many, many variables. If something starts to go wrong—with your plane, your body, or your team—you have to decide which is the big crocodile trying to clamber into your boat and deal with that first.”

But in order to do that, you need to keep your wits about you, such that you respond to the right thing at the right time. In other words, you need to be able to improvise quickly and appropriately.

However, you don’t want to act too quickly because that can make things worse if you take the wrong action. Bayman has a mantra for the pilots he teaches: “When things go wrong—sit on your hands and count to ten. There's very little that can’t wait for a short time. There are big dangers in acting too soon, in committing yourself to a line of action you haven’t thought through.”

Why is sitting on your hands important? The answer is that we need time to look for the signals around us that tell us the nature of the problem in order to know how to respond appropriately. And such a response will likely involve improvising because the situation is not normal. When you are dealing with an emergency, or when you are tired or stressed out, your attention tends to narrow to a single point. We call that having tunnel vision. And while it’s often good to focus, focusing too narrowly can cause you to miss important signals. So you need to determine the most urgent problem or crocodile—to use Bayman’s words—that you face.

Then, once you have identified that crocodile, you can take appropriate and immediate action. For example, if a crocodile had climbed onto your boat, you could strike the crocodile on the snout, or you could kick it off of your boat and try to get to safer waters. Or you might throw gasoline in its eyes. The point is it’s an emergency situation and you likely will need to improvise a temporary solution until you can come up with a more permanent solution.

How do we learn to improvise in our work? One of the best ways is by watching how our supervisors deal with challenging situations. Each senior staff member has their own personal style in dealing with challenges that they can teach to junior staff members. Ask your senior supervisor what unexpected situations could happen in your job, and how he or she would go about handling such unexpected situations. Then try to put such advice into practice. But don’t be afraid to improvise using your own ideas and intuition, but only after you have made good observations of the situation at hand.