DAY 72 Play’s the thing

DAY 72 Play’s the thing 

寓教于乐

Creative ways of training staff

1 Anyone who has spent a long time in an office job will have suffered the indignities of a training day. The group-bonding exercise where workers fall into each other’s arms, as if they were part of a 1960s encounter group. The overenthusiastic guest lecturer who constructs a lengthy and banal presentation out of a series of random nouns. The debate about the company’s future which turns into an exercise in Stalinist self-criticism. It all resembles one of those nightmares when you find yourself marooned back in the school classroom.

indignity
n.侮辱; 轻蔑; 侮辱性的行为;

banal    /bəˈnɑːl/    a 平庸的; 平淡乏味的; 无关紧要的;
​very ordinary and containing nothing that is interesting or important

maroon   /məˈruːn/   
v
​to leave somebody in a place that they cannot escape from, for example an island  =  strand
a  ​
dark red-brown in colour
adj.紫褐色的; 褐红色的;
n.褐红色; 紫褐色; (海上作为信号的) 鞭炮;
v.困住; 使无法逃脱;

2 If there is one good thing about the current pandemic, it is that no one is being sent to an awayday event at a seaside resort or a country retreat. Perhaps the whole idea will become less fashionable. Thankfully, there are inventive ways to undergo training online.

current    /ˈkʌrənt/
pandemic   /pænˈdemɪk/  
​a disease that spreads over a whole country or the whole world
country [ˈkʌntri]

awayday    n. 消遣、放松的旅行
a trip taken for pleasure, relaxation, etc; day excursion

seaside resort   
海滨度假酒店; 海滨度假村; 海滨胜地; 海滨旅游胜地; 海滨浴场;
resort  /rɪˈzɔːt/
n   a place where a lot of people go on holiday  
n.旅游胜地; 度假胜地; 诉诸; 求助; 采取; 应急措施; 可首先(或最后)采取的手段;v.求助，诉诸; 常去; 采取某手段或方法;

country retreat   乡间静养处
  retreat   /rɪˈtriːt/     隐居处; 休养处
a quiet, private place that you go to in order to get away from your usual life  ( 摆脱; 离开; 从…逃掉; )
fashionable   ˈfæʃnəbl
following a style that is popular at a particular time
adj.流行的; 时兴的; 时髦的; 时髦人物使用的; (尤指) 有钱人常光顾的;

 Thankfully  /ˈθæŋkfəli/  = fortunately
used to show that you are pleased that something good has happened or that something bad has been avoided

inventive    /ɪnˈventɪv/   =  imaginative   
 adj. 发明的；有发明才能的；别出心裁的
able to think of new and interesting ideas  

undergo /ˌʌndəˈɡəʊ/  经受 忍受
ng to experience something, especially a change or something unpleasant

3 One management course uses the skills of an improvisational-comedy troupe, the Second City. “People are rarely taught to be a boss,” says Kelly Leonard of the Chicago-based outfit, and the course attempts to guide them in the right direction. The philosophy is based on a book called “Radical Candour” by Kim Scott, which argues that managers need to deliver and accept constructive feedback. She says that a “difficult but necessary part of being a boss [is] telling people clearly and directly when their work wasn’t good enough”. Of course, some bosses are too quick to criticise and never offer praise. So praise is also needed but it has to be “specific and sincere”.

improvisational   ˌɪmprəvaɪˈzeɪʃən(ə)l]
即兴; 即兴发挥式; 即兴的; 即兴式的;

comedy

troupe  /truːp/   （……剧团）
a group of actors, singers, etc. who work together
n.(演员、歌手等的) 班子，表演团; vi.巡回演出;

outfit /ˈaʊtfɪt/  n
1>  a set of clothes that you wear together, especially for a particular occasion or purpose
2>  (informal) a group of people working together as an organization, business, team, etc.

Radical   /ˈrædɪkl/  
1>  relating to the most basic and important parts of something; complete and detailed
2>  new, different and likely to have a great effect
3>  in favour of extreme and complete political or social change
adj.根本的; 彻底的; 完全的; 全新的; 不同凡响的; 激进的; 极端的;
n.激进分子; 游离基; 自由基;

Candour /ˈkændə(r)/   ​=frankness
the quality of saying what you think openly and honestly 

deliver and accept   传递并且接受
philosophy  理念

4 The approach works, Ms Scott argues, only if employees believe that their managers care about them personally. And managers need to solicit and accept criticism from their subordinates.

 personally  关心私生活而不是因为公事

solicit   /səˈlɪsɪt/  v
1>  (formal) to ask somebody for something, such as support, money or information; to try to get something or persuade somebody to do something
2>   (of a prostitute) to offer to have sex with people in return for money
v.索求，请求…给予(援助、钱或信息); 征求; 筹集; 招徕(嫖客); 拉(客);

5 The training was originally designed for use in workshops, something that would be impossible at a time of social distancing. Fortunately, the actors at the Second City created a sitcom, “The Feedback Loop”, to illustrate the ideas. In the video, people are made to endure a version of “Groundhog Day”, in which they keep reliving the same situations until they learn from their mistakes. The fictional workers learn not to be “obnoxiously aggressive” and “manipulatively insincere”; managers realise it is hopeless to be “ruinously empathetic”.

workshops 厂房，车间

sitcom   /ˈsɪtkɒm/    n  .情景喜剧;
​a regular comedy programme on television that shows the same characters in different funny situations

Groundhog  /ˈɡraʊndhɒɡ/
n.美洲旱獭; 土拨鼠;

reliving —— relive

 fictional   /ˈfɪkʃənl/  接近现实

obnoxiously    /əbˈnɒkʃəsli/  = offensively
​in an extremely unpleasant way, especially in a way that offends people

ruinously  /ˈruːɪnəsli/   摧毁性地;
1>  ​in a way that costs a lot of money and more than you can afford
2>  ​in a way that causes serious problems or damage

empathetic /ˌempəˈθetɪk/   adj.移情的; 有同感的; 能产生共鸣的;
able to understand how somebody else feels because you can imagine what it is like to be that person

第四段：雇主对员工严厉不好
第五段：雇主对员工过分同情也不好

6 The show can be downloaded and discussed by staff and managers from the comfort of their own homes. Some people may feel that humour is inappropriate at a time of a global pandemic. But comedy can be a source of solace in a crisis. (Bartleby would insert a coronavirus joke here, but it will be days before you get it.)

solace    /ˈsɒləs/   v  =comfort
to make somebody feel better or happier when they are sad or disappointed

7 Another creative way of imparting information is poetry. Gary Turk is a poet who has worked in British tv alongside Ricky Gervais and Richard Curtis, the man behind “Love Actually”. When Mr Turk’s then girlfriend complained that he spent too much time on the phone, he tried to take a break. He noticed how much time others spent with their devices and that inspired him to make a short film, which he narrated in rhyming verse. When he uploaded the film, called “Look Up”, to YouTube, it struck a chord, receiving 1m views within five days, and then, on the sixth day, getting another 10m.

impart  /ɪmˈpɑːt/ v
impart something (to somebody) 
1> to pass information, knowledge, etc. to other people =convey
2> to give a particular quality to something =lend
v.通知; 透露; 传授; 把(某性质)赋予; 将…给予; 

then girlfriend  那个时候语境里面的前女友

rhyming verse  押韵（诗/句）

strike a chord  引起共鸣

8 After the video’s success, Mr Turk was contacted by other organisations which wanted to tap into his skills. Some of this work was promotional, such as for British Airways. But much was in the realm of public information (a campaign in Western Australia to stop people texting and driving) and some was for compliance training (notably a video on corruption and another on sexual harassment).

tap into his skills   利用他的技能
tap
1>   to hit somebody/something quickly and lightly
2>   to make use of a source of energy, knowledge, etc. that already exists

promotional  推销性质

 compliance   /kəmˈplaɪəns/  n
1>  the practice of obeying rules or requests made by people in authority
2>  compliance with somebody/something (disapproving) 
the quality of being too willing to agree with somebody or do what they want

compliance training  合规培训;
[kəmˈplaɪəns ˈtreɪnɪŋ]

9 These can be difficult issues to cover. It is all too easy for the tone to become either too flippant or too preachy. Mr Turk’s videos get the message over in two to three minutes and may lead to a more open discussion than if the subjects were presented more formally. “Spoken-word videos are great at grabbing people’s attention—the rhyming patterns and lyrical structures make you listen carefully to every word,” Mr Turk argues. “It is also something fresh that most employees have never seen in their annual training or work presentations before.”

 flippant    /ˈflɪpənt/    adj. 轻率的；嘴碎的；没礼貌的
showing that you do not take something as seriously as other people think you should

preachy   /ˈpriːtʃi/    a  爱讲道的；爱唠叨的  
trying to give advice or to persuade people to accept an opinion on what is right and wrong

tone 氛围

grabbing people’s attention 

rhyming pattern   押韵模式

work presentations   工作汇报

argue 认为
to give reasons why you think that something is right/wrong, true/not true, etc., especially to persuade people that you are right

10

Columns should be set in prose

And this is often one of those.

But a fleeting burst of verse

Might not make the readers curse.

Though the hardest part will be

Finding rhymes for Bartleby.

A little bit of poetry and comedy goes a long way. One wouldn’t want an entire training day to consist of jokes or rhymes. But online or offline, these kinds of innovative techniques can enliven those endless seminars when the clock never seems to reach 5pm.

 be set in   

prose   /prəʊz/  n
​writing that is not poetry

fleeting    /ˈfliːtɪŋ/  = brief
​lasting only a short time

Columns should be set in prose  栏目应以散文形式设置

innovative /ˈɪnəveɪtɪv/  
​introducing or using new ideas, ways of doing something, etc.

enliven  /ɪnˈlaɪvn/
to make something more interesting or more fun