2023年经济学人 视频时代制胜指南（在线收听）

商业版块

Bartleby

巴托比专栏

How to thrive in the video age

视频时代制胜指南

Screen presence is now a feature of the modern office.

如今，出现在屏幕上成了现代办公室的一个特征。

The pandemic embedded video into the workplace.

疫情将视频嵌入了办公场所。

Workers who had never previously been on camera suddenly spent every hour of the day getting used to the sight of themselves and their colleagues on screen.

以前从未出现在镜头前的员工突然要时刻习惯看到自己和同事出现在屏幕上。

Executives realised that they could send video messages to their workforces rather than having to convene town halls.

高管们意识到，他们可以向员工发送视频信息，而不必召开会议。

There is no going back.

开弓没有回头箭。

Blogs have become vlogs.

文字博客已经变成了视频博客。

Meetings are now recorded as a matter of course, so that people can fail to watch them back later.

现在会议也被理所应当地录下来，这样之后人们就不会再看了。

Some firms routinely ask applicants to record answers to certain questions on video, so that people can see how well prospective recruits communicate.

一些公司经常要求应聘者录制视频来回答某些问题，这样人们就可以看到未来新员工的沟通能力如何。

Since video has become more central to work, it pays to be good at it.

由于视频在工作中变得越来越重要，所以能玩转视频是有利的。

Being a star in the video age means having the right set-up, speaking well and listening well.

成为视频时代的明星意味着要有正确的机位布景、良好的听说能力。

Workers can improve under their own steam, but companies can help, too.

员工可以自行提高这些能力，但公司也可以提供帮助。

To see what the right set-up looks like, just observe the range of images on your next video-conferencing call.

要知道正确的机位布景是什么样子，只需在下一次视频会议中观察一下出现的一系列图像。

It will probably be a complete mishmash.

画面可能是个大杂烩。

Some people will be bathed in the warm glow of a ring light; others will be emerging from the shadows like the Emperor Palpatine.

一些人沐浴在环形补光灯的温暖光芒中，另一些人则像帕尔帕廷皇帝一样从阴影中浮现出来。

Some will have high-definition cameras that show off every pore and follicle; others will be smeared across the screen.

一些人配备高清摄像头，展示着每一个毛孔和毛囊，另一些人则像被涂抹在屏幕上。

Some will be Hollywood types, observing the rule of thirds by positioning themselves slightly off-centre; others seem to have learned their craft from “The Blair Witch Project”.

一些人是好莱坞范，他们遵守三分法构图规则，把自己放在略微偏离中心的位置，另一些人的构图技巧则像是从《女巫布莱尔》中学到的。

There is a limit to how level the playing-field between home offices can be, when living arrangements between employees differ so greatly.

在员工的生活安排差异非常大的情况下，居家办公室之间的竞争公平程度是有限的。

Not everyone needs to look like an A-lister: people who regularly make presentations or see clients have greater claim on fancier gear.

并不是每个人都需要看起来像一线明星：经常做展示或见客户的人对高级设备有更高的要求。

Some people are photogenic, others less so.

有些人很上镜，有些人不那么上镜。

But this range in video quality can nonetheless be narrowed.

但视频质量的这种差距仍然可以缩小。

A study published last year by Katherine Karl of the University of Tennessee and her co-authors looked at workers’ most common complaints about video-conferencing meetings: camera angles, proximity to the screen and bad lighting all feature in the list of frustrations.

田纳西大学的凯瑟琳·卡尔和她的合著者去年发表了一项研究，调查了员工对视频会议最常见的抱怨：摄像头的角度、离屏幕太近以及光线不佳都在令人烦恼的清单上。

Whether providing decent home-working equipment or just giving feedback on how people appear on screen, employers can help everyone improve their video game.

无论是提供像样的家庭办公设备，还是给人们在屏幕上的样子提出反馈，雇主都可以帮助每个人把这个视频游戏玩得更好。

Advice on how to present well on video is not that different to advice on presenting in general.

如何做优秀的视频展示的建议与对普通展示的建议没有太大不同。

But there are some specific pitfalls with video.

但视频也有一些特定的陷阱。

One is where to look.

其中之一是看哪里。

Staring into the camera is unnatural; some advise pinning a photo of someone you respect right by the lens

盯着摄像头看不够自然，一些人建议在镜头旁钉一张你尊敬的人的照片

(whether you would really use the opportunity to talk to Volodymyr Zelensky to tell him about your product road map is another question).

(你是否真的会利用这个机会与泽连斯基交谈，向他介绍你的产品规划图则是另一个问题)。

But looking at the camera is harder if you are referring to notes on the screen at the same time.

但如果你同时查看屏幕上的笔记，那么看向摄像头就更难了。

The speaker whose eyes dart from one to the other is in fear of imminent attack; the speaker who gazes at a point somewhere just off to the left of the camera is appearing in “The Office”.

目光来回跳动的演讲者像是害怕即将到来的攻击，而凝视着镜头靠左边某处的演讲者则像是美剧《办公室》里的角色。

Teleprompter software may be the right answer.

提词器软件可能是正确答案。

Another danger lies in the temptation to use technology just because it is there.

另一个危险在于，仅仅因为技术存在就忍不住想使用技术。

The same rule of thumb that should stop you exploring the animations menu in PowerPoint also applies to pre-recorded video.

阻止你探索PPT动画菜单玩法的经验法则，也适用于预先录制的视频。

Don’t do jump cuts or special effects unless you really know what you are doing.

除非你真的知道自己在干什么，否则不要做跳跃剪辑或特效。

This is not “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Quarters”.

这不是电影《两杆大烟枪》。

Perhaps the least recognised skill in the video age is listening well.

或许视频时代最不为人所知的技能就是善于倾听。

After all, one of the great boons of the virtual meeting is that you can get actual work done in it—being able to turn your camera off when your time is being royally wasted may be the pandemic’s greatest gift to productivity.

毕竟，虚拟会议最大的好处之一就是你可以在开会时干点实事--当你的时间被华丽地浪费时，你可以关掉相机，这可能是疫情送给生产力最大的礼物。

And at the other end of the scale, one of video’s great downsides is how distracting it can be: as well as checking yourself out and following the online chat, you can critique someone’s new wallpaper while watching their next-tile neighbour shovel noodles into their mouth.

在天平的另一端，视频的一大缺点是它容易让人分心：除了看看自己和关注在线聊天之外，你还可以一边批评别人的新墙纸，一边看着他隔壁的人把面条塞进嘴里。

It takes real effort to stay focused in such circumstances.

在这种情况下，要保持专注真的需要付出努力。

The wrong way for firms to tackle the problem of inattentiveness is to insist that cameras stay on or use artificial intelligence to analyse the sentiment of meeting participants in real time.

对于公司来说，解决注意力不集中问题的错误方法是要求摄像头一直打开，或者用人工智能来实时分析会议参与者的情绪。

As if life were not intolerable enough, imagine having to nod and smile dementedly the whole time in case an algorithm decides you are insufficiently engaged.

好像生活还不够让人无法忍受似的，想象一下，你必须一直疯狂地点头和微笑，以免算法判定你不够投入。

The right way for companies to respond is to make meetings shorter and more relevant.

企业的正确应对方式是缩短会议时间，让会议内容更切题。

Whether you are on camera or in the room, it is always easier to listen when there is something worth hearing.

无论是在镜头前还是在房间里，有一些值得听的东西时，你才更容易去倾听。