For years before this pandemic put all of us online for everything, my students of group facilitation were already trying to hold meetings on digital platforms.

在这种大流行使我们所有人都无所不能的多年之前，我的小组协助学生已经在尝试在数字平台上举行会议。

Project managers, non-profit executives, college administrators, HR people, grassroots organizers, pretty much anyone who needs to run groups successfully came through my workshop, and mostly they were holding face-to-face meetings. But more and more of them needed to meet online. They used whatever platform their company recommended, and yeah, it was quite the variety.

项目经理，非营利主管，大学行政人员，人力资源人员，基层组织者，几乎所有需要组团的人都成功地参加了我的讲习班，而且大多数人都举行了面对面的会议。 但是越来越多的人需要在线见面。 他们使用公司推荐的平台，是的，种类繁多。

Lucky for me, in spite of different software, they all had the same questions about how to facilitate an effective online meeting. I enjoyed the challenge of translating the values and techniques I teach into an online environment, but I realized right away there was no way I was an expert on the technology.

对我来说幸运的是，尽管使用了不同的软件，但他们都对如何促进有效的在线会议有相同的疑问。 我很喜欢我翻译成教网络环境的价值观念和技术的挑战，但我马上意识到有没有办法，我是在技术方面的专家。

Tech is definitely not my jam. Plus, innovation was a moving target. Every few months there was a new favorite. Notice I am not mentioning any names? Because we don’t use those tools anymore. In fact, you might as well put this whole article in your 2020 Time Capsule right now because there’s a good chance that by the time you finish reading, it will be obsolete.

科技绝对不是我的难题。 另外，创新是一个移动的目标。 每隔几个月就会有一个新的收藏夹。 注意，我没有提到任何名字吗？ 因为我们不再使用这些工具。 实际上，您最好将整篇文章现在都放入2020 Time Capsule中，因为很有可能在您完成阅读时，它已经过时了。

Since my students were the ones using the tools, I could hardly claim more expertise than they had. So, I told them, “Right now, developing online meeting tech is at the Wright Brothers stage of flight. We are riding a bicycle with paper wings down a sand dune.”

由于我的学生是使用工具的人，因此我几乎不敢要求他们拥有更多的专业知识。 因此，我告诉他们：“目前，开发在线会议技术正处在赖特兄弟的飞行阶段。 我们正在骑着带沙丘的纸翼自行车。”

Then I reviewed the requirements of any successful meeting and encouraged them to find ways to meet effectively. “Innovate!” I said.

然后，我回顾了任何成功会议的要求，并鼓励他们找到有效满足要求的方法。 “创新！” 我说。

这是伴侣舞：我们带领，我们跟随。 (It’s a partner dance: We lead and we follow.)

This got me thinking about how technology develops in relation to how we use it. Humans invent machines to do things we need to do. Meanwhile, machines shape us as we use them, based on what they are capable of — which is often amazing, but still limited.

这让我开始思考技术如何与我们如何使用相关地发展。 人类发明机器做我们需要做的事情。 同时，机器在使用它们时会根据它们的能力来塑造我们 ，这通常是惊人的，但仍然很有限。

Probably none of us are old enough to remember when cars were invented, but there was a lot of discussion back then about how people would lose the ability to walk. It may seem silly now, but a century later here we are; the increase in obesity and cardiovascular disease in developed countries can be linked, in part, to the nearly universal use of automobiles. Raise your hand if this will stop you from driving your car.

也许我们每个人都没有年龄足以记住汽车是什么时候发明的，但是当时有很多关于人们如何失去行走能力的讨论。 现在看来很愚蠢，但是一个世纪以后，我们到了。 发达国家肥胖和心血管疾病的增加可能部分与汽车的普遍普及有关。 如果这会阻止您开车，请举起手。

More recently (you do remember this,) along came the cell phone. Undeniable value. Everyone all over the world has a cell phone: in cities, remote villages, even people who have never had any other kind of phone. Even people who have to walk miles to access electricity now have a phone.

最近(您还记得这一点)手机问世了。 不可否认的价值。 全世界每个人都有一部手机：在城市，偏远的村庄，甚至从未使用过其他任何种类的电话的人。 即使是要走几英里才能通电的人，现在也有了电话。

It’s just a massively powerful computer in your pocket. What could possibly go wrong? Ahem. There’s plenty of data on how looking at little screens all day causes eye strain, bad posture, or even cancer. But the people I know who would forgo their cell phone for these reasons I can count on one finger.

它只是口袋里一台功能强大的计算机。 可能出什么问题了？ 啊 关于整天看小屏幕如何导致眼睛疲劳 ， 不良姿势甚至是癌症的大量数据。 但是我认识的人会因为这些原因而放弃手机，我只能依靠一根手指。

We humans create technology and then risk actual physical harm (not to mention environmental catastrophe) to use it and we barely notice. Why?

我们人类创造技术，然后冒实际遭受物理伤害(更不用说环境灾难)的风险使用它，我们几乎没有注意到。 为什么？

Obviously, tech is magical, and it offers amazing personal value.

显然，技术是神奇的，它提供了惊人的个人价值。

But there’s another reason. The best technological advances are successful because they are intuitive to use. They do what we need them to do in a way that allows us to stay comfortable as human beings; they integrate well with innate human behavior.

但是还有另一个原因。 最好的技术进步是成功的，因为它们直观易用。 他们做我们需要他们做的事情，使我们像人类一样舒适。 它们与人类固有的行为很好地融合在一起。

When a device feels intuitive it’s like an extension of what we were doing anyway — only better. It’s like when you are shopping with a friend and you try on a new shirt and they say, “It looks like you already own it.”

当设备感觉直观时，就像是我们一直在做的事情的扩展—只是更好。 就像您和朋友一起逛街，试穿一件新衬衫时，他们说：“您似乎已经拥有它。”

Steve Jobs knew this and designed for it, famously saying,

史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)知道这一点并为此设计了一个著名的说法

Some people say give the customers what they want, but that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would’ve told me ‘a faster horse’.”

有人说给客户他们想要的东西，但这不是我的方法。 我们的工作是先弄清楚他们想要什么。 我认为亨利·福特曾经说过：“如果我问客户他们想要什么，他们会告诉我'一匹更快的马'。”

Jobs was talking about making things that already fit into what people do naturally and extend our capability without much effort from us.

乔布斯(Jobs)谈论的是使事情变得自然而然地适合人们的工作，并在没有我们太多努力的情况下扩展我们的能力。

社会技术系统 (Socio-technical Systems)

Systems thinkers call this dance between people and machines a socio-technical system, meaning the elements of the system that influence how the system functions and changes are both human and technological. Meeting online is a prime example of this.

系统思想家将人与机器之间的这种舞蹈称为社会技术系统 ，这意味着影响系统功能和变化的系统要素既是人类的又是技术的。 在线会议就是一个很好的例子。

“Meeting” means communicating. The struggle of digital communications is to recreate human face-to-face communications. And since we humans are evolutionarily the “storytelling ape” (apologies to Terry Pratchett) and we literally survive by communicating, our standard is very high and it involves all our senses.

“会议”是指交流。 数字通信的斗争是重建人类面对面的通信。 而且由于我们人类在进化上是“讲故事的猿”(对特里·普拉切特(Terry Pratchett)的道歉)，而且我们实际上通过交流而生存 ，因此我们的标准很高，而且涉及我们所有的感官。

Technology is trying to catch up, and making progress. From drums in the distance, to letter writing, to the telegraph (not intuitive), to the telephone (intuitive), to big clunky video cameras in conference rooms (no one used them after the first week), we have finally arrived at — drumroll please — Zoom!

技术正在努力追赶并取得进步。 从远处的鼓声，写信，电报(不直观)，电话(直观)到会议室中笨拙的大型摄像机(第一周之后没人使用它们)，我们终于来到了—请打鼓—放大！

Ok, I know there are many other platforms for meetings, but Zoom is the current hands-down favorite. It’s not perfect, but the pandemic has made it ubiquitous. Even my cousin Liz uses it.

好的，我知道还有很多其他的会议平台，但是Zoom是当前最受青睐的平台。 它不是完美的，但是大流行使它无处不在。 甚至我的堂兄Liz也使用它。

And why? Pop quiz! — you know the answer: because it is the most intuitive to use, and currently gives us the best technological version of face-to-face communication and the best tools to collaborate.

又为什么呢 突击测验！ —您知道答案：因为它使用起来最直观，并且当前为我们提供了最佳技术版本的面对面交流和最佳协作工具。

This won’t last, for two reasons. The first is competition from other tech developers. (MS Teams has a beta version out that sends chills down my spine.)

这不会持续，有两个原因。 首先是来自其他技术开发商的竞争。 (MS Teams推出了一个Beta版，可让我不寒而栗。)

And the second reason is us. The users. People using technology changes the technology. We make tech do things we need it to do even beyond its original design.

第二个原因是我们 。 用户。 使用技术的人会改变技术。 我们让技术完成甚至超出其原始设计的工作。

酷变焦哈克 (Cool Zoom Hack)

Here’s my example. Zoom has many handy features including easy-to-use breakout rooms. I absolutely need breakout rooms! I support groups to collaborate on complex issues, and small groups are where it’s at because people need to actually talk to each other.

这是我的例子。 Zoom具有许多方便的功能，包括易于使用的分组讨论室。 我绝对需要分组讨论室！ 我支持小组就复杂的问题进行协作，而小组之所以在这里是因为人们需要真正地互相交谈。

Zoom breakouts provide the obvious: You can put people in rooms randomly or manually organize who goes in what room. Every room has its own chat and a whiteboard — it's great.

缩放突破提供了明显的含义：您可以将人们随机放在房间中，也可以手动组织去哪个房间的人。 每个房间都有自己的聊天室和白板-太好了。

But what if you want to make topic-specific breakout rooms and give people the choice of which topic they want to talk about, then allow them to move from room to room on their own?

但是，如果您要创建特定于主题的分组讨论室，并让人们选择要谈论的主题，然后让他们自己在一个房间之间移动，该怎么办？

I definitely need this. My philosophy is to give people as much autonomy as they can stand. This is what I do in my face-to-face work, and my clients need to do the same online.

我绝对需要这个。 我的理念是给予人们尽可能多的自治权。 这就是我面对面的工作，我的客户也需要在线进行同样的工作。

Luckily, in the mad scramble to teach Zoom to our clients, my friend Raymond van Driel from the Applied Improv Network figured it out. He immediately shared his discovery, and now we can all easily do Open Space and a host of other essential formats. You can get specific instructions here. Or wait for Zoom to make this easy, which I hear they are planning to do.

幸运的是，在疯狂地向我们的客户讲授Zoom的过程中，我来自Applied Improv Network的朋友Raymond van Driel意识到了这一点。 他立即分享了他的发现，现在我们都可以轻松地进行“ 开放空间”和许多其他基本格式。 您可以在此处获取具体说明。 或等待Zoom简化操作，我听说他们正计划这样做。

When the breakout rooms can have designated topics, and people can move between the rooms on their own based on their interests, it feels natural. There are lots of applications, not just in work settings, but also in family gatherings, social events, even complex games like Werewolf.

当分组讨论会议室可以指定主题，并且人们可以根据自己的兴趣在会议室之间移动时，感觉自然。 不仅在工作环境中，而且在家庭聚会，社交活动中，甚至在诸如Werewolf之类的复杂游戏中，都有许多应用程序。

Not surprisingly, we aren’t the only ones to discover this, so it really is like the era of the Wright Brothers, when many groups were separately trying to invent a flying machine. We are all in this dance of invention, even those of us who don’t think of ourselves as tech-savvy.

并不奇怪，我们并不是唯一发现这一点的人，所以这确实就像怀特兄弟的时代，当时许多团体分别尝试发明飞行器。 我们所有人都处在这种发明之舞中，即使我们当中那些不认为自己是精通技术的人也是如此。

But let’s not stop there.

但是，我们不要就此止步。

Technology is being developed by us. The dance back and forth between human needs and tech capability will continue. You hear a lot about both the wonders and the horrors of new technology. This is an invitation to not just see ourselves as consumers of the wonder, and victims of the horror. Let’s do the best job we can to make technology reflect and support the finest aspects of who we are as humans.

我们正在开发技术。 人类需求和技术能力之间的来回舞蹈将继续。 您会听到很多有关新技术的奇迹和恐怖的信息。 这不仅邀请我们自己成为奇迹的消费者，而且是恐怖的受害者。 让我们竭尽所能，使技术反映并支持我们作为人类的最美好方面。

Nurturing courage, authenticity, curiosity, and resilience in entrepreneurs, artists, professionals, teams, and systems. sarah@leadingcollaboration.com

在企业家，艺术家，专业人士，团队和系统中培养勇气，真实性，好奇心和韧性。 sarah@leadingcollaboration.com