陈豪在北京的ABC美国公司工作。他有事去找美国同事Amy。

(Office ambience)

A:Hi Chen Hao, how are you?

C:我有个问题,要请教你。你有时间吗?

A:Sure. I don’t have anything on my calendar for another hour. What’s the matter?

C:我们正在做一个新项目,宣传最新的客户服务计划。

A:That sounds like a good idea. We can always improve customer service. Why is that a problem?

C:我们成立了一个小组,包括三男三女,以前互不相识,结果沟通上出现了问题,影响了项目进度。

A:What kind of communication issues?

C:事先声明,我可没有大男子主义,但我觉得那三个女的浪费了很多时间。

A:How?

C:她们喜欢谈私事。好不容易谈到主题了,她们又没完没了,直到大家都对方案满意了才肯罢休。

A:It’s good to be sure that you are all in accord.

C:可凡事都要有节制啊。有几次我为了推动进度,打断了她们,结果她们特不高兴。

A:I understand what is happening. You have a gender issue.

C:什么?性别问题?

A:This is going to take a bit more time to explain. Can we continue our conversation over lunch?

******

Amy和陈豪午饭时继续上午的话题。

C:我想了一上午,怎么也想不通早上我们说的事怎么会跟性别有关。

A:Remember that you started off by telling me that there were some problems in the group and you immediately zeroed in on the women.

C:没错,进度慢,就是那几个女同事的责任。

A:Men and women have different approaches to communication that both need to understand.

C:男性和女性交流的方式,可能是不一样。我们几个男的都觉得可以行动了,但那几个女的老觉得太仓促。

A:As with all conflict, you need to take time to address this. You should talk about what is happening, attempt to understand each other and resolve the issue in a cooperative manner.

C:加深相互理解?那具体该怎么做呢?

A:Tell the women you appreciate their opinions and expertise. Ask them to focus more on business conversation and less on personal. Next consider how you men are behaving.

C:难道说我们这些男的也有做错的地方吗?

A:You admitted that you interrupted in an effort to move things along. I bet that you are also trying to dominate and give the women as little chance as possible to speak up.

C:我承认,我们确实有控制会议之嫌。一般情况下,听完她们的意见,我们就不再去看她们,生怕她们没完没了地说下去。

A:To avoid additional strife and accommodate each other, you need to stop interrupting and trying to dominate.

C:我知道了,男性希望马上找到解决问题的办法,而女性喜欢先花时间,建立关系,因此双方就会出现矛盾。