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Comment by Rajang 左岸 on Saturday

[南宋] 蘇洵〈六國論〉白話譯文

六國滅亡，不是武器不銳利，仗打得不好，弊病在於割地賄賂秦國。割地賄賂秦國，自己的力量就虧損了，這是滅亡的原因。有人說：「六國相繼滅亡，全都是由於割地賄賂秦國嗎？」回答說：「不割地賄賂秦國的國家因為割地賄賂秦國的國家而滅亡。因為他們失去了強有力的外援，不能單獨保全。所以說：『弊病在於割地賄賂秦國』啊！」

秦國除用攻戰的方法取得土地之外（還得到諸侯的割地賄賂），小的就獲得城鎮，大的就獲得都市，把秦國由受賄賂得到的土地與戰勝而得到的土地比較，實際上有一百倍，把諸侯賄賂秦國所失去的土地與戰敗所失去的土地比較，實際上也有一百倍。那麼秦國最大的欲望，諸侯最大的禍患，當然就不在於戰爭了。

回想他們的祖輩父輩，冒著霜露，披荊斬棘，因而才有一點點土地。可是子孫們看待它卻很不珍惜，拿它來送人，就像拋棄小草一樣。

今天割去五座城，明天割去十座城，然後才能睡上一夜安穩覺。待起床一看四周邊境，秦國的軍隊又打來了。那麼，諸侯的土地有限，暴秦的欲望沒有滿足；誰送給它土地越多，它侵犯誰就越急。

所以不用打仗，誰強誰弱、誰勝誰敗就已分得清清楚楚了。六國落到滅亡的地步，按理本來應當這樣。古人說：「用土地侍奉秦國，就像抱著柴草救火，柴草沒有燒完，火就不會熄滅。」這話說得在理啊！

齊國不曾割地賄賂秦國，最後也隨著五國滅亡，為什麼呢？這是因為它跟秦國交好而不幫助五國啊。五國滅亡之後，齊國也就不能幸免了。燕國和趙國的君主，起初有遠大的謀略，能夠守住自己的土地，堅持正義不賄賂秦國。因此燕國雖然是個小國，卻滅亡在後，這是用兵抵抗的效果啊。

到了燕太子丹用派遣荊軻刺殺秦王作為對付秦國的策略，才招致滅亡的禍患。趙國曾經與秦國多次作戰，敗少勝多。後來秦國又兩次攻打趙國，李牧接連打退了它。等到李牧因受讒言被趙王殺害，都城邯鄲就變成秦國的一個郡，可惜它用兵抵抗卻沒能堅持到底啊。

況且燕趙正處在其他國家被消滅了的時候，可說是智謀已盡，力量單薄，戰敗而亡國，實在是沒有辦法的事啊。假使當初韓、魏、楚三國都各自珍惜自己的土地，齊國不依附秦國，燕國的刺客不去秦國，趙國的良將李牧還活著，那麼勝敗存亡的命運，如果與秦國較量，也許還不容易估量呢。

唉！如果六國把賄賂秦國的土地封賞給天下的謀臣，用侍奉秦國的心意禮遇天下非凡的人才，齊心協力向西對付秦國，那麼我擔心秦國人連飯也咽不下喉呢。可悲啊！有這樣的形勢，卻被秦國積久的威勢所脅制，土地天天削減，月月割讓，以至於走向滅亡。

治理國家的人切不要讓自己被敵人積久的威勢所脅制啊！六國和秦國都是諸侯，他們的勢力比秦國弱，可是還有能夠不割地賄賂而戰勝秦國的形勢。如果憑著一統天下的大國，卻自取下策反而重蹈六國滅亡的覆轍，這就又在六國之下了！

創作背景

《六國論》的歷史背景應從兩個角度著眼：一是蘇洵論述的六國滅亡那個歷史時期的情況，借以了解蘇洵立論的根據；二是蘇洵所處的北宋時代的歷史狀況，借以明確蘇洵撰寫《六國論》的針砭現實的意義及其寫作上的特點。

北宋建國以後，鑑於唐末藩鎮割據，五代軍人亂政，因而實行中央集權制度，解除節度使的權力，派遣文臣做地方官，派官員到地方管理財政，由皇帝直接控制禁軍，將地方的政權、財權、軍權都收歸中央。

為了防范武將軍權過重，嚴令將帥不得專兵，甚至外出作戰，也必須按皇帝頒發的陣圖行事。將官經常輪換，兵不識將，將不識兵，致使軍隊沒有戰斗力。這樣的措施雖然杜絕了軍閥擁兵作亂，但是也造成軍事上的衰頹。

北宋建國後一百年間，北宋軍隊與遼、西夏軍隊大小六十餘戰，敗多勝少。北宋加強中央集權的措施，導致官僚機構膨脹和軍隊不斷擴充。到北宋中期，官俸和軍費開支浩大，政府財政入不敷出。北宋政府實不限制兼並的政策，土地集中現象嚴重，貴族佔有大量土地，社會矛盾尖銳。

政治上的專制腐敗，軍事上的驕惰無能，帶來外交上的極端軟弱。到蘇洵生活的年代，北宋每年要向遼和西夏上貢大量銀兩以及商品。這樣賄賂的結果，助長了遼、西夏的氣焰，加重了人民的負擔，極大地損傷了國力，帶來了無窮的禍患。也就是說當時的北宋四周環伺，政策上求和，積貧積弱，而蘇洵正是針對這樣的現實撰寫《六國論》的。（百度百科）

註：蘇洵（1009年—1066年），字明允。北宋文學家，四川眉山人，唐宋八大家之一。他是蘇軾和蘇轍的父親，父子三人被稱為「三蘇」，均名列「唐宋八大家」，有《嘉祐集》傳世。曾任校書郎、主簿等微官，追贈為光祿寺丞，贈太子太師。

Comment by Rajang 左岸 on June 10, 2024 at 10:04pm

【衰弱】

我怎麼都狠不下心，撇下斯萬。他衰弱到了這個程度，病體像隻蒸餾甑，裡面的放學反應可觀察得一清二楚。他臉上佈滿鐵青色的小斑點，看去不像是張活人的臉，散發出一股異味，就像在中學作罷「實驗」後彌漫的那股氣味，難聞極了，使人不願在「科學實驗室」再呆下去。

——斯萬的死，最令人傷心，遠甚過「外祖母」之死。斯萬的死，是他的全部熱情、善意、沒有施展出來的才華的死，是他的愛情幻覺（他一生淪為眾人的笑柄而毫不知曉真相）的死，最後，是他的虛無之死。

（摘自：《追憶似水年華》[法語：À la recherche du temps perdu，英语：In Search of Lost Time: The Prisoner and the Fugitive]，[法国]馬塞爾·普魯斯特 [Marcel Proust ，1871年—1922年] 的作品，出版時間：1913–1927，共7卷）

Comment by Rajang 左岸 on February 16, 2024 at 12:54pm

How Storytelling Can Drive Strategic Change

Conventional wisdom says that when confronted with a major organizational change– one that shakes the very foundations of how a company does business– top executives need to leave their offices and venture out among the frontline employees to make sure that everyone understands what is at stake and embraces the organization’s strategy for change.

Memos are written, speechwriters summoned, PowerPoint slides prepared, and communications plans developed all to get everyone ‘‘on the samepage,’’ ‘‘rowing in the same direction,’’ or ‘‘singing off the same sheet.’’ E-mails are sent, meetings called, retreats planned, and newsletter articles published, all to insure
that, at the end of the day, the new value proposition and business model have been ingrained in the culture.
Thenleaderspackuptheirstuff,go backtotheiroffices,and waitto seethe seedsof change take root and blossom. Usually, not much happens, leaving managers scratching their heads and l am enting to each other about how much people hate to change. Whydoesn’t this standard managerial approach work?

Andwhy,aftersomanyfailedattempts,doleadersstill use it?

(How storytelling can drive strategic change, Article in Strategy and Leadership · January 2006 [DOI: 10.1108/10878570610637876], Four Author including: Notes: 1. B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore (1999), The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, chapter 10 in particular. 2. Stephen Denning (2000), The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations, Butterworth-Heinemann, Woburn, MA, p. xiii. Corresponding author: Gary Adamson is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: gary@starizon.org)

Related:

叙事·創意

故事人心靈素質

《愛墾展頻道》

愛墾慕課·敘事篇

Comment by Rajang 左岸 on February 15, 2024 at 10:17pm

Let’s examine the underlying assumptions on which the ‘‘Just Tell ’Em’’ approach is based:

First, it assumes that the front-line employees have the needed context and background
information required to understand major changes in strategic direction. However,
frequently even the managers, who have much more information, confess that they don’t
fully understand what it all means.

Second, it assumes that employees totally accept the decisions of their top executives.
This is most dubious, especially after several ‘‘major’’ change efforts have come and
gone.

Third, ‘‘Just Tell ‘Em’’ assumes that employees don’t have valid ideas of their own about
where the company should be going. But they do, and while they may be forced to deal
with the conclusions and actions of management, they will still draw their own conclusions
and act accordingly.

Fourth, this approach assumes that change is basically an information issue and that if
employees just knew the reasons why it would be good to change, they’d change.
However, change is as much about relationships, emotions, and gut feel as it is about
facts.

And, lastly, this approach assumes that no ‘‘fluff’’ or entertainment value is needed;
because the subject matter is so very important and the people presenting it so
noteworthy, employees will pay attention even if it’s boring. However, this assumption flies
in the face of that old saying that ‘‘Great teaching is one-fourth preparation and
three-fourths theatre.’’


‘‘ So the key message executives should take away from this story on stories is: don’t just spend countless hours, valuable brain cells, and barrels full of money doing the research, analysis, goal-setting, and implementation planning necessary to come up with an industry-altering strategy.’’

So if this standard approach doesn’t work, why do so many leaders keep doing it? The reason may be as simple as this: it’s hard for even the most courageous leader to bet the future of the company on something he doesn’t know how to do. And few executives know how to tell the stories required to elicit organizational transformations.

A good story inspires

A good story always combines conflict, drama, suspense, plot twists, symbols, characters, triumph over odds, and usually a generous amount of humor– all to do two things: capture your imagination and make you feel. It draws you in, places you at its center, connects to your emotions, and inserts its meaning into your memory. That is why storytelling must becomeanintegraltoolofcorporatestrategy. Stories create the experience that lets strategy beunderstood at a personal level[1]. In order to be effective, strategy must not just inform, it must inspire. And people are never inspired by reason alone. That’s why the ‘‘Just Tell ’Em’’ approach usually fails. It totally overlooks the role emotion and meaning play in any life-altering action. And if your strategy isn’t about transforming the way your company and its employees do business, why do it?

Storytelling develops relationships by helping everyone realize we all have issues in common. Stories crystallize common values and beliefs. They build stronger teams and a stronger sense of community. Stories invite people to bring the ‘‘whole person’’ to work (both heart and head), and therefore elicit much more thorough perspectives and meaningful commitments. They create a context for work aspirations and thus make each employee feel more valued. In short, stories have the potential to revitalize the way we do business.

Comment by Rajang 左岸 on February 15, 2024 at 10:22am

(Pg 3) As Stephen Denning, former program director at the World Bank, said in the introduction to his book The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations, ‘‘Time after time, when faced with the task of persuading a group of managers or front-line staff in a large organization to get enthusiastic about a major change, I found that storytelling was the only thing that worked[2].’’

A case: telling the story of a new business model ‘‘It was a real trying period,’’ says Steve Altmiller, President and CEO of San Juan Regional Medical Center, reflecting back on his early years at the 175-bed, sole-community provider in Farmington, New Mexico.‘‘There I was, a new CEOatahistorically strong community hospital and suddenly everything was out of sync. We were taking lots of financial hits; our earnings were down; our hospital-sponsored health plan was going bankrupt; unions were trying to organize our nurses; and, we were making many operational and management changes that introduced lots of anxiety. It seemed like everything we talked about was negative, one problem after another. My board said we had to find a way to focus on something positive.’’

Altmiller decided to engage a top group of his leaders, directors, board members, and physicians in developing a comprehensive experience strategy that would change the company’s business model. Shortly into this two-year project it began calling itself the Galileo Group, for its goal was to discover a new and more personally meaningful center of the healthcare universe. In the midst of their work the members made a radical decision: they would focus first not on the patient experience but rather on the employee experience. ‘‘We can’t consistently provide the most personal patient experience until we can consistently provide the most personal, healing, professional experience. If you expect to be successful in individualizing the patient experience you’d better get good at individualizing to the employee,’’

Altmiller told us. ‘‘Our entire patient experience redesign will start with an exclusive focus on the employee experience. We’regoingtotrytopersonalizeeverything from recruitment to retirement because we think it will do more than anything else to help our employees understand what we want for patients. And in these times of staff shortages and heavycompetition for the best people, it would bea good strategy even if we weren’t planning on doing it for patients. As it is, we’ve come to believe that individualizing the experience will ensure our future success. You’ve got to be able to do it not just whent imes are good but when times are hard. We’re not just following a trend– we’re putting it in everything we do.’’

So a new mission, vision, and philosophy were developed, a new personalized benefit program put in place, and a completely new healing environment designed into the facility expansion project. Many other initiatives were being readied while the rollout of the first phase of changes was begun. And then something quite unexpected happened. The hard work, careful planning, and the innovative design– all of it resulted in confusion, not cohesion. ‘‘I realized pretty quickly,’’ Altmiller relates, ‘‘that while we had done a good job of
defining ‘the what,’ we were doing a bad job of communicating ‘the why.’ If we were ever going to connect the dots, it wasn’t going to be with another PowerPoint presentation. Instead we needed a ‘what’s the point’ experience.’’

Comment by Rajang 左岸 on February 14, 2024 at 12:58pm

The story of ‘‘Raiders of the Lost Art’’ And so work began on a story– one designed todescribe the future of San Juan Regional. It became known as ‘‘Raiders of the Lost Art’’ (see the story map, Exhibit 1). As the name implies, through this adventure story wewere looking for something that had been lost, namely the art of personalized healthcare. The story took place in three distinct lands: the land of Medicus (Medical Professionals), the land of Communia (Regional Community), and the land of Patiem (Patients). In each land, operational statistics, industry trends, competitive issues, and organizational initiatives relating specifically to the subject of that area were provided.

Here’s a quick sampling of the lessons presented on a journey through each land: B In the land of Medicus, employees learned how the Baby Boomer generation affects not only the patient population they treat, but also the peers with which they work on a daily basis. B In the land of Communia, employees took an in-depth look at the hospital’s community satisfaction  results and discussed how they could change processes and/or work styles to improve these results in the future. B Lastly, in the land of Patiem, employees learned of the exciting new plans built into the Facility Expansion Project, which would provide a unique healing environment for employees as well as all patients and their families. These encounters were enlivened by an environment filled with props, presented by an Indiana Jones-like facilitator (with assistance from manager guides), and through map icons (landslides, volcanoes, rope bridges, mirages, a treasure chest, hidden caves, a bottomless pit, deserts, oceans, secret passageways, and lush gardens– to name just a few). But the Raiders of the Lost Art story was not only told–it was also asked. At each map icon, when some new challenge or initiative was presented, a series of small group discussions were held that involved every employee in the session in a deeper examination. Questionslike, ‘‘Does this surprise you?’’, ‘‘How do you think this will affect us?’’, ‘‘Are we doing enough?’’, and‘‘What else would you do?’’ engagedemployeesinstrategy workas neverbefore.And as word of the exciting work spread throughout the hospital, more and more employees wanted to be involved.

Intheend, nearly 70 percent of SanJuan Regional’s1,300 employees attended the voluntary day-long sessions. Almost 900 distinct process, program, and facility suggestions were captured and then analyzed, with approximately half of them implemented. All of a sudden, the connection between management and employee changed. Skepticism, fear, and apathy were replaced by understanding, excitement, and a sense of partnership. According to both soft and hard measures, morale improved, turnover plummeted, and employee satisfaction scores climbed dramatically. New initiatives were understood and embraced; for example, over 80 percent of the employees have signed up for the customized benefits program that is more personally relevant and less expensive to the provider. Further, San Juan Regional recently opened a Child Discovery Center with almost 70 percent of its capacity filled by the children of employees (see Box 1).

Comment by Rajang 左岸 on February 12, 2024 at 2:55pm

Riddle of the Sphinx

Since the day of the last Raiders session things have changed dramatically, and will continue to do so. Therefore, the need for another story, and down theroadanotherone after that, and one after that. Steve Altmiller said, ‘‘When we decided to do theRaiders story,I lookedat it as R&D. At worst, we would learn something, and what we had done up to that point wasn’t working anyway. At best, we would build a whole new capacity that would enable us to do newthings better, faster, and, ultimately, less expensively. So it seemed it was worth the risk. When Raiders was such a big success, I wanted to use that success as a building block. I didn’t want anyone to see it as a one-time thing done primarily to pass the gross receipts tax. That would have missed the whole point of what we learned. We learned a whole new wayfor management and employees to work together to make dramatic new things happen. Sowehavecommittedto this type of storytelling and feedback to be done every 18 months. It’s just the way we’re going to do things from now on.’’

And so a second story was prepared and told, this one entitled ‘‘The Riddle of the Sphinx’’(see the story map, Exhibit 2). Through solving various riddles and an anagram posed by an Ancient Egyptian Sphinx, San Juan Regional employees solved the many confusions that plague an industry as complicated as healthcare. For example, the employees’ first riddle revolved around various communications confusions– such as an in-depth look at the most recent employee satisfaction survey (wherein communications between employees and their managers ranked 4 percent below the national norm). The next riddle comprised all of the confusions related to staffing. Here, employees learned about the ne west work/life balance programs recently put into place by the hospital. Riddle three considered an assortment of processconfusions. Duringthisstage, employeesbrainstormed ideastomoreeffectivelytreat patients despite ever-increasing industry regulations.

The next riddle addressed numerous patient-expectation confusions. In one example, employees were asked for ideas about ways to decrease the number of patients who seek treatment elsewhere because they were unaware that San Juan Regional offers those specific treatments. The final riddle asked employees to uncover technology confusions, through conceiving new ways to more effectively train staff members on increasingly complicated technologies throughout the system. Best of all, as these riddles and confusions were addressed and discussed, employee ideas were meticulously recorded so they could be used in future initiatives. From an environment and employee engagement point of view, Riddle of the Sphinx was an even bigger production than Raiders. ‘‘We wanted to capture the same element of surprise and amazement we had in Raiders, and we knew that would require an even more elaborate experience, since Raiders had raised everybody’s expectations so high,’’ said Altmiller.

And so it was. The Sphinx story took over a recently closed elementary school and transformed it into Ancient Egypt. The Raiders story ended under crossed palm trees (‘‘X’’ marked the spot), so that’s where the Sphinx story began. A Disney-esque pre-show and post-show video was produced to engage employees in the storyline before the work began and to summarize the story’s key moral once it was over

Comment by Rajang 左岸 on February 11, 2024 at 4:15pm

(Con't fr above) Addressing the art of what’s possible, Steve Altmiller summarizes his experience with storytelling this way, ‘‘Before we started our storytelling work, the reaction to most of the things in our experience strategy plan was ‘You can’t do that in Farmington.’After Raiders  and Sphinx, we are doing all of the things in the plan. That’s a big difference.’’



So the key message executives should take away from this story on stories is this: Don’t just  spend countless hours, valuable brain cells, and barrels full of money doing the research,  analysis, goal-setting, and implementation planning necessary to come up with an industry-altering strategy. If you want your change message to actually take hold– if you want it to transform how things are done in your world– then weave your message about the new strategy into a compelling and memorable story. When more leaders immerse their employees in compelling and inspirational strategy stories, more companies will thrive happily ever after.

(How storytelling can drive strategic change,  Article  in  Strategy and Leadership · January 2006 [DOI: 10.1108/10878570610637876], Four Author including: Notes:  1. B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore (1999), The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, chapter 10 in particular. 2. Stephen Denning (2000), The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations, Butterworth-Heinemann, Woburn, MA, p. xiii.  Corresponding author: Gary Adamson is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: gary@starizon.org)

Comment by 卡萊爾的書包 on February 3, 2024 at 11:35am

Lap of Luxury – Origin & Meaning by Candace Osmond

What does lap of luxury mean? I can assure you it doesn’t involve a luxury lap pool or a lap-sized serving of luxury chocolates. We use this phrase in English to describe a condition of amazing comfort and extravagance. So, let’s dive into the plush cushions of this idiom, explore its origin, and look at some alternative ways to say it and how to use it in a sentence.

The idiom lap of luxury is meant to describe a state of opulence or extravagant comfort. Picture this: lounging on a sun-kissed beach, sipping cocktails, with no worries in the world. That’s the lap of luxury. It’s where many of us aspire to be, but few find ourselves.

I often think of my trip to Cuba years ago. I’d just had my second kid, and work was crazy, so the trip was well-deserved. We stayed at a five-star resort, had zero responsibilities or places to be, and food and drinks were brought to us by the pool each day. That was the lap of luxury, and I’ll never forget it!

(Source: https://grammarist.com)

Comment by 卡萊爾的書包 on February 3, 2024 at 12:55am

地方文化營銷 0.3：閱讀+出版文創:

動人口號：

口號也給予人們動力與新鮮點子，

它是簡短的一句話，包含一個地方整體的愿景。

INDRIYA 文化特區

PARK: The Cultural & Creative Hub

ARCH: The Friendship Glows

L 地方生態營銷

L 愛墾慕課·影像篇

L 韵文化：鄉韻

L 愛墾慕課·在地篇

L 婆羅洲海角

L 做客 特色小鎮

L 跟《馬來紀年》走一帶一路

L 愛墾慕課·文創篇

L 跟《馬來紀年》走一帶一路

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