工作與遊戲有何關聯

周焯華-工作與遊戲有何關聯-洗米華

譯文： 　　THE rules of Happy Hour are deceptively simple. You are a bartender. Your challenge is to tell what sort of drink each of a swelling mob of customers wants by the expressions on their faces. Then you must make and serve each drink and wash each used glass, all within a short period of time. Play this video game well and you might win a tantalising prize: a job in the real world. 　　Happy Hour, which will be unveiled to the public on May 28th, is one of several video games developed by Knack, a start-up founded by Guy Halfteck, an Israeli entrepreneur. The games include a version of Happy Hour in which sushi replaces booze, Words of Wisdom （a word game） and Balloon Brigade （which involves putting out fires with balloons and water）。 They are designed to test cognitive skills that employers might want, drawing on some of the latest scientific research. These range from pattern recognition to emotional intelligence, risk appetite and adaptability to changing situations. 　　A pilot now under way with students at Yale combines the results of games with academic grades. As little as ten minutes of play can yield enough data to predict performance, says Mr Halfteck. 　　Knack combines three fashionable trends: gaming, the use of massive amounts of data and the application of behavioural insights from science. According to Chris Chabris of the Centre for Collective Intelligence at MIT, a member of the Knack team, games have huge advantages over traditional recruitment tools, such as personality tests, which can easily be outwitted by an astute candidate. Many more things can be tested quickly and performance can't be faked on Knack's games, he says. The two biggest challenges, according to Mr Chabris, are ensuring the games are fun to play and convincing recruiters, who typically make no attempt to measure cognitive skills, to pay attention to these new data. 　　Some firms seem to see the potential. The GameChanger unit of Shell, which seeks out new disruptive technologies for the oil giant, is about to test if Knack can help it identify innovators. Bain & Company, a consultancy, is to run a pilot: it will start by getting current staff to play the games, to see which skills make for a successful consultant. （The ability to charge a lot for stating the obvious is presumably not one of them.） If someone can materially improve our ability to select the best talent, that is worth a lot to us, says Mark Howorth, a recruiter at Bain. And if not, at least the process will be fun. 　　歡樂時光的遊戲規則看起來相當簡單：你是一個酒保。你的挑戰是通過那些已經喝得爛醉的客人臉上的表情來分辨他們想喝什麼酒。然後在規定的時間之內，你要調好這些酒，為他們呈上吧臺，再洗凈用過的酒杯。若是成績出色，你將獲得一個誘人的獎勵：一份現實中的工作。 　　遊戲歡樂時光將於5月28日發佈，它是以色列企業傢Guy Halfteck創立的Knack公司所發佈的眾多視頻遊戲中的一款。除此之外，還有壽司版的歡樂時光、至理名言（一款文字遊戲）和氣球橋（用氣球和水來滅火）。遊戲在設計時運用瞭最新的科學研究結果，目的是為瞭檢測出哪些員工可能具有雇主所需要的認知能力。從對模型的認知到對情商的測試，遊戲檢驗出一個人的喜好以及對變化環境的適應能力。 　　Knack公司結合瞭三大流行趨勢：遊戲，對數據的大量運用以及對科學見解的應用。據Knack團隊成員、麻省理工學院聚智中心的Chris Chabris說，與傳統招聘工具相比，遊戲具有很大的優點，比如遊戲結果不會像人格測試那樣受到狡猾測試者的欺瞞。他說，還有很多品質都能夠從Knack的遊戲裡快速體現出來，作弊是很難的。Chabris先生還說，最大的兩個挑戰就是，要確保遊戲足夠好玩，同時使應聘者在無心測量認知能力的情況下註意著新的測試數據。耶魯一個正在進行的學生試驗把遊戲成績與學習成績掛鉤。Halfteck先生說，哪怕隻是十分鐘的遊戲，也能產生可以預測人行為的數據。 　　一些公司看到瞭這些遊戲的潛力。殼牌石油的遊戲改變者小組專門為石油巨頭尋找新的分裂技術，他們準備測試看Knack能不能幫助他們確定誰是創新能力較強的人。貝恩咨詢公司正準備進行一個項目：讓現有的員工們玩遊戲，從中研究哪些技能對一場成功的咨詢是有幫助的。（一再陳述顯而易見的事情，這種技能應該不在此列。）如果有人能夠大大改善我們挑選精英的能力，那可是意義重大，貝恩公司的招聘專員Mark Howorth說。 即使沒什麼幫助，至少這個過程也蠻有趣的。 Tags:周焯華,洗米華