The thing about building a company is that inevitably things go wrong, and bad things happen.

成立一家公司总是难以避免会出错 不顺的事情总会发生

You don’t want that to happen, you don’t anticipate when that happens,

你不希望发生坏事 你也无法预测它们

but it is inevitable in the lifecycle of any company.

但这是每家公司都避免不了的事

When that happens the best way to react to that is to use it as a learning lab.

出现这种情况时 最佳应对方式就是把它当做学习实验室

Use it as an opportunity to call everybody together and really have a laboratory, have a workshop,

把它当成一次机会 把所有人叫到一起 组建一个实验室 开一场研讨会

have an understanding of: how do we unpack what happened

弄明白：我们如何去剖析已经发生的事

and why it all happened with no blame but with understanding of the systems that got us here,

为什么会发生这种事 不要责怪任何人 只抱着搞清楚我们是如何走到这一步的心态

and then how do we think about how do you respond right now together,

现在我们该如何应对

and then how do you move forward from there,

该如何从事下一步的工作

both in terms of establishing maybe new procedures, establishing some new policies,

包括建立一些新程序 制定新政策

some even new ways of thinking, some new operational tactics,

甚至一些新的思考方式 新的运营策略

but then also this is equally important,

但同样重要的是

how does the company and the CEO and the team around him or her

公司、首席执行官、以首席执行官为中心的团队

successfully move on emotionally,

该如何成功跨过这个坎儿

kind of create a new point of view recognizing that that was in the past and there’s the future to look too?

就像是创造一种新观点 认识到那些都已成为过去 未来仍可期？

You can’t change the past, you can only change the future.

你无法改变过去 你只能掌握未来

So the best way to debrief any bad thing that happened, any problem is just to go down the tiers of “Why.”

所以审视所发生的任何坏事 任何问题的最佳方式就是一层一层地追问“为什么”

And so you start with—so let’s assume that the project that you’re working on is late,

所以开始先——我们先假设你正在做的项目延迟了

let’s assume it’s a product release,

比如说是某种产品的发布吧

and that it is now definitely not going to make its deadline,

产品的发布绝对赶不上截止日期了

and it’s probably three or six months late.

或许需要延迟三到六个月

First of all it’s important just to create an environment where people can talk freely and not feel blamed,

首先 我们需要营造一个任何人可以畅所欲言 不会感到被责怪的环境 这一点很重要

because we’re just debriefing to understand what happened.

因为我们只是在剖析和理解发生了什么情况

So it’s about understanding the structure of it not looking to finger point.

所以问题的关键是理解这件事的来龙去脉 而不是互相谴责

But the first question is, why?

但第一个问题是 为什么？

So why was the release late?

为什么发布延迟了？

Well, engineering, for example, didn’t deliver the code on time.

比如说 是因为工程部门没有及时把代码发过来

Why didn’t engineering deliver the code on time?

为什么工程部门没有及时发来代码？

Because they weren’t given the specs early enough.

因为他们收到指示说明的时间太晚

Why weren’t they given the specs early enough?

为什么他们收到指示的时间太晚？

Because product didn’t get them to them early enough.

因为产品部门没有尽早送过去

Why didn’t product to get them to them early enough.

为什么产品部门没有尽早送过去？

Because product didn’t understand from marketing the requirements early enough.

因为产品部门没有尽早从营销部门了解要求

So if you keep going down those and you understand why did marketing not get them early enough,

如果你继续这样一步步深挖下去 就会知道为什么营销部门没有尽早传达要求

it’s because they didn’t have a good plan to get the customer data they needed to,

是因为他们没有制定良好的规划 获得所需的客户数据

then you can take a look at what went wrong here.

然后你就可以看一下这个环节出了什么问题

Is it about we need to tighten up our process (which is very often true, especially with startups)?

是因为我们需要强化过程吗（这一点很常见 创业公司更是如此）？

Is it that we need to have a better timeframe for deliverables

是因为我们需要给交付物制定更好的时间表吗

(which is often very true when you’re working on complicated multi-domain projects)?

（如果你做的是复杂的多领域项目 那这一点也很常见 ）？

Or do we just forecast incorrectly?

还是说我们的预测出了问题？

Did we not take into account all the multiple steps that leads to the product release,

是因为我们没有考虑到产品发布要经历的多个步骤吗？

and that’s often very true as well?

这种情况也很常见

And maybe why didn’t we take into account the multiple steps?

甚至还要问一下我们为什么没有考虑到那些步骤？

Because there wasn’t one person in charge. Great.

因为负责人不止一个 很好

So going forward we know that we need to all take into account the multiple steps,

所以顺着往前推 我们就知道了 要考虑到多个步骤

and declare one person the owner of the project overall,

并且指定一个人来负责整个项目

and let’s try those two interventions, those two changes,

我们来试试这两种干涉 两个变化

and that’s going to help us have more excellence in operations.

这会让我们在运营过程中更为出色