超强说服力：会议中影响最大的两个字

　　"What's the magic word?" my mother would always ask me when I was a child and begging for something. It turns out Mom was wrong. The "magic word" for getting what you want isn't "please" — it's "yeah."“要说哪个神奇词语啊？”小时候每当我希望得到些什么时，我的母亲总会这样问我。事实证明妈妈错了。可以让你得偿所愿的“神奇词语”不是“请”——是“没错。”

　　According to a paper published recently by professor Cynthia Rudin, Ph.D., and Been Kim, Ph.D., researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, "yeah" is the most persuasive word for getting a proposal or suggestion accepted at a business meeting。根据来自麻省理工斯隆商学院[微博]的两位教授，Cynthia Rudin 博士和Been Kim 博士最近发表的论文，想要在商务会议上获得计划书或意见通过，最有说服力的词汇是“没错”。

　　"We looked at data from 95 meetings," Rudin tells Yahoo! Shine. "We wanted to examine if persuasive words even exist." The researchers began their study with some skepticism and were surprised to find that, again and again, the word "yeah" was correlated with success. The researchers did not analyze vocal enthusiasm of the speaker but simply the number of times words were correlated with a positive outcome。“我们研究了95个会议的数据，”Rudin 告诉雅虎！Shine频道，“我们想看看究竟存不存在有说服力的词汇。”这两位研究者带着疑惑开始了他们的探究并惊奇地发现，“是”这个单词被一遍又一遍地与成功联系在一起。他们仅仅研究单词出现的次数与正面结果的关联，而没有分析说话者声音中的情绪因素。

　　Wouldn't you like to make your next meeting more constructive? Productivity could be only four letters away。难道你不想让你的下一次会议变得有建设性一些吗？或许离高产量只有两个字的距离了。

　　According to the study, "In the United States alone, an estimated 11 million meetings take place in a given day." As most workers know, meetings can eat up hours of each working week, and managers spend between 25 and 50 percent of their time each day convening with their colleagues. "If we understand general things about meetings," says Rudin, "such as how to make your meeting more effective, it helps us plan ahead and be more productive."根据这项研究，“仅在美国，每天就有1100万的会议在进行。”正像每位工作者知道的那样，会议会占去一周工作中的数个小时，经理们每天将25% 到50%的时间都花在召集他们的员工上。“如果我们对会议有基本的了解，”Rudin说，“比如如何使你的会议变得有效力，这将会帮助我们提前计划并更具生产力。”

　　Analyzing the language used in meetings, the researchers asked, "Are there patterns in suggestions that are accepted versus rejected? Can we use this to improve how we present ideas to the team?"分析会议中的语言，两位研究者提出，“在被接受和被拒绝的建议中有没有一些规律？我们可不可以用这些规律去改善我们向团队提想法的方式？”

　　They found that, indeed, adding "yeah" to a proposal made the idea "come across as if it were in line with previous thoughts by others," which gives it a greater shot at being accepted. An example might be, "Yeah, the color black would be a great way to go," when you are first proposing that color. The authors mention that a key principle in Dale Carnegie's 1936 classic How to Win Friends and Influence People was to let people think the idea was theirs。他们发现的确在一个计划书中加入“没错”会使得这个点子“看上去好像与别人之前的想法是一致的，”这将提高它被接受的几率。举个例子，“没错，黑颜色是个不错的选择，”当你第一次提出这一颜色选择时可以这么说。作者们提到在戴尔·卡耐基1936年出版的经典图书《人性的弱点》中的一个关键原则便是让人们相信那个想法是他们的。

　　The word "yeah" came into common use around the turn of the 20th century as a casual way of saying yes. Interestingly, "yes" didn't even appear in the study's top 20 most persuasive words. Rudin suggests that is probably because "yeah" is now used more frequently in conversation than "yes." It also is perhaps a more nuanced word and less of a directly affirmative answer to a specific question。“没错”在20世纪初被开始广泛使用，用来代替正式的“是”。有趣的是，“是”在说服性词汇的研究中连前20都没有进。Rudin提出者可能是因为“没错”在会话中比“是”使用的频率高。“没错”或许相对于“是”来说是一个更为微妙的词，而不是一个直接、肯定的对具体问题的回答。

　　The second and third most successful words, according to the authors, were "give" and "start." "Give" was used in the context of offering something to a customer or adding something to a product, and also to "indicate suggestions are based on previous data" — for example, "given these parameters."与成功相关的词汇中，根据作者们所说，排在第二和第三位的是“给予”和“开始”。当提供一些东西给消费者或者在一个产品上加些什么时，会用到“给予”，同时“给予”也用来“指出这些建议是建立在过往数据的基础上”——比如，“被给予这些参数。”

　　The word "start" builds alliances, especially when used early in meetings, and provides an opportunity for the group to agree on basic suggestions — for example, "How about we start with the key issues?"“开始”这个词可以建立起联盟，特别当用在会议的开头并给整个团队同意某个基本提议的机会——比如，“不如我们从最关键的问题开始如何？”

　　The authors say that the science of meetings is still in its early stages and that they plan to design more studies and dig deeper. One key goal is to help people communicate more effectively and make wrap-up times more predictable. Shorter meetings? Hell, yeah!论文的作者们表示关于会议的科学仍然在起步阶段，他们正在计划设计更广泛和更深入的研究。他们的关键目标之一是帮助人们更有效地沟通，使得会议总结更易预见。让会议短一些？当然，没错！