我們都念叨過讓自己后悔不迭的事情。當時聽起來像是個好主意，事后卻有可能變成“我當時在想什么？”在聲音、電子郵件和推文會在一夜之間病毒般擴散而且沒法刪的數字時代，棋錯一著就可能誘發一場全面危機。

今年的美國大選頻頻爆出令人尷尬的失言。希拉里?克林頓最新的一次失言，必將成為經典。她說，“特朗普的一半支持者都是一群無恥之徒”，他們是“種族主義者、性別歧視者、恐同者、排外者以及伊斯蘭恐懼癥患者”。

第二天想打圓場時，她又說：“我很后悔用了‘一半’這個詞，那是不對的?！苯Y果質疑者猜測她其實想說“全部”。解釋化解不了危機，只會越抹越黑。

這是否會成為米特?羅姆尼“47%”論調的翻版尚未可知。羅姆尼曾說，47%的人會不可避免地再次投票給奧巴馬，因為他們是現有體制受益者而且很依賴政府。包括羅姆尼在內，許多人都認為這是造成他2012年最終競選失敗的轉折點。

所有政壇和企業領導者都會經歷危機，危機總是伴隨權力左右。但危害最大的危機往往是自己制造的。如果不認真對待，這些“非受迫性失誤”可能會如影隨形。

人人都會犯錯，而且事發后情況好轉還是惡化，都在人們掌控之中。正如爵士樂大師邁爾斯?戴維斯所說：“一個音符出錯后，效果美妙還是糟糕要看下一個音符?！泵總€親手引發的災難都有自我救贖的潛力。一點點謙卑就能發揮很大作用。

以“閱后即焚”圖片共享初創公司Snapchat首席執行官埃文?斯皮格爾為例。2014年5月，這位23歲的斯坦福畢業生可謂一帆風順——他已經從硅谷一些最頂尖的風投公司融資1.63億美元，而且有報道稱，他拒絕了Facebook以30億美元現金實施收購的建議。

但情況急轉直下，Gawker Media旗下博客網站Valleywag曝光了斯皮格爾在大學聯誼會時的一系列電子郵件，其中包括涉及性、毒品和酗酒的圖片。不過，斯皮格爾并未尋找借口或者對鋪天蓋地的負面報道置之不理，他迅速坦白，并且發表了一份真誠的無條件道歉書：

“我在大學聯誼會期間那些愚蠢的電子郵件被公之于眾，我對此感到非常羞愧和尷尬。我沒有任何借口。很抱歉當時寫了這些郵件，真是愚蠢之至。但過去的錯誤不能代表現在的我，以及我對女性的看法?！?

就應該這么做。斯皮格爾沒有躲躲閃閃，也沒有等待。他得保住自己的工作。隨后，Snapchat逐漸成為一家舉足輕重的社交媒體公司。迄今為止，該公司已經融資26億美元，估值達到200億美元，據稱將于2017年上市。

這個例子之所以震撼，不光是因為斯皮格爾處理得成熟，還因為這種例子并不多見，見多識廣的高管能做到這樣的也不多。我想起了無數事例，其中只有一個印象格外深刻，因為此事對曾經的智能手機市場霸主黑莓，也就是之前的RIM公司產生了巨大影響。

2007年．蘋果公司推出首款iPhone。這完全出乎RIM聯合創始人的意料，因為iPhone開創性地使用了多點式觸屏、網絡瀏覽器和第三方應用。他們不明白蘋果怎么能把這么多功能塞進一部手機里。但無論是公開場合還是公司內部，他們都從來沒認真當回事。結果是全面潰敗。

RIM公司時任聯席CEO吉姆?貝爾斯利小看了iPhone的潛力，他說：“手機市場已經非常擁擠，消費者有許多選擇，iPhone不過是個新來的。但說到會動搖黑莓的根基，我覺得夸張了點?！?貝爾斯利的合伙人邁克?拉扎里迪斯同樣沒把iPhone放在眼里。拉扎里迪斯稱：“用iPhone的觸摸屏輸入網絡密碼太困難了，根本看不見自己輸的是什么?！?

在隨后的四年半里，這兩位高管除了輕蔑否定之外毫無建樹，蘋果和谷歌則把他們的公司逼到倒閉邊緣。在讓股東損失了700億美元后，貝爾斯利和拉扎里迪斯終于下課。他們親自任命的繼任者托爾斯滕?海因斯在首次記者會上表示：“我覺得不用做什么重大改變?！蓖顿Y者顯然不同意，RIM股價當天又暴跌8.5%。

回顧“非受迫性失誤”造成的種種損失實在令人心痛，特別是因為我們拒絕承認也不愿認真對待造成的失誤。想少點麻煩就要主動解決問題。危機管理或許不是航天科學，但對太多太多的領導者來說，管理也許真有那么復雜。 （財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

審校：夏林

We’ve all said things we come to regret. What sounds like a good idea at the time can turn into “What was I thinking?” in hindsight. In a digital culture where sound bites, emails and tweets can go viral overnight and live forever, one snafu can turn into a full-blown crisis.

This presidential election cycle has been full of cringe-worthy gaffes. Hillary Clinton’s latest is destined to be classic: “You can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables,” she said, meaning those who are “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic.”

When she tried to walk it back the next day, she said, “I regret saying ‘half’ – that was wrong,” leaving cynics to ponder whether she actually meant to say “all,” instead. That’s not how you defuse a crisis; that’s how you perpetuate it.

Whether that turns out to be Clinton’s version of Mitt Romney’s “47%” comment — that 47% of people would inevitably vote to re-elect President Obama because they’re entitled and dependent on the government — remains to be seen. Many, including Romney, saw that as a turning point that ultimately led to his defeat in 2012.

Every political and business leader experiences crises;they simply come with the territory. But the crises that often do the most damage are the ones we create ourselves. It’s those unforced errors that can come back to haunt us if we don’t take them seriously.

We all make mistakes, and we all have the power to make them better or worse after the fact. As jazz great Miles Davis once said, “When you hit a wrong note, it’s the next note that makes it good or bad.” Inherent in every self-made disaster is the potential for redemption. A little humility goes a long way.

Take Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, for example. In May 2014, things were looking good for the 23-year-old Stanford grad: he had raised $163 million from some of Silicon Valley’s top venture capital firms and reportedly turned down a $3 billion cash offer fromFacebook to acquire his ephemeral messaging startup.

But that all changed when Gawker site Valleywag released a string of emails from Spiegel’s frat days that included graphic references to sex, drugs and alcohol abuse. Instead of making excuses or simply ignoring the firestorm of bad press, he swiftly owned up to it, issuing a sincere and unconditional apology:

“I’m obviously mortified and embarrassed that my idiotic emails during my fraternity days were made public. I have no excuse. I’m sorry I wrote them at the time and I was jerk to have written them. They in no way reflect who I am today or my views towards women.”

That was exactly the right thing to do. Spiegel didn’t sidestep. He didn’t wait. He got to keep his job and Snapchat has since emerged as a social media powerhouse. It’s raised $2.6 billion to date, carries a valuation of $20 billion and is reportedly planning a 2017 IPO.

What makes that particular example so stunning isn’t just the level of maturity Spiegel displayed but its rarity, even among experienced executives who should know better. Countless stories come to mind but one stands apart, particularly in terms of its dramatic impact on a company that once dominated the smartphone market: BlackBerry, formerly known asResearch In Motion (RIM).

When Apple launched the first iPhone in 2007, RIM’s co-founders were caught completely by surprise by its groundbreaking multi-touch display, web browser and third-party apps. They could not understand how Apple managed to pack so much functionality into a single device. But they never took the competitive threat seriously, either publicly or internally. And that cost them the market.

Co-CEO Jim Balsillie dismissed the iPhone’s potential at the time, saying, “It’s kind of one more entrant into an already very busy space with lots of choice for consumers. But in terms of a sort of a sea-change for BlackBerry, I would think that’s overstating it.” His partner, Mike Lazaridis, was similarly unimpressed, “Try typing a web key on a touchscreen on an Apple iPhone, that’s a real challenge,” he said, “You cannot see what you type.”

For the next four-and-a-half years, the two executives displayed nothing but abject denial as Apple and Google all but put their company out of business. After destroying $70 billion of shareholder value, Balsillie and Lazaridis finally stepped down. On his first conference call, their hand-picked successor, Thorsten Heins, said, “I don’t think there is some drastic change needed.” Investors disagreed; the stock dropped another 8.5% that day.

It’s painful to look back and see how much our unforced errors cost us, especially the ones we failed to own up to and take seriously. Save yourself the trouble and deal with them proactively. Crisis management may not be rocket science, but for far too many leaders, it may just as well be.