Hu’s adage 胡說

Hu's adage:「As you sow, so shall you reap.」

I don't like this classic English translation of 「要怎麼收穫,先那麼栽.」

This translation is not colloquial, conveys only the causal relationship between sow and reap, and could not interpret the nub of the original sentence.

I would rather translate it into:「Plan and plant well ahead according to what you would expect to harvest.」

By this way some simple management concepts are implied: Setting target, plan, do, productivity (input vs. output).

Hence it showed the value of deep-burying profound thinking behind usual words, not only just be used to encourage hard work.

Back to the organization world, if due to the mismanagement of the organization, its members' actual reaps largely fell behind their expectations, or even impossible to predict what they would reap, leading to the incongruence between organization goal and its members', then what would be used as target against which to make plans and action? Could organization goal be attained when its members were suspicious of their own expectations?

胡說:「要怎麼收穫,先那麼栽.」

我不喜歡這句話的典型英文翻譯:「As you sow, so shall you reap.」

因為不夠白話,而且只傳達「栽」和「收穫」之間的因果關係,未能詮釋原句的真義.

我寧願把此句譯成:「Plan and plant well ahead according to what you would expect to harvest.」

這麼翻譯隱含幾個管理學的簡單觀念:目標設定、計劃、執行、生產力(投入與產出的關係).

如此才能彰顯平實簡單中深藏道理的可貴,不只是單純鼓勵有勞有獲而已.

話說回來,在組織裡組織成員的收穫因組織管理不當,而與期待落差很大,甚至無法預期收穫,導致組織目標和成員的目標脫鉤時,那麼要根據什麼來做計畫與執行?個人目標不可預期時,組織目標可能達成嗎?