為什么說(shuō)“對(duì)不起”這么難？

“I’m sorry.” Two simple words, not so simply said.

“對(duì)不起。”簡(jiǎn)簡(jiǎn)單單幾個(gè)字，卻不能簡(jiǎn)簡(jiǎn)單單地說(shuō)出口。

On Wednesday, the public representatives of two embattled American institutions — United Airlines and the White House — found themselves on national television grappling with a delicate and increasingly common ritual of the corporate and political worlds: the public apology.

周三，美國(guó)兩個(gè)陷入四面楚歌境地的機(jī)構(gòu)——聯(lián)合航空(United Airlines)和白宮的公關(guān)代表，面對(duì)全國(guó)性電視節(jié)目的鏡頭，勉力應(yīng)對(duì)商界和政治界一個(gè)既微妙又日益普遍化的儀式：公開(kāi)道歉。

Oscar Munoz, United’s chief executive, recalled his “shame” upon seeing a cellphone video, shared by millions of people, of a paying passenger being violently evicted from one of his airline’s flights. Face taut, voice soft, Mr. Munoz’s televised prostration was a far cry from the robotic statement issued by United days earlier, expressing regret for “re-accommodating” a traveler.

聯(lián)合航空首席執(zhí)行官奧斯卡·穆尼奧斯(Oscar Munoz)憶及了自己看到一段手機(jī)視頻時(shí)的“羞恥”感——在那段被千百萬(wàn)人分享過(guò)的視頻中，一名聯(lián)合航空的付費(fèi)乘客被人使用暴力逐出了機(jī)艙。鏡頭中的穆尼奧斯表情肅穆、聲音溫和，那恭順虔敬的樣子，與聯(lián)合航空幾天前發(fā)布的一份就“另行安排”一名乘客表達(dá)遺憾的生硬聲明天差地別。

Around the same time, President Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, was denouncing himself as “reprehensible” for having favorably compared Hitler to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and referring to Nazi death camps as “Holocaust centers,” all while standing at the White House podium.

大約同一時(shí)間，特朗普總統(tǒng)的新聞秘書(shū)肖恩·斯派塞(Sean Spicer)正在進(jìn)行自我批評(píng)，說(shuō)自己理應(yīng)因?yàn)檎驹诎讓m講臺(tái)上宣稱(chēng)敘利亞總統(tǒng)巴沙爾·阿薩德(Bashar al-Assad)連希特勒都不如，并把納粹死亡集中營(yíng)說(shuō)成“毀滅中心”而受到譴責(zé)。

The fine art of repentance is a skill taught in business schools and promoted by high-priced consultants. But all kinds of offenders in public life still seem to struggle with the execution. Corporations like BP and Wells Fargo have faced criticism for dawdling responses to cascading crises, while politicians from Bill Clinton to Anthony Weiner have had difficulty admitting to peccadilloes.

懺悔是一門(mén)藝術(shù)，是一種被商學(xué)院的老師傳授、被收費(fèi)高昂的咨詢(xún)師推銷(xiāo)的技巧。但在公共生活中，各種各樣的犯錯(cuò)者仍然不太善于使用它。BP和富國(guó)銀行(Wells Fargo)等公司因?yàn)閷?duì)一連串危機(jī)反應(yīng)遲鈍而招致批評(píng)，比爾·克林頓(Bill Clinton)、安東尼·D·韋納(Anthony Weiner)等政治人物都難以承認(rèn)自己的小過(guò)失。

The key to contrition, according to public-relations experts, is projecting sincerity, humanity, and a plain-spoken demeanor — the better to convince a cynical public. And in this age of whipsawing social media, you had better do it fast.

按照公關(guān)專(zhuān)家的說(shuō)法，懺悔的關(guān)鍵是展現(xiàn)出真誠(chéng)、人性以及樸實(shí)的態(tài)度——這樣才能更好地讓滿(mǎn)腹狐疑的公眾感到信服。此外，在社交媒體的發(fā)展日新月異的時(shí)代，你最好快速行動(dòng)。

“The head of United should never have been allowed to take three swings at correcting and apologizing for an incident that was on more social media than Kim and Kanye’s wedding,” said Mortimer Matz, a New York consultant who has guided decades’ worth of clients through crises small and large.

“這一事件在社交媒體上的討論度比卡戴珊和坎耶的婚禮還高，聯(lián)合航空的負(fù)責(zé)人就此事認(rèn)錯(cuò)和道歉時(shí)，絕對(duì)不該三度出手，”從業(yè)數(shù)十年、指導(dǎo)客戶(hù)度過(guò)大大小小的危機(jī)的咨詢(xún)師莫蒂梅爾·馬茨(Mortimer Matz)說(shuō)。

United issued several halting statements about the plane episode, which first emerged Monday morning, before Mr. Munoz made his abject appearance on Wednesday on ABC. Mr. Matz said the airline had missed its moment.

穆尼奧斯于周三可憐兮兮地在ABC露面之前，聯(lián)合航空就飛機(jī)上的插曲發(fā)表過(guò)好幾份有缺點(diǎn)的聲明，第一份出現(xiàn)在周一早上。馬茨說(shuō)聯(lián)合航空錯(cuò)過(guò)了最佳時(shí)機(jī)。

“You’ve got to be a fast thinker in the digital age,” said Mr. Matz, who will be 93 in July.

“在數(shù)字化時(shí)代，你要快速轉(zhuǎn)動(dòng)腦筋，”將于7月迎來(lái)93歲生日的馬茨說(shuō)。

Many companies now take steps to be nimble and responsive when a furor erupts online. Last week, Pepsi took less than 24 hours to apologize and retract a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign that used populist imagery to sell soda. It was a rapid U-turn that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

現(xiàn)如今，當(dāng)憤怒情緒在網(wǎng)絡(luò)上爆發(fā)時(shí)，很多公司都會(huì)快速作出回應(yīng)。上周，百事可樂(lè)(Pepsi)推出了一個(gè)借助民粹主義影像推銷(xiāo)汽水的廣告，但還不到24小時(shí)就道了歉，并將花費(fèi)了數(shù)百萬(wàn)美元的廣告下架。其掉頭之迅速，在幾年前是不可想象的。

This week, Mr. Spicer was quick to recognize the damage done by his ill-considered remarks, which prompted immediate denunciations on Twitter as well as calls for his resignation. He appeared on CNN within hours of his gaffe, while Mr. Munoz waited two days.

本周，因發(fā)表不恰當(dāng)言論立即在Twitter上受到譴責(zé)，還被要求辭職的斯派塞，迅速承認(rèn)自己的言辭造成了傷害。他惹出亂子數(shù)小時(shí)后便上了CNN的節(jié)目，而穆尼奧斯等了兩天。

Still, Mr. Spicer’s apology came only after his office tried to clarify his remarks with several statements that, while remorseful, did not clearly admit error.

不過(guò)，斯派塞道歉前，為了澄清他的言論，他的辦公室發(fā)布了好幾份聲明，其中雖有悔意，但并未明確承認(rèn)錯(cuò)誤。

On Wednesday, in a previously scheduled interview at the Newseum in Washington, Mr. Spicer took a new tack: no excuses.

周三，在華盛頓新聞博物館(Newseum)接受早前定好的采訪時(shí)，斯派塞采取了新方針：不找借口。

“I made a mistake; there’s no other way to say it,” Mr. Spicer told Greta van Susteren, the MSNBC anchor, his tone notably subdued. “I got into a topic that I shouldn’t have, and I screwed up.” He added: “It really is painful to myself to know that I did something like that.”

“我犯了一個(gè)錯(cuò)誤，沒(méi)有其他說(shuō)法，”斯派塞告訴MSNBC主持人葛麗泰·范·瑟斯特倫(Greta van Susteren)，語(yǔ)氣格外柔和。“我談及了一個(gè)我不該談?wù)摰脑?huà)題，我搞砸了。”他還說(shuō)：“每每想到自己竟然做了這樣一件事，我就十分痛苦。”

Mr. Munoz, interviewed on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, was similarly solemn.

周三上《早安美國(guó)》(Good Morning America)時(shí)，穆尼奧斯的態(tài)度也很鄭重。

“That shame and embarrassment was pretty palpable for me,” he told the correspondent Rebecca Jarvis, emotion in his voice. “This can never — will never — happen again on a United Airlines flight. That’s my premise and that’s my promise.” Later on Wednesday, United said it would refund the fares of all passengers on the affected flight.

“我深感羞恥和愧疚，”他頗為動(dòng)情地告訴記者麗貝卡·賈維斯(Rebecca Jarvis)。“在聯(lián)合航空的航班上決不能——以后永遠(yuǎn)不能——再發(fā)生這樣的事。這是我的基本主張，也是我的承諾。”周三晚些時(shí)候，聯(lián)合航空說(shuō)它將把機(jī)票錢(qián)退還給受影響的那趟航班上的所有乘客。

Both Mr. Munoz, who was named “communicator of the year” by PR Week magazine last month, and Mr. Spicer took pains to personalize their apologies. It’s a technique that, conscious or not, is recommended by crisis experts.

不論是于上月被《公關(guān)周刊》(PR Week)雜志評(píng)為“年度最佳溝通者”的穆尼奧斯，還是斯派塞，都非常努力地做出了個(gè)人化的道歉。有意無(wú)意間，他們采取了一種受到危機(jī)處理專(zhuān)家推薦的技巧。

“That’s on me, I have to fix that,” Mr. Munoz said when asked about the airline policies that led to the violent ejection. Mr. Spicer described his blunder as “mine to own, mine to apologize for, mine to ask forgiveness for.”

“責(zé)任在我，我會(huì)對(duì)其加以修正，”當(dāng)被問(wèn)及聯(lián)合航空實(shí)行的導(dǎo)致暴力驅(qū)逐事件發(fā)生的政策時(shí)，穆尼奧斯表示。斯派塞則說(shuō)自己犯下了“我本人要承擔(dān)的”錯(cuò)誤，“我要為此道歉，并請(qǐng)求原諒”。

That plead-no-contest approach, consultants say, is one of the few ways to start rebuilding trust. The accounting firm PwC, for instance, gave a detailed explanation, and quick apology, for this year’s Oscar best picture fiasco, eventually holding onto its Academy Awards account.

一些咨詢(xún)師說(shuō)，這種放棄辯護(hù)的路數(shù)，是不多的幾種有助于重建信任的方法之一。例如，普華永道會(huì)計(jì)師事務(wù)所(PwC)就本年度奧斯卡最佳影片獎(jiǎng)?lì)C獎(jiǎng)環(huán)節(jié)的烏龍進(jìn)行了詳細(xì)說(shuō)明，并迅速道歉，最終保住了為奧斯卡獎(jiǎng)計(jì)票的業(yè)務(wù)。

“People want someone to throw the book at,” said Katie Sprehe, a senior director at the communications firm APCO Worldwide.

“人們想要找出一個(gè)可以怪罪的人，”傳播企業(yè)安可顧問(wèn)公司(APCO Worldwide)的高級(jí)主管凱蒂·斯普雷赫(Katie Sprehe)說(shuō)。

Ms. Sprehe, who studies reputation maintenance, said United had erred by not moving swiftly to mirror its customers’ outrage.

研究聲譽(yù)維護(hù)問(wèn)題的斯普雷赫表示，聯(lián)合航空的錯(cuò)誤在于，沒(méi)能照顧到乘客的憤怒情緒。

“You need to speak your stakeholders’ language, and coming out with P.R. mumbo jumbo, like ‘re-accommodate,’ is the wrong thing to do,” she said.

“你需要跟利益相關(guān)者有共同語(yǔ)言，拋出‘另行安排’之類(lèi)的公關(guān)辭令是錯(cuò)誤的做法，”她說(shuō)。

Stu Loeser, an adviser to executives in the technology and finance industries, said that a high-profile apology must be considered in context.

給科技和金融行業(yè)的一些高管當(dāng)顧問(wèn)的斯圖·勒澤(Stu Loeser)說(shuō)，考量一個(gè)引人注目的道歉時(shí)，絕不能脫離情境。

“Oscar Munoz answers to more than 85,000 employees who want to know that if they were the ones caught in a viral video maelstrom, he’d back them up,” said Mr. Loeser, who was press secretary to former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York. “Sean Spicer ultimately answers to one person and one person only” — Mr. Trump — “someone who sees backing down or apologizing as not only a weakness, but a character flaw.”

“奧斯卡·穆尼奧斯得對(duì)8.5萬(wàn)名員工負(fù)責(zé)任，那些員工想要知道，如果是他們卷入了一場(chǎng)由廣為流傳的視頻引發(fā)的軒然大波，他能否給他們以支持，”為紐約市前市長(zhǎng)邁克爾·R·布隆伯格(Michael R. Bloomberg)當(dāng)過(guò)新聞秘書(shū)的勒澤說(shuō)。“肖恩·斯派塞最終得對(duì)唯一一個(gè)人負(fù)責(zé)”——即特朗普——那個(gè)人不僅認(rèn)為退讓或道歉是懦弱的表現(xiàn)，還將其視為性格缺陷。

“In both cases,” Mr. Loeser added, “what might appear to be an irrational series of statements that got you into trouble makes more sense, when you think about who they’re actually answering to.”

“在這兩個(gè)案例中，”他繼續(xù)說(shuō)道，“當(dāng)你考慮到他們要對(duì)誰(shuí)負(fù)責(zé)時(shí)，那些看似不合情理的一系列招來(lái)麻煩的聲明，就很是合乎情理了。”

Mr. Munoz ended his interview by saying he had no plans to resign. “I was hired to make United better, and I’ve been doing that, and that’s what I’ll continue to do,” he said. Mr. Spicer, asked by Ms. Van Susteren if he enjoyed being press secretary, said he loved it.

穆尼奧斯在采訪結(jié)束前表示，他沒(méi)有辭職的打算。“我上任時(shí)的使命是打造一個(gè)更好的聯(lián)合航空，我會(huì)繼續(xù)為之奮斗，”他說(shuō)。斯派塞在被范·瑟斯特倫(Van Susteren)問(wèn)及是否喜歡當(dāng)新聞秘書(shū)時(shí)，說(shuō)他很喜歡。

“I truly do believe it’s an honor to have this job,” he said. “It is a privilege. And if you don’t believe it, then you shouldn’t be here.”

“我真的以能做這份工作為榮，”他說(shuō)。“這是一種特殊的榮耀。如果不這樣認(rèn)為，就不該待在這個(gè)位置上。”

Whether the apologies outlive the gaffes remains to be seen. Ken Sunshine, who founded the public-relations firm Sunshine Sachs, said he was skeptical. “My rule?” he said. “You get one shot.”

目前尚不清楚，這些道歉能否讓事態(tài)得到平息。公關(guān)公司桑夏恩·薩克斯(Sunshine Sachs)的創(chuàng)始人肯·桑夏恩(Ken Sunshine)說(shuō)，他對(duì)此表示懷疑。“我的法則?”他說(shuō)。“你得一擊即中。”