Wednesday 25 June 2008

Business Jargon

I've been hearing people in the organisations to which I belong, including the Church, using more & more business jargon.
So, I did a quick on-line read of George Orwell's famous essay from the year I was born (1946) titled "Politics and the English Language"

Orwell argued that the aim of this sort of language was to mislead. "When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink". But if thought corrupted language, he said, language could also corrupt thought. "Every such phrase anaesthetises a portion of one's brain."

Mira Katbamna wrote recently in "The Guardian" that such language " ...can be a two-way street. I have to talk to a client about why we don't want to go ahead with their proposal, while making it sound like that's exactly what they proposed. Talking while saying nothing is bound to come in handy, so I dial the number and launch in. I refer to the perspective from 'my side of the desk', about how I am keen to ensure there are 'take-home actionables'. I point out that because we are 'singing from the same hymn sheet' we don't have to 'reinvent the wheel'. In fact, in order to 'make it happen' it might be better, just as a 'starter for 10' to 'park the issue' and then 'take it offline'. That way we'll get a 'helicopter view' before we do a 'proof-of-concept'. As the conversation continues, I realise that far from being a victim, my counterpart is a willing participant. He talks about the inappropriateness of an 'out-of-box solution'. Why we need to look at our learnings before we go any further. We agree that without increased granularity we can't decide if we have enough bandwidth. Ultimately, we agree to do nothing while making it sound like we are doing something."
So, how do you feel about the following?

.. low hanging fruit, pre-prepare, forward planning, in this space, go forward together, close of play, actioning, get all my ducks in a row, bandwidth, stakeholders, paradigm shift, cascading, challenge, in negative territory and drill down.

Add to that the buzzword bible that is trotted out at meetings. Jargon includes: on the same page, skin in the game, thought leadership, quality action team (QAT), paradigm shift, take that offline, out of the loop, go the extra mile, result-focused, client-focused, total quality, ballpark, ticks in boxes, value-add, touch base, core business, thinking outside the square, stretching the envelope, putting this one to bed, closing the loop, at the end of the day, hot button, interface, guesstimate, key players, killer apps, focus collectively as a group, user-friendly, bells and whistles, benchmark, declining core technology, slippery slide, fast track, win-win, game plan and human capital.

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