Jargon: we’re all on a journey to gobbledegook

Government officials in the UK have been issued with an online style guide that bans more than 30 pieces of jargon. They now have to find more prosaic ways to say

• deliver (pizzas are delivered, not results)
• drive (overly dramatic, when the word manage would work just as well)
• key (how about important?) 
• empowered (now overused to the point of being meaningless)
• facilitate (many simpler words will work as well).

Jargon has a way of wiggling its way into everyday workplace language, er, I mean, discourse. Some of the latest I’ve heard of are

• socialise, as in ‘Have you socialised this?’, meaning ‘Have you told others about it?’
• organograms – for an organisational chart
• journey – apparently, we’re all on a journey, somewhere….

Business Cliches

 

Cliche’s alienate your audience. Avoid them if you can. Here are some that have appeared on the horizon lately.

Award-winning. Not so impressive if it brings to mind a koala stamp from elementary school. If it’s an important award, then it might impress. Otherwise, not so much.

Cutting-edge: Again, a bit of puffery that won’t impress today’s jaded audience. Cutting-edge belongs with State of the Art and Knock Your Socks Off – way back in 1985.

Data-driven: OK, so you use facts on which to base your ideas.

World-class: Seems like everything is world-class these days. Ho hum.

Just when we thought we’d left win-win, paradigm, and synergy behind somewhere in the 90s. Seems like clichés are irresistible.

Business jargon obscuring meaning

Verbosity and jargon mark most corporate communication these days. Here’s part of missive from Conde Nast CEO Chuck Townsend:

 To optimize brand revenue growth, we will shift responsibility for single-site, digital sales and marketing to the brand level. Publishers can now fully leverage their offerings across all platforms. Next month, we will begin newly established brand management meetings where the publishers and editors jointly discuss the growth strategies for their brands.

The only problem with the email was that nobody knew what he was talking about! It’s a warning that jargon serves to obscure not enlighten if it’s overused.

Here are some overused terms that have entered the business ‘space’:

• Site or space. Stores are now retail space.
• Platforms. Products and services are platforms for making profit or improving market share, and often these profits come through pipelines. 
• Pipelines. Nothing to do with pipes. 
• Seamless. Nothing to do with seams.
• Strategies. Everyone needs a strategy. 
• Leverage. Companies now leverage their core competencies. 
• -driven. Wine is fruit-driven, companies are profit- driven, and employees are achievement-driven.