Have you ever been in a business meeting or conference and hear someone in the audience whisper loudly “BINGO!” If so, they were probably entertaining themself by playing along in an under-the-radar-game called Buzzword Bingo.
There is nothing more confusing than to try to figure out exactly what is meant byjargon-laden sayings.
Early on, trendy business sayings probably had meaning in a certain context. But, like every “catchphrase” the saying gets woven into every imaginable usage, most of which make little if any sense.
Likely, people use catch-phrases or jargon because it is meant to make them sound smarter. But, in the end using such business buzzwords can cause more confusion and sometimes even resentment.
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Generate Your Own Business Buzzword Bingo Card Here
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LESS IS MORE, MORE OR LESS
Recently, I worked with a client that was trying to tell his team that the VP they were presenting to wanted to see concise presentations that got their points across quickly and effectively.
He told them that, ”Remember less is more.”
One of his employees was confused.
To explain himself, my client said “You know… you have to be able to do more with less.”
As you can imagine, that did not clear things up at all.
His employees created a presentation with no more than 3 bullets on a page, using abbreviations and pictures.
The end product was confusing.
POST MORTEM
Later, I thought about what happened. It was confusing because less is, actually, less. However, if my client meant that his VP wanted to see short, effective presentations that came to the point quickly then his employees would have been able to grasp that right away.
As a leader, it is incredibly important to be clear and precise with wording choice. Using jargon-laden sentences does not make you sound smarter, really. It actually can add to confusion. Often people have no idea what the saying means, because originally it was said in a particular context. Outside of that context, the saying does not have the punch or power that it did.
If you are trying to say something important to which people should pay close attention, use words and phrases that everyone can understand quickly and easily.
In most cases this means use real words in the way they were intended. Buzz words are fun and sometimes funny. But in our global economy, it is important that we are careful about our word choice.
(Translation – say things directly in a few clearly understood words is important.)
So how often do you have to listen to business buzzwords at your organization? How bad does this get in particular departments or in specific industries? Are you guilty of looking for that “out-of-the-box win-win-win” line in your dialect or directives?
Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.
Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
