Blah, Blah Ginger File file #2 - Buzzword Balance sheet
July 20th, 2007Leon Gettler, The Age Blogs: Management Line writes:
On the same page, thought leadership, paradigm shift, out of the loop, result-focused, total quality, ballpark, ticks in boxes, value-add, touch base, think outside the box, stretch the envelope, put this one to bed, close 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, slippery slope, win-win, game plan.
Analysis conducted by Factiva over the last six months reveals that the term “fast track” is the most popular, followed by “going forward” (as opposed to “going backwards”), “user friendly”, “empower”, “downsizing”, “multitasking”, “core competency”, “customer centric”, “client focused” and “rightsizing”.
The problem with these words is not that people don’t know what they mean, the problem is that they can make you invisible. What I mean by that is that people will read through the words; we subconsciously filter the sentence for these words. (Like “What the Dog hears”)
Leon goes on:”Every such phrase anaesthetises a portion of one’s brain,” Orwell said.
To be honest, I’m guilty of using at least half of these words on regular basis. Thanks Leon, for reminding us.
