AWFUL WORDS WE USE AT WORK
I love talking with people. A chance to hear someone’s true thoughts is a chance to learn more about the world and I love it It doesn’t matter if they’re articulate or not, everyone has something to share and few things are more fun than a good chat.
With one exception: corporate speak is plain awful. It drowns genuine ideas in a bog of ambiguous words that are low-commitment, confusing, and trite. It’s hard to read or hear, but nonetheless it rules corporate life. I don’t know why, but I’ll only call out some of the offending words. A good rule of thumb is this: if you wouldn’t use a word at Thanksgiving or when chatting with a friend at the park, it’s probably a bad word and you should stop using it.
The list
- actionable
- address (as in to ‘handle’)
- adequate
- adopt
- brainstorm`
- circle back
- cognizant
- collaborate
- cross-discipline
- deliver value
- demonstrate
- erroneous
- execute (as in ‘do’)
- expenditure
- facilitate
- following up
- in the loop
- individual
- innovate
- level set
- leverage
- moving forward
- parachute in
- parties
- ping (as in ’talk to')
- purchase
- reach out
- resources (as in ‘people’ and/or ‘money’)
- solutioning
- stakeholders
- suggest
- sustainable
- synergy
- take it offline
- tiger team
- transformative
- velocity