Chapter 3 Rise of jargon
The first business book I ever really read cover to cover was Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words by Don Watson.1 It was gifted to me by a colleague (thanks, Catherine) when I left my corporate career.
Published in 2004, it contained an A to Z list of corporate jargon, which I loved and could relate to immediately. However, it was the opening paragraph that really got me:
“When the Prime Minister speaks of core and non-core election promises, your boss asks you to commit to an involuntary career event (you're fired), and hospitals refer to negative patient outcomes (you're dead), you know you are in a world gone mad. Politicians and managers not meaning what they say is nothing new, but these days it seems they are also incapable of saying what they mean. Groaning with platitudes and clichés, their words kill meaning and twist the truth. Spontaneity is rare, expressiveness and imagination long dead. It's time to fight back.
The issue is that we still seem to have the same issue. In fact, Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words needs an updated edition to include all the corporate jargon, phrases and words that have emerged in the past decade and a half alone.
How often do you hear something like this in meetings?
“The optics will not be good on this project if we don't get all the ducks in a row and move the needle significantly enough to affect our employee value proposition. Let's marinate overnight, perhaps run it up the flagpole and revert back by ...