"Business Speak"

…and on a lighter note,

Yesterday’s Tampa Tribune had a great article by Amanda Henry (ahenry@tampatrib.com) entitled, “Synergize This”.

The focus of the article was about the robot-like use of corporate-speak in business settings for the sake of sounding smart or simply to obfuscate the inherent uselessness of the extraneous use of verbiage in cross-functional teamwork environments.

A colleague of mine and I have an ongoing interest in such practice going back to when we both worked together in a previous company where the corporate bigwigs (i.e. “pinheads”) engaged in the exercise as standard practice. My colleague and I agreed that we would call it “B.S.” (i.e. “Business Speak”) and, hence, dubbed the practice “B.S. Bingo”. In fact, when he and I are in the same meetings these days where I deliver a presentation, I always find a way to work in the phrase “leverage synergies” just to see if my colleague, “Big”, cracks a smile and gives me that nod of awareness that goes undetected to those who are not clued-in to the practice. It has become a bit of a joke to he and I and every time it goes undetected by others in the meeting room, we laugh about it together later that day.

Amanda Henry included 2/3 of a newspaper page dedicated to four Bingo cards that included terms such as, “drill down”, “leverage(ing)”, “synergy”, “touch base”, “paradigm”, “win-win”, “branding”, “core values”, “push the envelope” and “strategic”. Readers of the newspaper are to cut out the Bingo cards, take them into their next business meeting and mark the buzzword or catchphrase when it is said during meetings. The first one with “bingo” wins the game.

What a great reminder to use common, ordinary language to make our points….unless, of course, we are hoping to get that next promotion.