A Job Done Well - Making Work Better

Episode 17: Corporate Jargon - Is It Just Buzzword Bingo?

• Jimmy Barber and James Lawther • Season 1 • Episode 17

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This week, we take a 30,000-foot view and deep dive into corporate language. If it's only Buzzword Bingo, why do 75% of us use it?

We add value by granularising the different types of language and circle back to find the upsides of this blight of the modern workplace. It has a place and use, but net-net, it should be handled with care!

The ball is in your court. If we missed anything, give us a heads up and reach out to jimmy@ajobdoneell.com or james@ajobdonewell.com


Got a question - get in touch. Click here.

James:

hello, I'm James.

Jimmy:

Hi, I'm Jimmy.

James:

Welcome to A Job Done Well,

Jimmy:

the podcast about the world of work and how to improve the daily grind

James:

Good morning. How are you doing?

Jimmy:

How

James:

I'm doing very well. Thank you very much. we're going to talk about today then.

Jimmy:

today? Today, we are going to talk about corporate language, corporate buzzwords, jargon, acronyms, corporate myths. Are they just a slightly Brent esque joke and a way of excluding people, or are they an effective way of communication?

James:

Right then, before we get into that, how was your week been? Really

Jimmy:

Really good. I had a weekend at Centre Parcs with with my two

James:

Ah,

Jimmy:

Very, very middle class of us. Yeah. But it was great. Two, two things to mention. One, it was fantastic to spend. a bit of time with just them and me, so I really enjoyed that. I think they tolerated it, maybe even enjoyed it at times.

James:

they enjoy it more if your hands in your wallet, I find

Jimmy:

Well, they didn't pay for anything, so they must have enjoyed it on that definition. But also, we've been going there since they were like tiny little kids. And what we did know is this time, well, there were a few of the little bits that they do that they're not doing anymore.

James:

not doing

Jimmy:

was things like not leaving toiletries in the lodges and stuff like that. And the other

James:

Cost of living

Jimmy:

it is no, no, but it's interesting how this is a premium. Holiday place, and they charge you top dollar, and all of a sudden you're noticing these little, little bits and pieces. The big one, though, that we noticed was that all the swimming pools, the spa, the hot tubs, everything, slightly colder. And I would guess that that isn't because, somebody's made a mistake. I would say

James:

the thermostat down

Jimmy:

Exactly, just, just save a little bit on the, the cost.

James:

I shouldn't think it's a little bit, actually.

Jimmy:

Yeah, I know, yeah, I'd imagine it would, it would add up to a lot of money, but Yeah, just interesting to notice how they're how they're changing their, their business model very slightly. Salami

James:

the Salami Slicing School of Management. I had a boss once, he said to me, I was, when I used to make I frozen foods, I was a development manager, and my boss said you know, you can make it cheap, you can put a percent sand in any product you like, if you grind it up, It's fine enough, no one will notice. But he said to me, but you ruin the project the second time you do it. Which I thought was

Jimmy:

And at some point, their swimming pools will become cold enough that people don't want to go in them.

James:

Anyway, on the subject of salami slicing, that leads us very nicely into our topic of the day, which is corporate language. So where does corporate language come from? Has it always been something? As I'm one to do, I looked it up, and apparently, it really started after the Second World War, particularly in America, where, in the 50s, where members of staff from the U. S. Army started to go out into corporate worlds. And they brought with them terms like logistics, strategy, tactics, so words that really mean something, but weren't part of the business lexicon. So there's where the start comes. Then of course you had a bunch of consultants and consultants love to be selling something new. So they were adding more and more new terms because every consultant has a new model or a new framework. And that is how it started to grow. And then of course people throw in the odd random term and they get picked up as well. And I looked at it and I thought well why is it? Why are we so in love with these terms? Why do we keep going with it?

Jimmy:

terms? Why

James:

And apparently there is a term to explain this which is called human peacocking. And what that means is that we love to look clever, and we love to fluff our feathers up, and we love to be on the inside. So if your CEO is talking about salami slicing, then everybody else will start talking about salami slicing. There is also, of course, social pressure which reinforces it, so if, particularly if you are lower down the organisation,

Jimmy:

language

James:

not using the language singles you out. It's a bit like not wearing the dress coat. So you can see how it really starts to reinforce itself.

Jimmy:

think another surprising statistic and a part of it was not surprising. The surprising bit was 25 percent of people say they hate corporate buzzwords, but 75 percent of people say they use them to make themselves look cleverer.

James:

it. I

Jimmy:

But I think that supports your point about, people wanting to look knowledgeable.

James:

people wanting to look knowledgeable. So, there's a few things, I think, that we have under this

Jimmy:

about, but I knew she asked for she meant, and she just reverted to more and more and more corporate language. Yeah. Okay. So, first of all, we're

James:

So

Jimmy:

talk about TLAs. TLAs? What's that? Three Letter Appendix.

James:

So, first of all, we're going to talk about TLAs. TLAs,

Jimmy:

are company

James:

Three Letter Acronyms.

Jimmy:

if you know

James:

So quite often, these are company specific. And actually, if you know them, They make life easier for you. So do you remember we used to 6ing things in the past?

Jimmy:

Ah,

James:

Ah, so 7 6 we used to have a a phone system which used to leave voice messages. And the way you got rid of a voice message was you used to 7 6 it. Hit 7 6.

Jimmy:

Oh, I can't believe I didn't remember that. Because I used to 76 all your messages, funny enough.

James:

6 something. Get a shot of it as quickly as

Jimmy:

as possible.

James:

And then there are other ones, of course. which are okay, but different companies use the same letters. So POC could be proof of concept or point of contact.

Jimmy:

that used

James:

The one that used to get me was AMF, AMF. Anhydrous milk fat or annual monetary fee. Very different. Yeah,

Jimmy:

that one. other examples

James:

you've got, because you can define this a little bit more. You've got initialisms, apparently. DRM, FTE. JIT, and my favourite, JTFL. My

Jimmy:

My favorite is JFDI.

James:

Ah you've then got things which can be either initialisms or acronyms. So you've got ASAP or A S A P

Jimmy:

Right And

James:

And then you've got acronyms, which is when you make a word from bits of the words of the phrase. So for example, NATO.

Jimmy:

words of the phrase So for example Okay

James:

Keep it

Jimmy:

Organizations Kiss Keep it simple Not, Well not often

James:

look at metaphors, Metaphors are where

Jimmy:

to run. I quite like some of these. Yeah, I've done a

James:

others. Like

Jimmy:

that in I've

James:

done a lot of that as well.

Jimmy:

a lot of that well. Yeah,

James:

you can get sick with too much low hanging fruit.

Jimmy:

Yeah, and singing from the same hymn sheet.

James:

So, metaphors, I don't know, I quite like metaphors. What's next then?

Jimmy:

then? Kidnap terms.

James:

Nah, some of these wind me up.

Jimmy:

wind me up. Alright, so, some of these are terms that, really do have a meaning, but it's been lost. So, things like critical path, synergy, transformation.

James:

Critical path. People banging on about that have never seen a project plan in their

Jimmy:

I know, but the principle of knowing what your critical path is to achieving something or the principle of transformation, you know, as in large changes, the principles make sense, but the word has been used to death in the wrong way. worse

James:

that, things which have been taken from another discipline.

Jimmy:

Yeah, so things like, one for you, James, evolve the business.

James:

winds me up,

Jimmy:

Just because you're a scientist.

James:

I've got a degree in genetics. People talk about evolving their business. They didn't bloody evolve their business. Evolving means there are lots of small changes and you see which ones work. What they did was they changed something and hoped it would work. It's not evolving your business.

Jimmy:

evolving your business. Do

James:

go on.

Jimmy:

Do like

James:

I do like a good sporting term.

Jimmy:

Yes, you're all about sporting terms you we should kick that into the touch for

James:

good. Yeah.

Jimmy:

You know where I grew up James, there was a thing that you didn't trust anyone who didn't like sport

James:

It's a good job. I didn't live where you did when you were a kid.

Jimmy:

Very true. Anyhow these terms Have lost their meaning really and I guess all of the things we talked about acronyms metaphors kidnapped terms used in the right way sparingly, in the right context, they can add value, they can make communication improved. Or, used badly, definitely not. Anyhow, on to some that definitely don't add value. Yeah,

James:

this category we have got called made up bollocks. And in here we've got some priceless phrases. How about, run it up the flagpole to see who salutes.

Jimmy:

salutes? Nonsense.

James:

He could belly up to the bar.

Jimmy:

Now that was an old boss of ours. He used to talk about that. That's a real thing. And I think that's a bit of an Americanism. So we do have listeners in America. So we should show them some respect. That may mean a lot to them. The other one he used to use was to hang out your shingle. And he explained that to me

James:

Isn't shingles a disease?

Jimmy:

No, it's not the disease. It in front of their houses, they have like hooks and you hang out your number or the name of your property.

James:

of your

Jimmy:

So he was using that as, you know, hang out your shingles means show to who you are, show what you stand for.

James:

what you stand for. Mm, okay. So, here's a question for you. Have you got your ducks in You've probably only got two ducks if you've a row, mate. And, maybe the worst ever. Thought shower.

Jimmy:

Political correctness gone mad, hasn't it? Absolutely.

James:

Now, we could take these ones a little bit further. What we should have done earlier on in our career is we should just have made some up to see if we could get them to stick. How about, let's Weetabix it.

Jimmy:

What's that mean?

James:

Have you heard your Weetabix? Do you remember the efforts? Yeah, alright.

Jimmy:

It's bullshit.

James:

And another one which I really think should stick is our running Project Hessian.

Jimmy:

form of

James:

Ah, very good.

Jimmy:

Yes. But we did actually manage to make one stick. When we worked together in a, a credit card company, Capital One, they had a restaurant in their main

James:

So, that was one stop.

Jimmy:

was excellent.

James:

opened the second

Jimmy:

sandwiches. Yeah. So that was One Stop. When they opened a second building,

James:

also very

Jimmy:

the second building had, also had a restaurant, which was also very good. And if you remember, we all started calling it Two Stop. That's, that wasn't its name, but we all called it Two Stop. We kept on using that name. And sure enough, it became two

James:

I'm not sure which is more tragic, the fact that it's stuck or that we thought it was funny. Now, the key thing here though is that, as we said earlier, people use these phrases in an attempt to make themselves sound clever.

Jimmy:

clever. Yeah, absolutely. Why we just can't communicate simply. I mean, a good few examples of that, we all say Keep me in the loop. We are on the same page.

James:

Oh, we are in alignment.

Jimmy:

Yes. We're just in agreement. We agree. Move the needle.

James:

needle. Get some

Jimmy:

I've been giving you a heads

James:

you a

Jimmy:

warning. Take this offline.

James:

Take this offline. Talk later.

Jimmy:

Pick your brain.

James:

not going anywhere near my brain, mate.

Jimmy:

mate. I don't really don't want it, but I would ask you a question. And I bet one that you've never done is say to somebody, I'll ping you.

James:

Yeah, but I am, I am guilty of reaching out to people.

Jimmy:

people. Yeah, instead of just contacting someone. And every company has a narrative. A

James:

corporate narrative. What is a corporate

Jimmy:

Just, just say story. A narrative is a story. But all of those are examples.

James:

as good, does it? A corporate story?

Jimmy:

But all of those are examples of where we say one thing, we mean something simpler, but we're just trying to jazz up our language to make ourselves seem clever. Just say it, Ron Seal.

James:

seem clever. Just say it, Ron Seal. You don't even realise you're doing it. Again, when we

Jimmy:

You don't even realise you're doing it. Again, when we worked at Capital One, we were doing some work with an outside supplier. and at the end of this work, The first thing they said to us is, you lot of cat and run, you all start every sentence with so.

James:

with,

Jimmy:

And when he said it, it was like, yeah, you know, we do,

James:

Yeah, you know we do.

Jimmy:

what's worse is here we are 15 odd years later. And I'll bet you, if you go back and listen to some of this podcast, we say so at the start of a load of sentences, even now.

James:

Now, having said that, there are some, which I didn't know, which I think are quite good. So whilst I was researching this, have you ever jumped the shark?

Jimmy:

shark? No, I can safely say I have not jumped the

James:

Well, jumping the shark is a thing apparently. But what it means is that you lose sight of the customer's needs or you make an irreversible error of judgement. And I thought that was quite good because I have worked for several places where they have jumped the shark and they probably ought to have it called out to.

Jimmy:

let's move on to the um, disingenuous stuff that we have highlighted in corporate language. And I think there's a great example of this recently, who um, we have to thank Simon Lefevre one of the listeners for, for this one, he shared this. It was by James Cleverley, the Home Secretary,

James:

Current Home Secretary. current

Jimmy:

current Home Secretary. For next 10

James:

Well, yeah, what's his job security look like?

Jimmy:

He had said that now we should call the backlog of asylum seekers, not call it a backlog. Should call it a queue

James:

a queue now. Queue

Jimmy:

being far more acceptable than a

James:

It's a bloody big queue. How many people are in it?

Jimmy:

94,000 cases that have now been in a backlog that now will be just simply queuing

James:

And you

Jimmy:

and, you know, that would be. If it was a town, it would be the 88th biggest town in the country, bigger than Stevenage. Trouts in Grimsby, larger than Western Supermare. Just go to show, politics and performance just shouldn't get them mixed up, should you?

James:

QO. Yes. Go Now, starting to become a bit more serious about this. Being clever and communicating really are not the same thing. And there is a lovely example of this, which was apparently the local government association were critical of unclear language in local government materials. Yeah, sensible. And Leeds City Council, bless them, ponied up to this. So apparently what Leeds City Council had written was, Are you ready for this?

Jimmy:

this.

James:

Individual chief officers have the delegated authority to appoint employees on a temporary basis to provide cover for staff absences, to cater for peaks in workload, and to deal with any tasks which may arise which are outside of normal workload of the departments. Such approvals to be subject to there being budgetary provision available, and a check being made with the personnel and training division to ascertain whether the cover could It could be provided by either a redeployment or a secondment. Two

Jimmy:

Deep breath, James. Go on.

James:

Go on. So do you know what that means? Go on then. Well, they rewrote it and they changed it to, If they are required, money is available and the job can't be done by another member of staff, Chief Officers may hire workers.

Jimmy:

Well done, Leeds

James:

Yeah, shot up in my

Jimmy:

much simpler.

James:

Another example, and this is a very good example, I think, of where Being clear with language is really helpful. So in 2009, In 2009, Domino's Pizza started to turn around. Now most, you know, companies they claim something like they were leveraging their core competence of customer delight or whatever, but that's not what Domino's did. What Domino's did was they published criticisms from their customers., their customers had said, the crust tastes like cardboard, the sauce tastes like ketchup, and this is an imitation of pizza. Right, but it's not the sort of thing you'd think a corporation would normally do. But once they got so clear about that, they went around, and we can argue the toss about whether or not Domino's pizza is good pizza or not, but They went about improving their products, and since then the share price has risen from 86 to 426. So a lovely little lesson in being clear about

Jimmy:

means that you're facing into the problem then in that instance.

James:

in that instance. Yeah, an operational definition is really quite important. You know, being very clear what you are talking about. There's a lovely quote, one of my management heroes, Demings, and he said, Words have no meaning unless they are translated into action agreed upon by everyone. Yeah,

Jimmy:

and the thing is, you can keep changing the

James:

that's often

Jimmy:

and that's often what happens, back to the queue and backlog. But did you know that the Conservative government changed the definition of unemployment over 30 times in the 1980s to try and change the stats?

James:

did you know that the Conservative government changed the definition of unemployment over 30 times in the night of Stats? Ah, am I unemployed or am I unemployed? Now, we shouldn't just have some Tory bashing on this Podcasts. Oh, yeah, here you go. Here's another one then. Question for you. When is a weapon of mass destruction a weapon of mass destruction?

Jimmy:

on. Oh, very good.

James:

Oh, very good

Jimmy:

use Well, I think there are

James:

Well, I think there are about five reasons really First of all, we use it to sell something. And it might not be that we've got anything new, but we do like to dress it up in new language.

Jimmy:

Sometimes we use this sort of language. to sweeten the message. You know, why talk about sacking people when you can talk about streamlining Or downsizing?

James:

sizing. Or even better, I heard a new one. ICE.

Jimmy:

stand

James:

an involuntary career event.

Jimmy:

of them, haven't

James:

Yeah, we've both been ICED. The other thing you can do is you can use it to hide your ineptitude. So it's a lot easier to tell people to move fast and break things, or to synchronize and synergize, than to tell them to do something instructive.

Jimmy:

We can also use language to look impressive. if you're a middle manager in a slightly below average company, where you can be a global director of best practices? And

James:

And finally, it's all about joining the in group. So if your chief executive is hell bent on capitalizing on volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, and then leveraging the VUCA, search me, I'm not entirely sure what it means, yeah, but you will get a long way. It's not all bad, though. There are a number of positives.

Jimmy:

of

James:

If done well, language can be used to simplify communication. Also, provides a great source of entertainment.

Jimmy:

Buzzword Bingo

James:

Creates comradeship, providing it's not exclusive. And, if it's done really well, as in the Domino's case, can really force action.

Jimmy:

are some downsides though

James:

Yeah, go on.

Jimmy:

It can be exclusive but not in a good way So it can make people feel excluded

James:

are not part of the club.

Jimmy:

It can be easily confusing to people It can It doesn't make you look like an absolute knob and it doesn't make you look either clever or authentic. So, our recommendation is don't use it, but if you really must, don't be too disruptive or you'll have to pivot and socialise things repeatedly to get your ducks in a row. So consider, do you have the bandwidth to lean into it or maybe just speak like a normal human.

James:

Very good. You've excelled yourself. Right, I think that is that for this week's episode. It

Jimmy:

is. Hopefully you've enjoyed this week's episode. If you've got any questions or comments or need help sharpening up your corporate bullshit, get in touch with James or I at jimmy at ajobdonewell. com

James:

com or james at jobdonewell.

Jimmy:

Thanks everyone, have a great week.

James:

great week.

Jimmy:

If you'd like to find out more about how James and I can help your business, then have a look at our website at ajobdonewell.Com.

People on this episode

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James Lawther

Co-host
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Jimmy Barber

Co-host