In my work as a professional court jester I run into it every day: jargon. And then I belong to the 7.3 percent of people who simply ask about the meaning if I don’t understand something. But the majority absorbs that jargon and then nods nicely and there, dear entrepreneurs, that’s where it goes wrong.
You make a decision if you are not talking about the same subject. Can you set an exact goal without both setting that exact goal. And most of the time it works out ‘just about’. You can compare it to a journey. Indeed, you both arrive in Italy, but one in Rome and the other in Sicily. It’s hard when you have to shake hands Click here.
Simple Solution
The good thing is, there is a simple solution. Just say what you mean. That is another strong resolution for this new year. And to help you on your way, a Top 23 office jargon… And: what it actually means and what it is better to say more clearly.
More than twenty years ago we wrote a lot about the rapidly changing world, ten years ago, five years ago and now too. It’s nothing new. I am seriously surprised how often ‘change’ is mentioned in business publications, politics and in training courses, and among students. Everyone comes up with that old mantra: the world is changing and we live in an ever faster changing world.
The fetish goes very far:
- Everyone pretends that change comes unexpectedly, instead of using your logical mind, that it is what it is.
- It does not attribute change to an inescapable nature of time, but to certain new developments such as technology and globalization.
- Change is seen as something susceptible to intervention rather than a spontaneous fluidity.
Change is a hip word, and completely contemporary and yet also: timeless. When managing change, people always (typically) look at changes in and in themselves. So instead of managing the big changes in economics and technology, we look at the management of organizational responses (restrained or proactive). In other words, change management focuses on changing oneself in response to the changing environment. And organizations that don’t change don’t survive.
We live in a time of unprecedented changes… right?
There are a number of reasons to be skeptical: the first is that we believe we live in a time of unprecedented change. But the fact is that this has been the case for years and years. The past only seems more stable to us because it is ‘known’. Because if you go back in time you can imagine even more periods that involved an incredible amount of change:
The fall of the Roman Empire, the colonization of America, the Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution, the world wars… So the issue is not whether change occurs, what is the real question is how change is sustained in particular cultural and historical settings. Have a good brain chat here. Yes, now I’m starting…
Top 23 office jargon
in any random order
- I’m going to chew on that
- I don’t know the answer now
- To hit something
- Deciding or deciding something
- I hear what you’re saying, but
- I do not agree with you
- Parking
- I’ll come or we’ll come back to this later
- Lifting something over the holidays
- I suffer from procrastination / I don’t dare to make a decision now / I don’t really want this and I hope that ‘postponement will lead to cancellation’
- Throw something over the fence
- Loading another with work
- Shoot at something
- Look at something and give your opinion about it
- Holding something against someone
- Ask someone’s opinion
- Meeting
- Appointment/meeting/meeting
- Bila
- Appointment with another person/colleague
- Stand up
- Report on the latest status
- To change gear
Office jargon: bonus!
- Involve necessary people to achieve your goal
- Low hanging fruit
- Most obvious solutions/Easiest way to reach the goal.
- Throw out line
- Approaching people
- Call
- Phone call
- Conference call
- Multi-person phone call/conference call
- People person
- Luckily I’m not an alien / I don’t like animals
- Dot on the horizon
- Target
- Dad day
- Day off (because if all goes well you’ll be daddy every day)
- Hey day
- Consultation with a big lunch and alcohol at the end (usually not on a moor)
- Rapidly changing world
- Shoot in
- schedule
- Ownership
- Just do your job
More than twenty years ago we wrote a lot about the rapidly changing world, ten years ago, five years ago and now too. It’s nothing new. I am seriously surprised how often ‘change’ is mentioned in business publications, politics and in training courses, and among students. Everyone comes up with that old mantra: the world is changing and we live in an ever faster changing world.
The fetish goes very far:
- Everyone pretends that change comes unexpectedly, instead of using your logical mind, that it is what it is.
- It does not attribute change to an inescapable nature of time, but to certain new developments such as technology and globalization.
- Change is seen as something susceptible to intervention rather than a spontaneous fluidity.
