Doublespeak
Google gives you 32 million results for business jargon. About 31 million are numbered lists of words everyone hates to hear. I haven’t gotten to that last million yet.
I did the math. That means every 4.7 minutes, some writer or editor out there has the great idea of listing this year’s worst business jargon.
And this has been going on since the paleolithic era.
So… while I could differentiate by *not* numbering my list, let me try something even less clever.
Here are some words that I’ve caught myself using interchangeably at work... and some thinking on why. For example,
Gig and Team
As in... “I love my gig” = “I love my team.” Because how do you get to lovin’ your gig without lovin’ your team? And if your immediate response to reading this was “but I love working alone”... I feel ya. I do too! And my team supports me with that. Great teams do. No, wait. Great gigs do. (See!)
Leader and Coach
As in... “My coach listened-- really listened-- and taught me to stop repeating myself and adding emphasis with ‘really.’ It’s pointless, rea…” Leader and coach don’t just substitute for one another-- they signal each role’s highest expectations for the other. The best leaders should coach and the best coaches lead. The kicker on this one is that I actually believe both words are professionalized, sanitized, needlessly-hierarchy-conscious versions of “friend.” Or if that’s an emotional bridge too far for you… “ally.”
Purpose and Belonging
As in… every corporate mission statement. I think of purpose along similar lines to how F. Scott Fitzgerald thought about literature. Through the great books, he wrote, “you discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” That’s why it’s unsatisfying to talk about my purpose (alone). Meaning comes from our shared purpose (together). It’s the sharing part that connects us; that lights the path to belonging.
Candor and Truth
As in… wait… what other option do we have? There are entire books on this— best sellers about why we should speak truthfully at work— that should make us all wonder: who is on the other side of this argument? And under what conditions would they pay for what are essentially self-help books about having integrity? Unless... the publishers were hoping that people would just buy the books and leave them on Jeff’s desk. Not that Jeff, the other one. You know— so no one has to have the conversation with him.
Process and Pain
(Editor’s note: the word pain wasn’t the first four-letter word used in earlier drafts. Um… It also wasn’t the second.)
As in… “is someone trying to intentionally ruin my life with this… um... pain?” There are people who look at 100 meters of clear track and think — “you know what that needs? Hurdles!” Funny thing is — I can’t name a single person like this. And yet, here we are in 2021 with no 100 meter stretches of runway. The word approval has become the modern business equivalent of “good intentions”-- as in-- the road to hell is paved with approvals.
[That last pairing deserves more thought so it’s not just me wah-wah-ing and I get to stay true to the Noah Principle. To that end...]
Mini-Blog on… Um... Pain -- Skip to the Next Section if You Know How to Scroll
Processes that grew up organically over time are the worst culprits because
There was no explicit designer/owner;
There was no vision from the onset for what the end-to-end ought to look like-- many times because the business capability itself was incomplete;
There was no understanding around how often the process should be revisited for redesign/tuning;
There was no awareness of the other end-to-end processes around it; and
There was no explicit accountability to those it intends to serve. And here I don’t mean the senior stakeholders who care about governance but those that the process means to govern.
We can address the first four gaps by formalizing ownership— by assigning a full-time, end-to-end process owner for each critical business capability-- AND by encouraging collaboration between owners of adjacent processes. That’s the “easy” part (quotes intentional) and it gets us commitment and intentionality so processes are no longer organic… or feral.
But there are plenty of single-owner, intentionally-designed processes that still suck the life out of you. So the ultimate answer lies in how we address the fifth and final piece.
Processes serve a common good. Think of them as public services. When city governments-- a good example of well meaning bureaucracies-- fail to fix a broken service-- there is only one political solution: organize the community that it is meant to serve. City Hall-- like senior management-- understands the power of the people and while they’re loath to admit it, agitation greases the wheels of change.
It's not even about senior management. We all own the companies that employ us. Or we should. And part of that compact is to hold us accountable… to us.
So instead of complaining about the pain, we should let it be another reason to connect us with one another.
Organize! And don’t be surprised when your passion (and organizing abilities) land you into a global process ownership job.
Someone has to lead. Why not the person who cares? Why not the person who inspires others to action?
Why not you?
More Fun with Word Pairs
Instead of jumping back into the word-pair format and wasting more of your time, here are the others… with no explanation whatsoever… [and some guidance on tone]. You are welcome.
Learning and Growing. [Serious]
Innovation and Marketing. [Snarky]
Impact and Relevance. [Serious]
Lunch and Kebab. [Life Changing]
If you have the time, a fun side-exercise to test this thinking is to google “quotes about [any word above]” and substitute the other word into the quote-- i.e., “The pain is the most important part of the journey.”
Reasonably good quotes become epic-- i.e., “Marketing is where imagination meets ambition.”
Final Thoughts
Our language in the office is important because the way we talk can change the way we work.
Don’t believe me? Ask Drs. Lisa Lahey and Bob Kegan, who wrote a book called The Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work.
Bob was one of my advisers on my Master's thesis... way back when. I just wish he and Lisa had consulted me on the title of their book. I would’ve told them that you never title a mystery novel “The Butler Did It.”
Waaay better advice than I got on my thesis!
[Deep breath.]
Final Thoughts [Take Two]
Our language in the office is important because it reflects who we are and what we aspire to.
No one aspires to use doublespeak-- words like synergy and wheelhouse. They lack humanity.
We use that kind of business jargon because we think our company-selves should be some sterile corporate shell of who we really are. We mistake "professionalism" (intentionally in quotes)-- which is inauthentic and cold-- as acceptable practice.
And work cultures build around that frost.
Living our values at work is the countermeasure; the warmth that will thaw the word “company” into something more meaningful and connective; into a gig rooted in truth and purpose; into “the company we keep.”
LinkedIn Tease:
No need to read this one. Here’s the gist: the opposite of business jargon is not “layman’s terms”; its authenticity and warmth.
Enjoy 3 minutes of your life back! #OppositeOfClickBait
[Man, it feels great to give you something back that was never mine.]
Still here? Fine. Skim… but definitely do *not* waste time on the mini-blog... which forced me to rethink how I relate to the undisputed bane of engineering life: helpful corporate processes. I can honestly say that reading about process is the only thing worse than being subject to it.