Going forward is your business dialling up and reaching out to your employees and chunking up its comms efforts?
Yuck, can’t believe I just wrote that!
The topic of jargon regularly crops up in comms circles and this week has been no exception. I tweeted I was on the lookout for examples and received some frankly shocking answers back. You can see them all below, thank you to everyone who contributed.
There are a number of articles on jargon that have been published over the past few weeks and I recommend reading if you’re keen to explore this topic more:
- The Guardian published an A to Z of office jargon
- Seven ways to talk your financial execs out of jargon and bad language by @Marketingprofs
- Jargon buster by Helen Reynolds (pic)
What about our own profession? There’s certainly a wealth of terminology around, from brown bags to cascades and all-hands, the list is seemingly endless.
With that in mind, I recently created a glossary of internal communication to clarify some of the phrases that are regularly used.
The glossary is a work in progress, do please let me know if you have any suggestions of words and phrases you’d like me to add or define. You can tweet me @AllthingsIC or comment below.
Know any other examples? Do please let me know.
Brace yourself…
Rachel
@AllthingsIC @theICcrowd actioned…ideation…and if you touch my base expect me to defend myself #jargon
— Maggie Roxburgh (@MaggieRoxburgh) October 23, 2013
@AllthingsIC @theICcrowd “Game changer” and associated variations. Also “best practice” must go. — Chuck Gose (@chuckgose) October 23, 2013
@tallpaul75 @AllthingsIC let’s dial up on that. — Simon Rutter (@southendscribe) October 23, 2013
@AllthingsIC @southendscribe As I said, I’m not even sure what it means. Another one – ‘aide-memoire’ as a replacement for slide notes!
— Paul Thomas (@tallpaul75) October 23, 2013
@southendscribe @AllthingsIC We hear a lot of chunking up and chunking down. Literally no clue. Actually, literally may be another!
— Paul Thomas (@tallpaul75) October 23, 2013
@AllthingsIC when will we be able to unpack it? — Simon Rutter (@southendscribe) October 23, 2013
@AllthingsIC last suggestion – ‘synergy’. In relation to absolutely anything at all. — Emily Swanson (@Emsie82) October 23, 2013
@AllthingsIC @theICcrowd how about ‘wash up’, ‘reaching out’ plus incorrect use of affect vs effect for starters!
— Andrew Holland (@VMAEnhance) October 23, 2013
@AllthingsIC @theICcrowd Ooh, also “thought leadership.” It can mean something real – way deep down – but the jargon just kills the concept.
— Brittany Golob (@BrittanyGolob2) October 23, 2013
@AllthingsIC @theICcrowd I’m uncomfortable with ‘cascade’ as I don’t think it’s relevant in the digital/social age – no more top-down comms — Ciara O’Keeffe (@CommsOKeeffe) October 23, 2013
@BrittanyGolob2 @AllthingsIC @theICcrowd Great idea! I dislike “sharing best practices” – it is hollow — Lavinia C (@laviniacinca) October 23, 2013
@AllthingsIC @theICcrowd Utilise is my least favourite word. Also learning’s (note apostrophe). It’s lessons. But I’m touchy about grammar!
— Brittany Golob (@BrittanyGolob2) October 23, 2013
@AllthingsIC @RichardJaEvans @theICcrowd I find doing an inbox search for anything with “paradigm” in it and then auto-deleting useful.
— Gabriel Milland (@gabrielmilland) October 23, 2013
@AllthingsIC @theICcrowd It’s only in comms that “audience” and “public” are words it’s OK to stick an “s” on the end of. — Richard Evans (@RichardJaEvans) October 23, 2013
@AllthingsIC @theICcrowd Not specifically a comms one but I heard “feedforward” as feedback was negative… — andrew_carver (@drew_carver) October 23, 2013
@CB_PRandPA @theICcrowd @AllthingsIC True. You also can’t win on this. Send it me on a one pager V Where’s the granular detail.
— andrew_carver (@drew_carver) October 23, 2013
