Word choice:
The cost of lazy language

Achieving synergy with Best of Breed partners to provide World Class Service utilizing retooled, empowered team members whose experiential histories foster enterprise-wide Big Hairy Audacious entrepreneurial solutions for a new paradigm, from the ground up. With soul.

Pardon? Honestly, have you ever heard a bigger bunch of bunk in your life? Corporate America overflows with language like this, but what the *&#$@! does it mean? Open any journal, scan titles in any bookstore business section, read most employee communications, or visit most commercial web sites, and jargon like this is exactly what you'll see. In abundance. An over-reliance on words that have become meaningless or are down-right rude. Really, do you, a human being, want to be ground up, re-tooled or Best of Breed?

The problem with lazy language (or jargon)

The pay-off of avoiding lazy language (or jargon)

The first step for going jargon-free

Jargon is lazy, and relying too heavily on it does nothing to foster real understanding or create honest relationships because jargon is designed to be accountability-free. Granted, smart use of jargon can convey a common position. But consider this: a British research firm found that two-thirds of company employees didn't believe company communications, and fewer than half understood the company mission.

Regardless of how perfect a certain word is to describe what you do, regardless of whether you actually follow through and provide service that could be deemed world class, if the word or phrase has been appropriated by advertisers and Business Circuit Gurus and pounded into the skulls of the people you're trying to reach, it's meaningless.

In over-using lazy language, you've missed an opportunity to distinguish your business, deepen a relationship, clarify expectations or create real understanding with your clients or employees.

In avoiding lazy language, you've created an opportunity to distinguish your business, deepen a relationship or create real understanding with your clients or employees. Customers know what to expect from claims of World Class Service, and aren't as disappointed when they don't get their version of World Class Service; also, employees have a better idea of how to provide it and your work environment is more productive because fewer people are confused over fuzzy expectations or colliding over misunderstandings.

Take a few extra minutes to burrow beneath the easy catch-phrase and find a way to say what you mean:

• Assume that people assign different meanings to the same words or phrases. When you say "excellence," for example, what do others associate with excellence? Is it the same thing you're thinking?

• Ask yourself clarifying questions to get to the core of what you want others to know or how you wish others to participate. What does "great service" look and sound like? What, exactly, does "as soon as possible" mean? When a colleague talks about "Them," who does he mean?

• Ask others clarifying questions, so you know what they mean by their jargon. When someone says they want you to be reliable, how does that look and sound to them? How will they know when they receive world class service? What does someone mean by re-tooling people?

You'll find a variety of additional resources throughout IVC Online to help you clarify your communication and bring about more fulfilling, less stressful interactions.

For more on removing lazy language from your repertoire, read Vapid Words Fuel Cynicism

Remember, this information provides food-for-thought. Your needs are unique, so the most effective organizational or interpersonal communication plan for you should be customized to meet your needs and suit your organizational culture.

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