August 26, 2013
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I reckon every office or workplace has one of those people that are just full of jargon-ridden management drivel. Does this kind of ‘management speak’ remind you of someone at your work place: "Before going forward we have to touch base and reach out to our key stakeholders so that we can drill down into the key issues that are not yet on our radar and catch the low-hanging fruits…"
Are you surrounded by people who annoyingly can’t get enough of the management gobbledygook and who utter one jargon buzzword after another? Are your meetings buzzing with so much management lingo that you find it hard to get to the real meaning of what is being said? The problem I have with these phrases is that they sound so pretentious and often are counter-productive because they irritate people so much and deflect from the real meaning.
Below are my top 30 most irritating and overused phrases we hear at work. I am sure you have others that you can add to this list. Let’s make it the most comprehensive list of unnecessary management drivel ever – Please add your ones using the comment field!
For me, these are my top 30 most irritating jargon phrases and words used at work:
Going forward
Drill-down
End of play
Touch base
It’s on my radar
No brainer
Best of breed
Low hanging fruit
Reach out
Dive deeper
Think outside the box
Positive momentum
Execute
Milestones
Run the numbers
Touch points
Keep your eye on the ball
Back to the drawing board
Get the ball rolling
Bang for your buck
Close the deal
Leverage
Shift paradigm
Move the needle
Game-changing
Move the goal post
Value added
Win-win
Across the piece
All hands on deck
What do you think? Do you agree? Are these the most irritating phrases? Please let me know which ones you would add to this list!
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Bernard Marr is a best-selling business author and enterprise performance expert. Make sure you click ‘Follow’ if you would like to hear more from Bernard Marr in the future and feel free to also connect via Twitter, Facebook and The Advanced Performance Institute
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