English as a Second Language? October 23rd, 2009

Here’s some new office jargon for you to toss into your next conversation:

• “workspace-specific perceptual abstraction” (daydreaming),
• “interdepartmental liaison facilitation” (lunch with a coworker) and
• “negative-patient care outcome” (a lovely health care term meaning, well, death).

When I hear leaders speaking like this, I begin to think that I should offer English as a Second Language courses for managers! Books such as “Why Business People Speak Like Idiots” remind us of the need to think before we speak, and for the need to speak in conversational, simple, everyday language in the workplace.

No, this doesn’t mean “dumbing things down”, but studies show that the use of obscure, vague jargon in the workplace contributes to low morale and a lack of trust. And of course, as I often suggest if you want to be HEARD and you want to stand out from the HERD, then adding a little humor will also help you prevent people from going crazy in the dark mazes of bureaucracy (bureau = “office”; cracy = “crazy”).