Rid your Vocabulary of Business Slang!

Rid your Vocabulary of Business SlangIts a logical tendency to use business slang for workplace interactionsyoure seeing the same people and having the same meetings, so obvious clichs creep in from time to time. Here are a bunch you should work to eliminate. googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-1467144145037-0) ) Drink the Kool-AidIm guessing what you mean here is convince because even cults probably find this clich distasteful by this point.Break down the silosAre you a farmer trying to get your harvest consolidated? No? Find aelendher metaphor.It is what it is.Gertrude Stein would say There is no there there, but this literally means nothing.Do more with less.Double down on trite and add a dollop of vagueness for this one. Be specific Be measurable Be meaningfulTee it up.Ah the sports metaphor. Youre not fooling anyone with that tiny putting greenthis is work, not golf. Even cue it up is less contrived. Ditto Par for the course.Take it offline.Unless youre h aving a conversation in an email you soon intend to continue over the phone or in someones office (and remember to be precise about when), a meeting is not online so having a different meeting is not offline. SimilarlyLets circle backand This is a hard stopsay what you mean without resorting to dusty, imprecise phrases.Its a paradigm shift.Do any of your employees know what a paradigm is? Are you really introducing a new model or pattern? If so, why not just introduce the new thing? This is a placeholder for a real idea.We cant boil the ocean..what? Why? Climate change concerns aside, how is this helpful? What insight is it meant to provoke?Low-hanging fruitIf you were a customer, would you want to be visualized this way?Out of pocketWe pay for things out of our pockets because thats where our wallets are. If what you mean is out of office or unavailablewhy wouldnt you just say that?Move the needle.Are you a geologist? One who studies earthquakes?Bite the bullet.Think of retiring th is one as your contribution to dismantling gun rhetoric in the United States. It refers to the practice of biting a bullet in lieu of having anesthesia during surgery. How is this something you want emulated in your workplace?Run it up the flagpole.Is it possible you mean test or try out or send to a focus group? Would you actually learn anything from suspending your idea in the air? How many ways to wave are there, really?On the cutting edgeI feel like The Sharper Image took this phrase downeven the newest most exciting technology isnt really on the cutting edge anymore.Think outside the box.Yawn. Thinking inside the box would be more surprising than a corporate supervisor bringing this one out of mothballs.Peel back the layers of the onion.Maybe its getting close to lunch time, but either way swap this one out for Take a closer look. Delete drill down, unpack, and double-click from your repertoire too.SynergizeThis one makes me cringe because what you mean is synthesize with an ov erlay of technobabble.Im making a separate category for phrases reality TV has murderedDont throw him/her under the bus.Take it to the next level.If/When push comes to shove.Im not here to make friends(Okay, probably nobody says that last one at work but its my very favorite reality trope.)And lastly, the one I have the most personal investment instop using workplace catchphrases that have an offensive or appropriative meanings My mom is one of two American Indian employees in her office, and leise occasionally hears Lets pow-wow about this later and She really went off the rez. You are having a meeting. A MEETING. You can tell because its in a conference room and not in a sacred ceremonial space accompanied by drumming and other traditional rituals. And as for off the rez, going outside of expectations is not the same as escaping from the forced housing communities your people were driven to after years of exploitation and genocide, if you really think about it.Also throw on this p ile of outdated and offensive phrases, indian giver, open the kimono, gypped, chink in the armor, peanut gallery. If you dont know why, look it up. Make your workplace communication meaningful.