Last week we started to look at some of the strange words
and phrases that are found in everyday business and management scenarios. We
continue this theme this week as we investigate some more, well known and often
despised, terms you find in nearly every modern field of employment.
To begin, let us have a look at a very common series of
words and phrases that have been borrowed from other parts of life. These terms
usually have a very strictly defined meaning in their original use, but have
been adopted by, and adapted into modern business speak, to the extent that
their original meaning has been lost.
The first example of this is the word “leverage”. This word,
when used in modern business speak, simply means to use something, often to
achieve a result. However, the origin of the word leverage is in the
high-powered financial world, where it meant something entirely different. It
was used to describe financial transactions, often corporate buy-outs, where
the money used to fund the transaction was temporarily borrowed from other
sources, and would be paid back when the deal was successful. In other words,
it meant taking a gamble with other people’s money!
“Paradigm shift” is another term that has lost its original
meaning. Nowadays, in the world of management speak, it means to look at
something differently, or to change the way of doing something. But the first
uses of this phrase described scientific breakthroughs that completely changed
the way that we looked at the world. Mendel’s work on genetics and Einstein’s
studies on relativity were the type of revelations that caused everyone to see
these areas in a completely new way. I fear that the overuse of this phrase has
watered down its original meaning of something entirely new and groundbreaking!
Other scientific terms that have found their way into
management jargon are “mission critical” (failure of a specific task
jeopardises the entire project) and “synergy” (the output from two components
combined exceeds the outputs of the individual components). Both are used every
day in business planning, in ways that are totally alien to their original
meanings.
Another area in which management speak excels is to take a
perfectly ordinary noun, and make a verb out of it! Perhaps the most common
word to be abused in this way is the noun “incentive” which is an encouragement
for someone to do something. This has created the new, management speak, verb
“incentivize”, which is used to suggest taking action to create incentives for
people (often customers). Even worse, “incentivize” now has an opposite,
“disincentivize”!
There are a number of examples of the trend to create new
verbs. Consider “calenderise” (make a date in your diary), and “repurpose” (use
something differently). You can also “task” someone to do something, which may
involve “solutioning” a problem (no, I don’t know why “solve” is not good
enough!). On the other hand, you can also make a verb into a noun, which gives
us a term like “deliverable” (an outcome which can be delivered!).
You may have guessed that I am not exactly pleased at this possible
corruption of the English language. However, there is a very persuasive
argument that in fact this new way of using language represents the natural
evolution of the way we speak to accommodate new ideas and concepts. Language
needs to develop as times change, and psychologists believe that the human
brain cannot understand concepts that there are no words to describe. Once you
have a descriptor, the idea becomes acceptable. I will leave you to decide!
