Management Speak Part 2 - Nouns to Verbs

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!

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, and if you need help with your written English, please visit our website.