I’m a jargon hater. Seriously. I can’t stand the use of five-dollar words when a ten-cent word will do. Yet without fail I see numerous business folks using words like “business critical function” (and where’s your hyphen, people?) and “paradigm shift” when they really mean “important” and “change in business focus.” It’s like an addiction for some. And when I’m charged with interpreting this mumbled mess of buzz words into a new client message, I start to lose it a bit. No, a lot. I lose it a lot.
I once came across a client piece that was 14 pages of today’s top buzz words. My task was to boil this down to two pages of relevant, compelling copy. When working on marketing pieces, I usually open a blank email while I work and jot down questions. In this particular piece, the questions nearly outpaced the copy provided. The client, bless her heart, had learned every single bit of jargon she could. If I were to add up all the buzz words using our five-dollar price tag, she’d spent about $2,985 by page 4. Hence my long, confused note back to her for multiple clarifications in people terms. Much to her dismay, I replaced all “facilitate” references with either “use” or “organize” depending on the meaning.
While some clients insist on using certain buzz words (they have reputations to uphold as leaders in their respective industries, or as “top jargon users”), there’s no reason why you can’t push back a little and insist that too much of a good thing is a bad thing. While it’s great to use some jargon to show the client’s level of expertise, it’s not great to confuse the hell out of the average client. And honestly, there were press releases and various marketing pieces I’ve seen in my day that simply made me feel too stupid to do business with these people. Not exactly the way to win over new business, is it?
Here’s a little list of jargon that is not only trite, but completely overused. If you can talk your clients into it, avoid them.
– mission critical
– paradigm shift (or anything paradigm, for that matter)
– facilitate
– key performance indicators (just freakin’ tell me what they are)
– knowledge transfer (can we just say train or educate?)
– administrate (is that even a word?)
– leverage
– critical anything
– synergy
Got any favorite peeves?
“Knowledge transfer” was in a Request for Proposal I just responded to. Ugh. A few more for your list:
-human capital, aka “employees.”
-Six Sigma and its corresponding rankings (black belt, etc.)
-in my pre-freelance life, I was expected to meet MBOs. MBO stands for “Management by Objective” and I longed to scream at people that there’s no such thing as “meeting MBOs,” and what they really should be talking about was meeting objectives and then finding ways to be managed via those objectives.
That’s frustrating! And yes, the Six Sigma stuff is annoying. I get it, but it’s still annoying.
I forgot my all-time most-hated one: value proposition. LOATHE that one. And anything that starts with the word “core.” Core strengths, core values, core mission, core, core, core….UGH!
I need to figure out a way to steer a couple of clients to your post. I’ll leave it at that.;)
Are your clients’ clients computers or “regular folk?” eww on the buzzy jargon words. I’m old enough to remember the fascination with segue and gravitas. 🙂
They’re both, Angie. That’s what’s so disturbing.