Here are some of the early nominations for the Top 10 Business Buzzwords of 2009 to Be Banned … words that have been driven some folks to distraction. These nominations (and annotations) came from business executives, marketers and communicators across about a sampling of about a dozen different LinkedIn Groups.
1. Takeaway (Noun, for what we learned)
2. Right-sizing (Euphemism for layoffs and/or budget cuts)
3. Repositioning (Euphemism for the euphemism “right-sizing”)
4. Obamanomics (Try saying that one five times fast!)
5. Cloud (Adjective, as in “cloud computing, cloud CRM, cloud data storage,” etc.)
6. Ping (Verb, to “reach out” electronically)
7. Onboard (Verb, to bring in a new hire or client)
8. Outboard (Like the verb outplace, but more in the pirate spirit of forcing someone to walk the plank)
9. Stimulus (Becomes an ugly word when you repeat it several million times)
10. Socialize (As in “socialize a proposal” to mean share or get another opinion)
11. Engage (As in “engage our audience in a meaningful conversation” instead of “talk with”)
12. Dashboard (Instead of report)
13. Reimagining (Remaking something different from the original)
14. Circle back (For follow up)
15. Blow-back (For strong reaction or resistance)
Even though we asked for words, several contributors offered phrases they love to hate (along with their reaction to said phrases), including:
1. At the end of the day (Has this replaced “the bottom line is …”?)
2. Going over the wall (Is this the sibling of “out of the box?”)
3. Reach out (Instead of call or write)
4. It is what it is (Of course it is! Isn’t it?)
5. It’s all about the brand (Except when it’s all about the customer)
6. Teachable moment (Aren’t they all?)
7. Social networking (Isn’t networking inherently social?)
8. User engagement (When’s the wedding?)
9. The glide path of mission critical work streams (Wait. What?)
Don’t see the business buzzwords that you would like to be banned? Send your nomination in as a comment to this post. Don’t wait. Nominations close Dec. 5.
Number 5 gets my vote. It’s closest to my personal front-runner, “Live the brand.”
Thanks, Ann. Do you have any other words to nominate?
How about . . . “I don’t disagree with you.” (at the end of the day — guilty of Section II, number 1 — doesn’t that mean you agree with a but . . .?)
My personal favorite is when someone preferences their remarks by saying, “Well, to be honest with you…” Does that mean that what they’ve said previously was a lie? Or that they don’t commonly tell the truth?
How about optics or optically, as in how something appears? Used in a sentence this way:”Optically looks odd to have this done first.”
My favorites are: rightsize, downsize, and dimensionalize the brand
we need to market our green initiative… although we really don’t have one.
OK, these three are old and may not even be use much, but are worth banning:
win-win
paradigm shift
walled garden
you do the numbers
And then there is the currently fashionable: Nail it, then scale it. As well, as the term: ideation (what’s up with that?)
Thanks, folks. All good ones … though I’ve never heard “dimensionalize the brand” … brand seems to be right up there with engage.
Whoa! I just went out of the box and into the tank! This post and comments take David Meerman Scott’s survey list of press release gobbledegook to the next level! Well done!
Since you’re going beyond single buzzwords, I vote for the innocuous quote. You know, the one that begins with “We’re excited” and typically serves only to get an executive’s name in print.
Look for it somewhere around the third paragraph:
“We’re excited about the opportunity to dimensionalize the brand and deliver our industry-leading solutions to a expanding base of customers,” said Stephen Petit, partner, SiefkesPetit Communications. “The takeaway here is that it’s a win-win for everyone.”
Have you noticed how outdated people sound when they use phrases like “paradigm shift”, “outside-the-box” and “sea change”?
Coming from the realm of higher education, I must submit the word “pedagogy” which, when spoken by a tenured professor, all too often suggests “I’ve gotten away with teaching like this for 30-years, you couldn’t possibly understand that.”
Shout out for #12! The only dashboard I ever want to hear about is in my CAR. Although I do engage in dashboard dining.
The business buzzword I loathe is “utilize” in place of “use.” It’s pretentious and so unnecessary. What’s wrong with the word “use”?
Keep fighting the good fight, everyone!
What about “business services”. Do you know how many websites describe their company’s purpose as providing “business services”? What do they do? Sell toilet paper? Businesses need toilet paper! Or maybe parking lot striping? Office furniture? Insurance? Accounting? You catch my drift! What the heck are business services?
“Cloud” and “ping” are legitimate technical terms; the annoying part is when technical terms are used in the context of human interaction. Like when one says “do that offline” when what they really mean is “let’s talk about that after the meeting.”
And anything “brand”. Brand, rebrand, upbrand, ego-brand. All of this branding stuff make me feel like I have to re-invent myself!
Steve – You’re right. I think many of the buzzwords we hate are legitimate technical terms that others have “re-purposed” for general use (is that another one?) in an effort to show how smart, techno-savvy they are. I bet men has been doing this for centuries … I wonder what the cavemen’s buzzwords were?
No doubt.
It was likely a short time from when Orga the Firemaker announced “fire is up” to the pre-hunt meeting wherein the chieftain implored the front-line rock-tossers to get “fired up”.
Mmmm….I also vote for “Dashboard”….at the drop of a word….it ends up “Let’s have a Dashbaord created or One pager done” ?? also cannot agree more with Deni on “Win Win” ……it is such a word sooooo overused … means actually nothing in majority of the cases…cheers Sunil
Impacted. In my family that meant you couldn’t go to the bathroom. When a group of people are “impacted” I wince! Happy Holidays.
“that being said….” there’s a great Curb Your Enthusiasm show about that this season.
heard a good one yesterday….”Harvesting”
was used in referemce to getting leads off a website…
come on……
[...] enjoyed getting a note the other day sent by an old source from my PRWeek days, Detroit-area PR man Jim Bianchi, who is compiling a list of buzz words to be [...]
Wow, I’ve got to wrap my head around this.
Imagine the mess that would make.
Whenever someone says “onboarding” a kitten dies.
[...] that is in more simple speak. Jim Bianchi, a great blogger, wrote an article recently titled “Business Buzzwords to be Banned,” about corporate jargon that should be banned and he is RIGHT [...]