Chad Lethbridge (pictured), creative director at Involve, explains: "We're all about simplifying things for employees, making their bosses' lives easier in the process. Language plays a big part - put simply, do you want your people to "anticipate and fulfil differentiated stakeholder needs" or to "make customers whoop with delight?"
So HR magazine asked Involve to give us its top meeting clichés - and here are some of our favourites (along with an English translation).
‘Talk the talk, walk the walk, walk the talk': do what you say you will do
‘Holistic approach': taking an overview of a business or project rather than focusing on a few specific issues
‘Touch base': baseball jargon meaning to catch up with other members of staff or proceedings
‘Ballpark figure': an approximate estimate, deriving from baseball
‘Game plan': a strategy
‘Hard ball': taking a tough line (a surprising amount of business jargon seems to derive from American sports)
‘Close of play': the end of the working day
‘Out of the loop' or ‘keeping you in the loop': making sure everyone working on a project understands what is going on
‘Singing from the same hymn sheet' or the agnostic version, ‘on the same page': when everyone fully understands what they are doing; signifies agreement.
‘Synergy': when two or more factors lead to an outcome that is greater or better than the sum of its components; when one person finds it difficult to do something on their own, but two people working together can achieve the goal
‘Face time': a face-to-face meeting as opposed to dealing with people using emails
‘A water cooler moment': having a friendly discussion with colleagues; can be substituted for ‘cigarette break moment' or ‘life moment'
‘Best of breed': the word ‘best' would suffice here
‘Customer centric': putting the customer first in a business
‘Results driven': the opposite of ‘failure driven'
‘Fast track': going forward faster than by traditional means
‘Knock-on effect': when one action starts a chain of events
‘Mindset': attitude
‘Quid pro quo': a Latin phrase meaning ‘something for something' so signifies a fair exchange
‘Put this one to bed': to finish something
‘Bottom line': the net income when an organisation subtracts costs and expenses from total or gross revenue
Lethbridge adds: "This list is a constant reminder that the only communications that work are the simple ones; we have it in our boardroom - it helps keep us sane in meetings"
If you can think of any other unnecessary or over-used phrases in your workplace, let us know by posting a comment.
