Business and Management Jargon

Do you think people who use 'big' words are intelligent?

Maybe they are, but it doesn't necessarily make them good communicators.

Welcome to the refreshing corporate policy of fighting corporate 'bull'. The backlash against business jargon is nothing new, but 'Fight the bull' have taken 'buzzword bingo' to another level by creating a free software program that searched documents for unnecessarily complex language.

Work your way through this list of business jargon and then try and cut them out of your memos and reports. These words and phrases have lost their power and now mean nothing but may provide you with some light entertainment!

Solution 1: Buzzwords Bingo

Use this game to debunk the management jargon/speak at your next team meeting. It's a powerful and humourous way to involve your peers.

Solution 2: Bullfighter

If you think your organisation's written communication leaves a lot to be desired, it might be worth downloading a free copy of Bullfighter. 'Fight the bull' have taken 'buzzword bingo' to another level by creating a free software program that searched documents for unnecessarily complex language.

Once downloaded, Bullfighter appears as an icon in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint and works much like a spell check feature. When it detects jargon and complicated language it dispenses a tongue in cheek reprimand to the author and suggests an alternative word or phrase.

The idea was brainstormed by a marketing department who where asked to develop methods to filter out unclear and unnecessary text from the organisation's documentation. With the software developed, the biggest challenge was to build the database of corporate jargon.

Nine months later, with the help of some healthy competition between departments, over 10,000 "bullwords" were blacklisted with "leverage" voted the most hated word, followed by "bandwidth" and "touch base".

Examples of some responses you can expect to receive from the program include:

Offending Word: Ecosystem
Suggestion: System
Comment: Frogs, bugs, fungi and so on. If you're not writing for National Geographic, you're probably not writing about an ecosystem. A dated term to be avoided. Moderate bull foul. If you're writing for National Geographic, we apologise. We enjoy the pictures.

Offending Word: Extensible
Suggestion: None
Comment: You don't really know what this means, we don't really either.