Tom Guarriello critiques business jargon like "low-hanging fruit" and "core competencies" for obscuring rather than clarifying meaning. His consulting firm TruTalk was named to push for truthful language in business. He invites viewers to share the worst buzzwords they've encountered.
Hey, Tubians, it's Tom. I had a conversation earlier today which brought up this area which I really get a kick out of, and it's, it's, it's business language. I don't know how many of you pay attention to business language. I pay attention to business language all the time. We've got a consulting firm that we call TruTalk, and one of the reasons we decided to call it TruTalk is because business language is so— well, it's so obscure and it's so abstract and it's so steeped in bullshit. That it's, it really, you know, its purpose is hardly ever to clarify. Its purpose is almost always to obfuscate and to get in the way of people really saying what they mean and, you know, what's on their mind. And I was wondering if I could ask you guys, what's your favorite piece of business jargon? I mean, the one that really makes your skin crawl, you know. Let me start you off. Let me start you off with some pieces of business jargon that I think are classics. How about core competencies? Core competencies is a big one. How about leverage? Leverage is good. Re-engineering, it's old but it's still kind of out there. How about Improve customer satisfaction. It's a good one. How about things like alignment? Alignment is one of my favorites today. But my real favorite for the day is low-hanging fruit. I think low-hanging fruit is one of those pieces of jargon that, you know, is now at a place where it deserves to Maybe it deserves to go away. Maybe, maybe it doesn't. Maybe we don't, maybe we shouldn't ever talk about low-hanging fruit anymore. So, so think about it, if you would, if you would respond. Videos would be great, written comments are great, and let me know what's your favorite, most favorite piece of business jargon. And, and maybe you can do something like this. Which I kind of had some fun with earlier, string some business jargon together so that you can, for example, make sentences that sound something like this. You know, at the end of the day, our centers of excellence are designed to create win-win solutions. Going forward, we need total alignment on our deliverables so that we can monetize the mission-critical competencies for our value proposition. We need world-class pushback so that we can roll out our— oh, I don't know— value-added You see what I mean? If you guys can come up with your ideas, I'd really enjoy hearing your favorite piece of business jargon. Thanks for today. That's Tom.
