Leveraging language to facilitate a dialogue

So much is said about 'management-speak' (in fact, there are probably plenty of people making a decent living out of it) but today I experienced an overload of management-type gobbledygook.

The word 'leverage' was used 5 times in one meeting. I'm still not quite sure what it means in any context other than actually using an actual lever. At the same meeting (which was actually a lunch, which makes it worse, somehow) acronyms were flying about like, er, flies(...?). I don't believe that most of the people in the room knew what they meant - in fact, I'm not even sure that the people saying them knew either, but I've found that this whole way of communicating is contagious.

There is one person in the office who will pick up words and use them because our boss uses them. She probably strikes it lucky 2 times out of 5 and uses them in the correct context. And I now hardly know when I'm using proper normal words or falling into the management-speak trap. I admit I use the term 'going forward' quite a lot. I prefer to think that I'm using it ironically (but I'm not sure I always do...). I try and try to think of an alternative to "outside the box", but it just slips out. After all, it's got the same number of syllables as "original" or "unusual", so what's the harm?

Nowadays a Powerpoint presentation is called a 'deck'. My boss uses it (she's American, so maybe it's not her fault), but now everybody uses it. I choose to find it funny.

Today I received an e-mail that contained the phrase "potential backfill within the following time horizons". No, really.

We promise ourselves that we'll play Buzzword Bingo next time, but does anyone really have the bottle to shout 'House!', or will they always take it 'offline'?

The whole thing must be a barrier to good communication. It really hit home when someone recently had to ask me to interpret an e-mail they had received because they didn't understand it. They were familiar with all the words, but not in the order and/or context in which they were used. It's worrying. But what's worse is that I did understand it!

So, today I proposed that we introduce a new word into our working vocabulary. We'll use it at various times, in different situations. Sometimes it will be a noun, sometimes a verb. Eventually it will be in common usage and we'll know that it means nothing! We can do that. I work with a team of writers - words are our tool! I thought "fulcrum". It's sort of related to leverage, so if anyone calls my bluff I can leverage "leverage" and I might just get away with it.

And I shall write a management book - "Leveraging Your Fulcrum: How To Spend Your Working Life Having No Bloody Clue What Anybody's On About" because someone somewhere is making an awful lot of money writing very small books and I want some of that action!!

Thank you for engaging.