BANISH CLICHES

I've been blogging recently on the power of language, focusing on the elegance and impact of certain types of words and sentence construction. One hundred and eighty degrees from this elegance are hackneyed cliches that don't communicate anything meaningful. I just came across this post at Harvard Business on 10 Business Words To Ban and I had to share it. I laughed out loud at some of the commentary from David Silverman.

All our business communication...including presentations...would definitely benefit if we eliminated these words. What other corporate-speak words do you think we should banish?

Comments

[Patrick O'Brien]

As with the first comment, I have an issue with some of the words Silverman finds objectionable: and/or (how else do you say it in less than twenty words), value (What is this guy's problem - does he want us all living in a world of cheap?), and take away (oh ya', it's so much easier to say 'the item that the person who comes to our trade show booth can pick up and personally transport from our location to a location of that person's choosing' - jeez!!!).

The one word/phrase that drives me the most nuts is '110%' or any denomination over 100. People, there is no such thing as anything greater than 100%!! Yes, a person can give 50% more than what they had previously put out but that's not 150% - it's probably something like 60% because the bum was only working at a 10% productivity level in the first place.

My last point is the use of LOL instead of the smiley face ( :-) ) simply because SOL (sobbed out loud) is so much more heart wrenching than ( :-( ).

[Halelly]

I also LOL'ed at some of these. He's a clever writer. But some I disagree with - they aren't that bad. Like and/or -- I think that indicates that what you're saying could apply to both things together or one or the other, and I don't know another way of saying that more concisely... ?

In the HR and Workplace Learning industries, I think a commonly overused and totally cliche phrase is "a seat at the table". I get really sick of hearing that. Lately, people have started saying "the proverbial seat at the table" -- is this an indication they *know* it's already cliche? ;o)