What is it? What it is.

I began rambling on about communication yesterday and after several paragraphs reached the intended point of the post (making it WAY too long!). So, I decided to make them two separate posts. Here is part II...

Most of what I've touched on deals with interpersonal relationships, but I have repeatedly observed some communication behavior professionally that I just don't understand. The use of business "slang". Not just the use of it, but the trend I've seen over and over again where some business leader throws out a new (or old) term that represents a new concept and suddenly everyone you work with is using that word and you simply aren't "cool" if you don't.

My first experience with this was in the early to mid nineties when everyone wanted to talk about synergy and paradigm shift. The concepts of cooperating and thinking differently have been around forever, but in the 90's you couldn't achieve total quality without synergy and changing your paradigm.

Most recently I've heard a lot of technology specific slang. People expressing they don't have the bandwidth or the cycles (presumably CPU cycles) to work on something. Even more popular is the, "I'll ping you later" phrase. Just once I'd like to respond, "You might want to try something a higher layer up on the OSI model. I block ICMP at my secretary, at best you might get to the front desk with a tracert."

Then there is the vetting process. I've followed standard procedures for evaluating alternatives for years, but when a C-level learns a new word, it must mean we need a new process.

And last but not least, the one that is like nails on a chalkboard to me, "It is what it is." Up until recently, I interpreted this phrase as, "I am completely devoid of any original thought." The only reason I say "up until recently" is that my best friend, wiblondie (the one you'll want to contact should you need to stray beyond my Com 101 lesson below as she has a Master's degree in it), uses that phrase and explained to me that it really is more the result of laziness than unawareness.

In any case, just remember that making corporate jargon your core competency may seem like low hanging fruit, but anyone who really puts it to the smell test will have quick visibility to the fact that the value proposition just isn't there.