comunication
Success Tweet 112: Be Careful With Jargon
Sep 21st
I’m in the home stretch of a series of blog posts that further explain the career advice in Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less, my latest career success coach book. I’m going to be sorry when this series is finished. I hope you’re enjoying reading it as much as I’m enjoying writing it.
Success Tweets is about to go into its third printing. That really pleases me. It has become a greater success than I thought it would be. You can pick up a copy at your local bookstore or at Amazon.com. Better yet, you can download it for free at www.SuccessTweets.com.
Today’s career advice comes from Success Tweet 112
Explain jargon as you go along; or provide a glossary at the end of the document. Better yet, avoid jargon if at all possible.
A couple of years ago the Money section of USA Today had an interesting article called “Do Foreign Executives Balk at Sports Jargon?”
Author Del Jones began by saying, “English may be the international language of business, but foreign executives who are fluent in it find themselves at a loss unless they master conversational horsehide and the vocabulary of other US sports.” “Conversational horsehide”, by the way, is jargon for the ability to use baseball terms in conversation.
She wrote about how baseball jargon has infiltrated business conversation in the USA. As we are getting to close to the baseball playoffs and World Series, I thought I’d use her article to provide some career advice that illustrates how much we use sports jargon in the USA and how this can have a negative impact on both our ability to communicate in writing and conversation.
People who are not familiar with US sports – and that includes a lot of people born in the US – suffer from sports jargon overload. Del Jones article was very entertaining – and it had an important message for anyone who wants to become a good communicator – use jargon, especially sports jargon — as little as possible in everyday conversation and business writing.
I agree. I learned this lesson the hard way. I was conducting a workshop in Europe that I had conducted very successfully in the US. The workshop began with a baseball analogy – one has to go from first to second to third base before scoring a run. While most of the people in the European audience understood the concept and the reference, many were upset that an American would use a uniquely American example when conducting a workshop in Europe.
Paula Shannon, a Senior VP with Lionbridge, a Massachusetts based company with 4,000 employees in 25 countries knows what I’m talking about. She says, “The Hail Mary (American football jargon) is my favorite example of bad jargon. You can establish your American centricity, and risk a religious offense at the same time.”
The common sense career advice here is simple. In order to become a great communicator, limit your use of jargon. Converse, write and present in easily and universally understood terms. Be precise in your use of language.
Having said that, I am going to post the baseball/business dictionary Ms. Jones included in a sidebar to her article – just because I think it’s fun…
Baseball – Business Dictionary
Manufacture a Run
Baseball: Scoring without power, or even a solid hit. For example, a walk, followed by a stolen base, an error and a squeeze play. Also called small ball.
Business: Succeeding via hard work; growing sales without a blockbuster product.
Late Innings
Baseball: The seventh, eighth and ninth innings of a baseball game.
Business: Late stages of a project; an old product seeing sales eroding due to a competitor’s new product.
Step Up to the Plate
Baseball: Take your turn at bat, often in an important situation.
Business: Confront a problem, make a crucial decision, go the extra mile when it’s safer or more convenient not to.
Pickle
Baseball: A rundown, catching a runner stranded between bases.
Business: Getting into trouble with little chance of escape.
Can of Corn
Baseball: A fly ball that is easy to catch.
Business: A decision or action that is a no-brainer; a product that sells itself.
Ducks on the Pond
Baseball: Runners on base.
Business: A situation with a good chance of success.
Curve
Baseball: A pitch that breaks before it gets to the plate.
Business: Anything unexpected
All Bases Covered
Baseball: Fielders doing their job and positioned on relevant bases so the team can get an out.
Business: Being prepared for every contingency.
Mop Up
Baseball: When a mediocre relief pitcher is used because the outcome of the game is certain.
Business: When employees have to remain on projects after star employees have moved on to bigger and better things.
Homer, Dinger, Tater
Baseball: Home runs of various types.
Business: Major accomplishment
O-fer
Baseball: When a batter goes hitless.
Business: Slump with poor results.
If you’re a baseball fan, you may disagree with some of the definitions in this dictionary. And that is one of the reasons I’ve included it here – to include a graphic depiction of the problem with jargon.
I remember reading a column in an airline in flight magazine on jargon. Even though it’s been several years, I still remember this column. The author began by saying that he has a folder of memos with obtuse language that he has collected over the years. He shared one memo that a friend sent to him. I was so struck by the language that I saved it on my hard drive. The guy who wrote the memo said he was going to “map the handoffs and all processes in a combined swim lanes uber-process.” I’m pretty hip to a lot of business jargon as I see it every day. However, I must admit that “swim lanes uber-process” is a new one on me.
As I’m writing this, I’m reminded of an IBM commercial I saw a while back. A guy walks into a large, dimly lighted conference room where he sees no tables and chairs and about twenty people lying on the floor. He says, “What are you guys doing?” Someone answers, “We’re ideating.” He says, “What’s that?” Someone responds, “Coming up with new ways of doing things.” He says, “Why don’t you just call it that?”
Interestingly enough, the word “ideating” sounds a lot like a made up word to me. I expected spell check to flag it. It didn’t. So I guess I am behind the times on some of my business jargon. Even so, I think saying that you’re “Coming up with new ways of doing things,” is much more clear than saying that you’re “Ideating.” But what do I know?
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Jargon causes communication problems. Successful people follow the career advice in Tweet 112 in Success Tweets. “Explain jargon as you go along; or provide a glossary at the end of the document. Better yet, avoid jargon if at all possible.” Don’t assume that everybody who reads what you write will be as familiar with jargon as you. Make your writing clear, concise and readable – that mean as little jargon as possible.
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 112. What’s yours? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by leaving a comment. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
Success Tweet 106: Make Sure People Know You Are Listening to Them
Sep 13th
My latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less is about to go into its third printing. That really pleases me. It has become a greater success than I thought it would be. You can pick up a copy of Success Tweets at your local bookstore or at Amazon.com. Better yet, you can download it for free at www.SuccessTweets.com.
I’m in the home stretch of a series of blog posts that further explain the career advice in Success Tweets – just 35 more to go. Today’s career advice comes from Success Tweet 106…
Demonstrate your understanding of others’ points of view. Listen well and ask questions if you don’ understand.
My friend, Pamela Culpepper, gave me an interesting book a couple of years ago, Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope for the Future. Margaret Wheatley is the author. Dr. Wheatley is an alumna of one of my alma maters – the Harvard Graduate School of Education (we both did our doctoral work there) and the author of one the most innovative leadership books I’ve ever read, Leadership and the New Science. If you haven’t read it, I suggest that you check it out.
In Turning to One Another, Dr. Wheatley outlines six points for effective conversation. Notice how in one way or another, all six focus on being a better listener.
- Acknowledge one another as equals.
- Stay curious about one another.
- Recognize that we need each other’s help to become better listeners.
- Slow down to have the time to think and reflect.
- Remember that conversation is the natural way for humans to think together.
- Expect it to be messy at times.
Here is my take on these six common sense points.
1. Acknowledge one another as equals. You cannot have a good conversation if you don’t recognize one another as equals. Regardless of your hierarchical relation to the other person – if he or she is your boss, peer or subordinate – remember that we are all human beings. As such, we are entitled to respect and dignity. Talk with people, not to them and you’ll be surprised at the quality of your discussions.
2. Stay curious about one another. People are fascinating. I have had some of the most interesting conversations with limo and cab drivers. Often they are immigrants. It’s interesting to hear their take on life in the USA. Be curious about the people you know too. People are always growing and changing. When you express your curiosity you’ll be bound to find out new and interesting things about old friends and acquaintances.
3. Recognize that we need each other’s help to become better listeners. Help others listen. Think before you speak. Speak clearly. Ask them questions; answer the questions they ask you. Remember, communication in general and conversation in particular is a process fraught with potential misconnects. So listen hard to others and make it easy for them to listen to you.
4. Slow down to have the time to think and reflect. When you slow down, you do indeed have time to think. Don’t be afraid to pause and reflect on a question. This shows the other person that you are carefully considering your response – not just saying the first thing that comes to mind. Other people will appreciate you for your thoughtfulness, not knock you for not being quick or clever enough.
5. Remember that conversation is the natural way for humans to think together. I love this one – “conversation is the natural way for human to think together.” The idea of “thinking together” is great career advice. The world would be a better place if we all “thought together” instead of thinking separately and trying to convince others that our thoughts are better than theirs. Since this is the season, I would love to see political debates where the candidates worked together to develop an approach to handling a problem or issue – instead of watching them advance their ideas while taking swipes at the other person’s ideas.
6. Expect it to be messy at times. Conversation is messy. That’s OK. In fact, I think it’s great. Some of the best ideas come out of messy conversations. The willingness to get into the mess and slop around is what frees your creativity.
I really like Turning to One Another. It provides some great career advice on conversation and listening. If you’re interested in becoming a better conversationalist – and you should be – pick it up, read it and think about what Dr. Wheatley has to say. More important, put her ideas to use.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people are great conversationalists. They follow the advice in Tweet 106 in Success Tweets. “Demonstrate your understanding of others’ points of view. Listen well and ask questions if you don’t understand.” Listening takes a little bit of work, but it is worth it in the long run. It will help you become a dynamic communicator and build solid relationships that will fuel your life and career success. Remember Meg Wheatley’s six points for conversation success. They are great career advice. 1) Acknowledge one another as equals. 2) Stay curious about one another. 3) Recognize that we need each other’s help to become better listeners. 4) Slow down to have the time to think and reflect. 5) Remember that conversation is the natural way for humans to think together. 6) Expect it to be messy at times.
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 106. What’s yours? Please share your thoughts with us by leaving a comment. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
