Business Speak (closely related to “politician speak”) is an inferior way to communicate. It uses inappropriate, often made-up words that obscure the intended message. Characteristics of Business Speak often include making nouns of verbs (learnings; agreeance) and verbs of nouns (languaging; impact). It relies on tired clichés (think outside the box; new paradigm) in a failed attempt to project an image of self-importance.
The people who use Business Speak are not stupid themselves. They have simply never learned the skills necessary to communicate clearly to people outside their own peer group.
Who can blame them? Pity the Manager of Product Development who is called upon to make a presentation to a boardroom of people who have little technical expertise. The Manager is used to working with her own team, a group which naturally develops its own vernacular, acronyms and verbal shorthand. Trained as an engineer, not as a public speaker, her presentation takes one of two possible paths: 1.) She falls back on the familiar, peppering her speech with terms that, while natural and appropriate when dealing with her team partners, leaves her present audience confused and bored. Or, 2.) She makes the mistake of using the language she thinks is used by members of audience. She uses Business Speak.
Either way, the results are the same: miscommunication, misunderstanding, wasted time.
Business Speak infects more than presentations. You see it in reports, in web site content, some folks even use it in verbal communication. (I’ve heard with my own ears people use phrases such as “That project was not of my genesis,” “Let’s look at the investagory nature of this,” and “That’s not a firm fit for my core competencies.”) Ugh.
Man is a pattern-seeking, story-telling animal.
Remember that when preparing to communicate.
Effective communication takes an idea from one person’s head and puts it into another person’s head, with a minimum amount of translation error. If that’s your goal, then it is counterproductive to use words unfamiliar to your audience, or words that obscure or detract from the message you intend to convey.
Clear communication is not “dumbing down” language. On the contrary, it is the result of appreciating the wants and needs of your audience. If you’re making a presentation, writing a report or web site content, your focus should be on giving people what they want to know. If that’s a room full of theoretical physicists who want to know about Higgs Boson detectors in the Large Hadron Collider, effective communication will compel you to freely use the acronym LHC and casually throw around terms such as Electroweak Symmetry.
On the other hand, if you’re speaking to a high school general science class, you would avoid acronyms and arcane facts in favor of explaining general concepts and using anecdotes that would be interesting to a group of this knowledge level.
Regardless of the audience, illustrative stories and appropriate metaphors are excellent ways to communicate effectively and memorably. Remember, man is a pattern-seeking, story-telling animal. Take advantage of that when preparing to communicate.
I believe clear communication shows you are aware of and respect the time and interests of your audience. Viewed that way, Business Speak is disrespectful and wasteful.
