All Time List of Business ClichesAs I' ve written in many different posts, the art of using catchy business cliches and phrases is just out of control. I' ve had my share of cliche throwing bosses and each one thought they were incredibly witty and effective, when in fact they boring, regular, and incompetent. The other night I was talking to my wife about the latest barrage of cliches from my week and she said "you should make a list, I bet it would be funny". I' ve come up with a list of 40 cliches and phrases I' ve heard over my career and am trying to build the list. Visit my blog via the link below and help build the list.
Well, apparently you have to have a google account in order to post a comment and I don' t have the time, energy or care to get one. So, here are a few that you can add in your good time.
I had one boss who was a sports fisherman and thankfully I have forgotten most of what he ever said to me. 1) I have read your list and I have a question: I understand the meaning behind "get our arms around it" but I have heard people using the phrase, "I' m trying to get my head around it" when referring to a (God forbid) new idea, theory or program. This makes absolutely no sense. How does anyone get his/her head "around" anything? Wouldn' t it make more sense to say, "I' m trying to understand it" ? And as long as I am treating you as "Mr. Language Person", where in the hell did this saying come from? 2) I don' t recall if you have this one on your list or not. May I add a personal favorite? This is nice since it incorporates some kind of pseudo-military garbage with the hilarious overtone of anyone at work having the option to disagree with any really bad idea that comes along. It gets the same response as, "What do you think? It' s a great idea, isn' t it?" which I have always found to be strictly rhetorical in intent. Good ones from both of you. You do not need a google account. You can submit a comment using the anonymous tag or you can just use a name without a google account. If you look monster user bodwen posted a message by using the name (without account option) but you could also do the anonymous thing if you wanted to. When you go to make a comment select the anonymous radio button and submit away or fill in your non google account name using that radio button. I' ll add them to the list and do some research on the meaning of that one phrase. After extensive research I have found the meaning of the cliche/phrase "I' m trying to get my head around it". It basically refers to trying to cope with, deal with, or understand something like a problem or issue you are facing. The phrase is french and comes from the french phrase: La prochaine fois que vous affrontez une situation de stress ou d' échec grave, au point où vous avez envie de tout arrêter, de vous asseoir par terre et d' enfouir votre tête entre vos bras pour pleurer, au lieu de vous morfondre ainsi, installez-vous confortablement et faites une liste de tous les points positifs que vous pouvez tirer de cette expérience Which translated means: The next time you are faced with a disappointing or stressful situation that you just can' t wrap your head around, sit down and make a list of all the positives that you can take from the experience One other variation is "wrap your mind around it" which relates to not being able to take it in, process it, absorb it, etc. I do not have any business cliches to add BUT I have some of my own. Here is one from my grandmother: "The wind has ears" She meant to keep your mouth shut or your secrets wil become known and you will be screwed. Therefore, before you open your mouth think aobut what you will ask and how it will be taken in context in your business affairs. Here is one that I use almost EVERY day: "It is not about me, myself and I. Rather, it is about US, WE and OURS" In your place of business, we are a team. And as a team we generate income or profits that increases the companies bottom line. Take ownership of everything we do at work and be proud of your contributions. Well, if we are going to bring our grandmama into this. Mine had one she used whenever my mother started talking about my father (negatively, as usual but he deserved it then): Little Pitchers Have Big Ears, meaning don' t talk about things you don' t want others to hear especially if the person you don' t want to know about the subject is standing right there. Another one from her quite often was: Hey, I don' t swim in your toilet, so don' t p e e in my pool, meaning I don' t do or say anything about you so don' t do or say anything about me. There are also other, more colorful, phrases concerning kissing up to people that both my mother and grandmother used to say a lot and which I heard some people say at my very first ever job. Since moving West, I haven' t heard them. Either they have gone out of style or are an East Coast thing. They would probably be deleted for nonconformity reasons. Many years ago, myself and another contractor were hired on a 6 month contract with a particular company. Now this was the time when companies had all these team, quality circle, continuous improvement and re-engineering programs in place. This particular company had adopted a lot of this corporate speak and all the catchy phrases but that was as far as they got. They didn' t have any real systems or procedures in place, other than the verbiage. So it was a case of The Emperor' s New Clothes. People said, "We' re a team" and that magically made them a team. They could have easily have called themselves dozen donuts or a herd of buffalo for all that it mattered. Anyway, myself and this other contractor began making up our own meaningless jargon. The funny thing was that people began using our phrases - the ones we had made up out of thin air! We actually saw phrases like "polarized redundancies" and "Storm the Winter Palace" in management status reports. We just made all this nonsense up. | |
|
Career Tips
|