“Jargon masks real meaning,” says Jennifer Chatman, management professor at the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. “People use it as a substitute for thinking hard and clearly about their goals and the direction that they want to give others.”
That said, here is a glossary of some of the most annoying business jargon:
- Core Competency
- Buy-In
- S.W.A.T. Team
- Swim Lane
- Empower
- Drinking the Kool-Aid
- Move the Needle
- Open the Kimono
- Bleeding Edge
- Tiger Teams
- Burning Platform
- Lots of Moving Parts
- Corporate Values
- Make Hay
- Scaleable
- Best Practice
- Think Outside the Box
- Ducks in a Row
- Ecosystem
- Solution
- Leverage
- Vertical
- Over the Wall
- Full Service
- Drill Down
- It is What it Is
- Robust
- Take Offline
- Synergize
- Learnings
- Boil the Ocean
- Reach Out
- Hard Stop
- Punt
- Impact
- Giving 110%
- Body of Work
- Let’s Talk That
- Price Point
- Take it to the Next Level
- Cut and Dry
- Out of Pocket
- Window of Opportunity
- Low-Hanging Fruit
- Peel the Onion