Lost Words and Buzzwords

The Lost Words by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris is an invitation to words, poetry, and art. This spell book begins with "Once upon a time, words began to vanish from the language of children. They disappeared so quietly that at first almost no one noticed – fading away like water on a stone..." The book honors words such as "acorn", "bluebell", "kingfisher" and "wren" - that are disappearing from children’s dictionaries, because those words were not being used enough by children to merit inclusion. The book unfolds with a remarkable blending of beautiful words and paintings. Each page is a delight and an invitation to think about a word that is slowly disappearing from our language. Words the author encourages us to bring back to our language. As I read through the book it made me think of all the words we use every day, which words are lost words? which words are buzzwords? which are buzzwords we'd like to make "lost words", lost for good? 

Words and phrases come and go in organizational cultures. Words do matter and we use an awful lot of buzz and jargon words. What words come to mind for you? For starters, do these sound familiar...synergy, vertical, dynamic, alignment, blue sky thinking, and white space? Phrases such as "think outside the box","let's unpack that" and "stay in your lane" are on my list of words I'd like to see become lost words.

One blog even has a list of " The Most Annoying Buzzwords..."

1. Alignment: I want to make sure we’re in alignment about…
2. Bandwidth: Do you have the bandwidth for an additional project?
3. Circle Back: I wanted to circle back on…
4. Close the Loop: Let’s close the loop on this during…
5. Deep Dive: We’ll do a deep dive when we…
6. Disrupt: We have an opportunity to disrupt the industry with…
7. Hard Stop: I have a hard stop on this meeting at 3PM.
8. Impactful: To make this more impactful, let’s…
9. Move the Needle: This effort will move the needle…
10. Table This: We’ll have to table this for later. ..

How did all this buzz get started? It often starts with jargon that simplifies complexity. The tech industry is loaded with jargon. It then shifts to buzzwords which we use (and overuse). Some buzzwords stay and others fade away. Some buzzwords convey factual meaning, and some are used to show belonging to a social or work group. Some buzzwords are helpful, others are annoying. One client group I work with uses "alignment" in every meeting. Everyone uses the word and if you don't use it you are not speaking organizational cultural language. 

It's fascinating when you start listening for the cultural language of different workplaces. Think about these questions:

1. What words have moved from jargon to buzzword to cultural norm in your work place? 
2. What are the buzzwords you hope become "lost words"?
3. What are the lost words you miss? What words have disappeared that you want to see come back?
4. What buzzwords do you find helpful?