IT Trainer of the Year finalist Paula Jones gets cross with some fellow trainers. (Ed)
Management speak annoys me. What pains me most is hearing trainers come out with these awful phrases. We should be clear communicators, as we have to help our learners understand and absorb fairly complex subjects. So when I hear a trainer say, “come on guys, we really need to push the envelope on this one”, it makes me feel vaguely ill. What does it mean? Why do we have to think outside the box? If there was no box to start with, there wouldn’t be a problem.
The pretentious “blue sky thinking” would, quite frankly, make me laugh at the trainer; we should never “put our hands up to things” because, to me, it implies dishonesty (have you noticed, it’s normally accompanied by a gesture that involves the raised hand partially covering the offender’s face? Yeah, exactly.) As for “touch base”, well that just makes me feel violent. No one is touching my base without an invitation AND references.
I like non-ambiguity, not “convergence of combined synergistic responses.” So, no more stepping up to the plate please. There’s already been enough of that brought to the table.
I hope you have a window going forward to read this thought shower.
Aaarrggghh, my most-hated phrase – ‘going forward’. Can’t bear it, it means nothing and really gets my goat.
Thanks, rant over.
I totally agree
As trainers we need to model clear and skilful communication. This type of language is just sloppy nonsense.
We used to play bulls**t bingo at training events and management meetings in order to survive the barrage of mangled English language.
It is much more powerful to make an effort and use a metaphor to explain your point.
If you’ve ever read a public tender document you’d think they’d been written by people from another planet! Going forward I trust that the three of us can converge as a cohort of plain English utilisers.
I’ll step up to the plate on that one. I’m sure we can all bring plain English usage to the table.