Professionals Are Addicted to Buzzwords
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Synergy
This self-important term refers to the whole being greater than the individual parts—sort of like teamwork. -
Value-Add
Translated: If you buy our product or service, it will make your life, job, company a lot better. -
Scalable
One of the most overused IT buzzwords, it refers to a tech solution being able to handle growth in demand. -
Ideate
As in, "We're gonna have a meeting to do some serious ideating." Most of us call this "thinking." -
Leading Edge
Seemingly every company describes itself as "leading edge." But how can we have all leaders and no followers? -
Pain Points
A.k.a.: Things we don't like. -
Core Competencies
Can't we just say, "This is what we do best." -
Deliverable
We used to call these "assignments," "tasks" or "something you better do or you'll be sorry." -
Best of Breed
Are we talking about tech products or purebred dogs? -
Thought Leader
We used to call these guys "experts."
Why are so many smart, accomplished IT and business professionals addicted to buzzwords? These trite, overused terms and phrases litter our daily dialogue like a self-replicating computer virus. What's more, many technology and business folks understand how tiresome these words are, and they will roll their eyes when colleagues use them. Some will even vow to never use tech and business buzzwords, but, somehow, they'll eventually find themselves dropping one of these clichés in a meeting or other workplace conversation. Perhaps it's an inescapable gravitational pull toward these hackneyed expressions. Many businesspeople have resigned themselves to accepting these catchphrases as a professional crutch of sorts, a linguistic convenience that prevents them from talking like, well, normal human beings. With this in mind, we bring you the following list of our 10 most annoying buzzwords and phrases that are frequently used in technology and business discussions. (If you'd like to add some "favorites" of your own, add them to the "Leave a Comment" section below the slideshow.)