My friend David Zinger writes about Employee Engagement as often as I do (maybe more?). And his wit is second to none. Here's a posting of David's from 12/12/08.

Disengaging Phrases: Bamboozle Them with Jargon!

Important memo. I just had a thought shower so at
this moment in time here is all of it so
we keep

our heads up as I want
to keep you in the loop to get our ducks in a row by brainstorming and
being pro-active about going forward to touch base at the end of the
day so that we sing from the same hymn sheet to turn things around with
our 360º thinking before the credit crunch has our thinking outside of
the box go so high as to become blue sky thinking and we begin pushing
the envelope to start downsizing.

According to work in Great Britain these were the 20 most despised words of business jargon:

1. Thinking outside of the box
2. Touch base
3. At the end of the day
4. Going forward
5. All of it
6. Blue sky thinking
7. Out of the box
8. Credit crunch
9. Heads up
10. Singing from the same hymn sheet
11. Pro-active
12. Downsizing
13. Ducks in a row
14. Brainstorming
15. Thought shower
16. 360º thinking
17. Flag it up
18. Pushing the envelope
19. At this moment in time
20. In the loop

How about writing some jargon in a comment to my memo. We can keep everyone disengaged or at least completely bamboozled.

Note that David's list is from across the pond. That allows me to make some notes, offer additions, and ask some questions.

• What is flag it up?

• I see re-engineering is too passe to make the list.

• Given what keeps David, myself, and hundreds of other bloggers going, I'm relieved (and a little surprised!) that employee engagement doesn't appear…yet.

Good show, David. I'm thankful for any little prompt that keeps me from becoming cliche-bound.

And here's a challenge, readers. Hit the comment button below and offer your examples of jargon that may be getting the better of us here in the USA.

Tomorrow, I'll offer you the wisdom of another of my fellow EEBs…that's Employee Engagement Bloggers.

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Tags: Employee Engagement