Ok. I’ve worked in the small and medium sized companies all my life now, and I can tell you with no uncertainty that no matter how large or small your organization, buzzwords and buzzphrases are as tightly integrated into your company, as its corporate charter. If you don’t know what I’m talking about think about the last time someone said to you or in your presence: “Let’s take this conversation ‘offline’.” In the quoted sentence, the buzzword is “offline”.

There are literally hundreds of these terms out there. I’ve compiled a list of my least favorites for you here. My task for you all is one of two:

  1. Add to this list
  2. Post a count of the number of times someone uses these phrases in your presence (including yourself) on a given workday.

Here is my list:

  • At the end of the day
  • Bells and whistles
  • Deliverables
  • Drill(ing) down
  • Execute
  • Face time
  • focused as a suffix (as in results-focused)
  • Low-hanging fruit
  • Mission-critical
  • Metrics
  • Moving the goal posts
  • Next steps
  • Nuts and bolts
  • Offline (as in “Let’s talk about it offline.”)
  • Off the shelf
  • Our time to shine
  • Out of the loop
  • Out of the box
    • Paradigms
    • Pass the baton
    • Post mortem
    • Pushing the envelope
    • Pull the trigger
    • Putting out fires
    • Radar screen (as in “It’s not showing up on my radar screen.”)
    • Red herring
    • Rubber hits the road
    • Self-motivated
    • Synergistic
    • Temperature gauge
    • Ten-thousand foot fiew
    • The Crux of the matter
    • Touch base (as in “Let’s touch base this afternoon.”)
    • Value-added
    • Warm and fuzzies

    Those of you with whom I’ve shared an office might think I stole these from a single man. If you know what I’m talking about, then you know who I mean. Well the truth is, I didn’t. Only two or three of these terms came exclusively from him. The rest I researched on my own. Later