Friday, January 11, 2008

Corporate Newspeak 2

Take-away: (n) A marginally insightful observation which will only have relevance at some unknown future date, often used as a passive-aggressive method of delivering criticism. The verbal equivalent of that chinese food that's been in the back of your fridge for a month. Also: Lessons Learned.
Usage: "Hmm ... so you called our client a monkey in clowns clothing and he fired us ... hmm ... well, the takeaway is don't do that. I'll shoot out a lessons learned e."

Vet: (v) Review somebody else's work so they'll take responsibility for it. The lazy man's critical thinking
Usage: "Hey, I just shot you an E with a draft of some asks. Can you and John vet it before we send it out?"

Gap: (v) Figure out what's fucked up and who to blame, often used with "versus"
Usage: "Hey! Where's my diet Snapple? Jeannie, did you order my diet Snapple? Timmy, it looks like we need to gap our order versus what the caterer sent."

Administrivia: (n) Repetitive often menial bookkeeping work necessary for a large buraucratic organization to function, but outside of what you perceive to be your 'real job'
Usage: "I spent half my day buried in administrivia, so I didn't have time to make us any money."

Outsource: (v) Get someone else to do the work your laziess and ego won't permit you to do
Usage: "I'm going to outsource this administrivia to Mike so I can spend more time brainstorming."

Circle Back: (v) Discuss again as though the topic is new; often used to diplomatically end a discussion where the participants are not infomed, empowered, or cognitive enough to make a decision and everyone's attention span has been exhausted.
Usage: "Listen, you go have a cigarette with Sammy, and I'll read my emails and we'll circle back on this after lunch."

Think On: (v) Ponder; often used as an exuse for not being able to answer a question or to deliver work on time.
Usage: "That's a tough call. I'm going to have to think on it tonight. Let's circle back in the A.M."

Brainstorm: (v) Get in a room with other people and a list of issues with no solution. Then hope that solutions accidentally fall out of someone's mouth while they're arguing about the minutae of how to define the issues.
Usage: "Yes, sir, I know I'm a week late solving that problem. I asked Bob and Harry to think on it so we can brainstorm tomorrow."

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