Stop Butchering The English Language

The English language is under assault. Used properly, it's a beautiful, powerful, precise, and vivid language. But I submit that only one in 10 people (perhaps one in 20 in business technology circles) uses it properly. The result: miscommunication, misunderstanding, and ultimately, mistakes that lead to poor productivity.

As a former CIO of three financial institutions and currently a technology management consultant, I depend on proper and accurate use of English in all situations. What follows are some misuses and abuses of the language I encounter regularly, along with suggested alternatives.

My general advice: Keep words and sentences simple and specific. Use active verbs, and avoid jargon, gerunds, and passive sentence constructions. After reading my list, please weigh in with your own linguistic peeves in the Comments section below.

Avoid: Use of "architect" as a verb. As in: "We need to architect a more reliable network."

Why? One is an architect or studies architecture. Or one designs, develops, or builds something. No one architects or is architecting.

Avoid: Benchstrength. As in: "How's our benchstrength?"

Why? For one thing, it's not even a word. And are our folks bench pressing 100 pounds? 200 pounds? I realize I'm being a bit persnickety here, but it's lazy to try to use one vague term in place of a few specific words. How about: "Do we have the right people?"

Avoid: Diarizing (or its UK equivalent, diarising). As in: "I'll be diarising the results of our London meetings."

Why? Because no one will understand what you're talking about. Let's simply write in our diary instead.

Avoid: Decisioning. As in: "We will be decisioning this issue through this coming month."

Why? Because it's part of the triad of fluff, alongside "imagineering" and "solutioning." Here's the result of my own decisioning: Kill this mutilation of a word. One makes decisions or is in the process of making a decision.

Avoid: Direction of travel. As in: "Our direction of travel is to fulfill our mission statement."

Why? Because when it's applied to business affairs, this term is directionless. By auto, train? East, west? If it refers to taking steps in a particular direction, then just say so. Be specific about which direction and why.

Avoid: Going forward. As in: "We plan to spend more time on employee training going forward."

Why? If you remove "going forward" from the previous sentence, what meaning have you lost? None. Do we employ its antonym, "going backward," if we wish to revisit something? The term is at best nebulous and at worst superfluous. Be specific, as in: "Starting next week, we will initiate a new process."

Avoid: I'll circle back with you.

Why? Are you circling the wagons in anticipation of an Indian attack? Why not just say: "I'll get back to you/respond to you" by such and such a day or time?

Avoid: Learnings. As in: "We need to apply our new learnings."

Why? It's another non-word. "Learning" is a reasonable and useful word, but not so much as a noun and certainly not some plural form. How about "lesson" or "lessons" instead?

Avoid: Let's take that offline.

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Why? Is that what Marconi telegraphed? Let's just say: "We'll discuss it later" or "Let's schedule a separate meeting to discuss it."

Avoid: Offboarding. As in: "We're offboarding five employees."

Why? Because the term is even worse than its twin, "onboarding." Is Gitmo offboarding prisoners after it's done waterboarding them? One presumes the word means "firing" or "laying off." Use those words instead.

Avoid: Paradigm shift.

Why? Because it has worn out its welcome. Thankfully, people use this term less than they did a decade ago. Instead, just refer to a "new/adjusted business focus" or to a "change in our business model."

Avoid: Prepone. As in: "The meeting we had planned for May 11 has been preponed to April 9."

Why? Because it's not the opposite of "postpone" and no one will know what you're talking about.

Avoid: Reach(ing) out.

Why? If anyone reaches out to me, he best take care, as I may throw up my arms to block his upper cut.

Avoid: Sense check. As in: "Let's get a sense check on that proposal."

Why? Because those who use this ambiguous term have taken leave of their senses. Does it mean "status update?" Does it mean we need a "sanity check" or we need to determine if something makes sense?

Avoid: Socialize. As in: "We need to socialize that idea before setting a formal policy."

Why? It presumably means to ask a person or group to gain consensus, agreement, or understanding on a document or idea among a number of people. The word apparently has its origin in the education profession. Socializing is fun. Gaining consensus, agreement, or understanding on a document or idea isn't fun. Don't confuse the two.

Avoid: Solutioning. As in: "We will be solutioning this problem over the next week."

Why? Because if I hear this irritating word one more time I won't be responsible for my actions. One develops or prepares solutions to problems. One seeks out solutions. But one is never, ever "solutioning." Stop making verbs or gerunds out of nouns. It's the epitome of laziness in speaking, writing, and thinking.

Avoid: Stakeholders. As in: "Let's socialize this idea with our stakeholders." (Sorry.)

Why? Because we're not part of a witch hunt. We have shareholders, sponsors, members, participants, interested parties. We can even have a stake in something. But "stakeholder" is a sloppy word.

Avoid: Zerotasking. As in: "I'll be zerotasking on my lunch hour today."

Why? Because I'm not sure what it means. I suspect you're not sure either. (It's a new one.) Does it mean there are no tasks for certain people? Or is it some bizarre adaptation of zero-based budgeting, meaning we're going to work up from zero tasks?