Gibberish sounds cute and funny, when we hear it from our children - 2-3 year old toddlers, who are just learning how to talk and experiment with sounds and words in their hurry to express themselves and make themselves heard.
On the other hand, 'corporate gibberish' in my definition is the long list of useless and important sounding words that we throw around in the corporate sector. Words such as 'value addition', 'paradigm shift', 'transformation of business', 'positioning and USP', 'table stakes' and many more. One can probably create a dictionary of such words which would run to thousands of pages.
And it is not remotely cute or funny.
What's more, each company even has their own versions of acronyms of the corporate gibberish, the ones which are unique in that specific company and which, employees of that company, are expected to learn and get exposed to from the very first day when they attend induction.
What do they really mean? Beyond the dictionary meaning of the words, in what context do we use them? Do we use them as armor to hide the lack of real progress, the absence of real numbers, the issues that no one wants to raise or nobody wants to hear about?
And what if we try to apply these words on our own selves? Will we like the answers we get then?
Do we personally add any value? Are we causing a paradigm shift? Are we any way responsible for transformation of our business? What is our positioning and USP? Do we have table stakes in what is really key for our business?
Or do we feel like the soldiers in the Crimean War that Tennyson spoke about in his 'Charge of the Light Brigade'
"Ours is not to reason why,
Ours is but to do and die"
Point to ponder. I am all for gibberish from children as they learn to speak. Hopefully, in the corporate world, it is time now to finally speak up loud without the customary 'corporate gibberish'.
On the other hand, 'corporate gibberish' in my definition is the long list of useless and important sounding words that we throw around in the corporate sector. Words such as 'value addition', 'paradigm shift', 'transformation of business', 'positioning and USP', 'table stakes' and many more. One can probably create a dictionary of such words which would run to thousands of pages.
And it is not remotely cute or funny.
What's more, each company even has their own versions of acronyms of the corporate gibberish, the ones which are unique in that specific company and which, employees of that company, are expected to learn and get exposed to from the very first day when they attend induction.
What do they really mean? Beyond the dictionary meaning of the words, in what context do we use them? Do we use them as armor to hide the lack of real progress, the absence of real numbers, the issues that no one wants to raise or nobody wants to hear about?
And what if we try to apply these words on our own selves? Will we like the answers we get then?
Do we personally add any value? Are we causing a paradigm shift? Are we any way responsible for transformation of our business? What is our positioning and USP? Do we have table stakes in what is really key for our business?
Or do we feel like the soldiers in the Crimean War that Tennyson spoke about in his 'Charge of the Light Brigade'
"Ours is not to reason why,
Ours is but to do and die"
Point to ponder. I am all for gibberish from children as they learn to speak. Hopefully, in the corporate world, it is time now to finally speak up loud without the customary 'corporate gibberish'.
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