Most of us have our pet-cringes when it comes to management speak. The ones that really get to me personally are ring-fenced and skill set. The second of these in particular is enough to make me break off a potential working relationship with anyone that uses it. But what is it exactly about this type of language that can be so grating? Is it that there's something very bland about the thinking behind the terminology? Something so very uninspiring? Is it the pall of standardization that hangs around these terms like a shroud around the hope we all had for a lively, fulfilling career? Do we accept that work is basically an onerous but necessary chore that has to be got out of the way before we can have fun? Maybe it's that these 'management' terms somehow remind us of this troubling question.
Language has the potential to inspire us, to describe possibilities that don't yet exist. Such language can be called 'declarative' as it declares into existence something that comes from the power of human vision and imagination. When language fails to do this and falls into the 'business as usual' pattern of describing procedures, it loses its potential and becomes deadening, sapping our enthusiasm and energy. Perhaps this is the echo that reverberates through a lot of management speak, and which so many people find annoying?
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