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Stop Buzzing in My Ears

September 27, 2011, 10:50 am

By Allison M. Vaillancourt

From time to time, local companies and nonprofits ask me to serve on their interview committees, and when my schedule permits I am always happy to do that. It’s a wonderful opportunity to learn more about what’s happening in the community, and I’m a pretty good judge of character, so the experience is usually a “win-win” for everyone. I use the phrase “win-win” in a most tongue-in-cheek manner because I cannot stand the phrase “win-win.” When a recent interviewee used that phrase and “synergy,” “best of breed,” “new normal,” “next generation,” and “game changer,” all within his introductory remarks, I wanted to interrupt with, “Sir, we will be together for another 50 minutes or so. Could we ask you to talk like a real person for the remainder of the hour?” When the candidate concluded his interview by stressing that he was a “people-oriented team player” — a relief because all the slots for cut-throat introverts had already been taken — I had to practice extreme facial-expression management not to sigh or do what my husband calls “that eyebrow thing.”

To be fair, I am probably more sensitive to buzzwords than some people. For as long as I can remember, my eyes squint and my lips purse when I hear words I find distasteful. I dislike buzzwords so much that I invented a game called First to Five that I played with some fellow members of a board on which I served. We would choose the buzzword of the day and the first person to hear it five times had to cough and then straighten papers. Juvenile? Certainly. Great fun? Absolutely. The words and phrases differed each time we got together. Once we chose “value-added.” Another month it was “drill down.” When reorganization was on the agenda, we decided to listen for both “low-hanging fruit” and “changing the tires while the car is still moving.” First to Five is a streamlined version of Buzzword Bingo, a game that requires far too much prep work. Were any of us to play this game on one of our campuses, which we would certainly never ever do, buzzword candidates might include “student-centric,” “donor-focused,” “learner-centered,” “incentivize,” “sustainable,” “evidence-based,” “perfect storm,” “circle back,” or “data driven.”

The problem with buzzwords is that they weren’t always buzzwords. For example, I consider myself to be fairly authentic and transparent, but I can’t reveal that to anyone because both “authentic” and “transparent” are now buzzwords. Soon there will be nothing left to say!

What are the buzzwords that make you crazy? Have you been in an interview or presentation in which someone described the value of “stakeholder engagement,” “blue sky thinking,” or using “best in class” approaches? Did they make their position clear: “Period. Full stop”? Was the conversation sufficiently “impactful” to get your attention?

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  • http://derekbruff.com Derek Bruff

    I don’t see words losing meaning due to overuse, assuming they are used relatively appropriately and consistently. Otherwise words like “community,” “character,” “juvenile,” and, for that matter, “buzzwords” wouldn’t be available for use in this post.

    If someone is using a buzzword because they don’t have anything interesting to say, that’s a problem. But if someone uses “learner-centered” or “sustainable” or “drill down” because those terms actually describe the idea that person wants to communicate, then I don’t see a problem. That’s just accurate communication.

  • fiona

    I disagree. When you use words like “sustainable” or “learner-centered,” my eyes glaze over. Those are signals that froth and babble are coming up. If you want to get my attention and interest, use words that aren’t snoozers. If all you use are snoozers, you have nothing of interest to say.

  • dianeseal

    Froth and babble? Yes, and the babbling murmur of second-rate minds (thanks to Edwin Black for that one).

  • http://derekbruff.com Derek Bruff

    I’m no fan of froth and babble, but to dismiss an environmental scientist because she uses the term “sustainable” or an education researcher because he utters “learner-centered”? That seems disrespectful of the expertise of others.

    Buzzwords that are used to hype, not clarify or explain, bug me, too, but many of the “buzzwords” in this post are examples of domain-specific terminology. They may not be terms used in your domain, but that doesn’t make them meaningless.

  • jhanks

    “Learning-based outcomes.”  I have advanced degrees and fifteen years of college teaching experience, and I don’t even know what those ARE.

  • yellow1

    I am with Derek on this one. These words or phrases started off as the best expression or representation of certain ideas. When they are used in that manner, they aren’t buzzwords. If we’re talking about the interview/hiring arena as well, I would hope any selection committee would ask some sort of follow up question or require a demonstration that proves “learner centered” or whatever buzzwords is used.

  • johnbarnes

    But I do disrespect, and quite deliberately, education researchers who say “learner centered” with great frequency, as it is 1) an identifying term of a school of thought with whose premises I disagree and 2) picked up and used extensively by people who don’t even understand that particular branch of phony expertise because it sounds positive.  I think the buzzwords in this post were actually very well-chosen; some genuinely refer to nothing because there is no alternative to which other words might refer (“I’m more of a thing kind of person, I relate really well to inert objects”?); others because they are from fields (such as education research, business administration, human services) where phoniness and nonsense are particularly abundant; and still others because they have been borrowed from real fields where they refer to real things, but the borrowers don’t seem to know what they actually mean (e.g. parameters, paradigms).

  • singfasola

    I hate “spot on”, the British term for “absolutely right”, “on target”, etc. Information technology/systems people are using this in interviews, blogs, plain old conversation, and it bugs me as much as when people throw around Latin just to prove they can.

  • darccity

    Equally interesting is the shelf life (whoops) of such expressions and cliches. Suddenly, they disappear from our speech. Anyone who accidentally drops them into a conversation gets a disapproving or condescending look. Perhaps this article is not so much an attack on buzzword usage as on bottom feeders (oops, did it again) whose metaphors and expressions are tired and have lost their impact value. We folks on the inside can feel superior about getting access to the newest, hippest phrases while they are still profound insights and before everyone is using them.

  • pokerphd

    I find it almost necessary now to precede the use of such terms with a phrase like, “Dare I say ___…” or “As much as I hate to use ___…” Then, as some comments have already noted, I shift immediately into an example or anecdote to explain the context and rationale for using the term. Some of these are hard to avoid, especially when the interviewers (and the job descriptions leading to the interview) use the very same!

  • inbe01

    My pet peeve is spiral, when increase or decrease would work just fine.

  • terrymurray

    “Going forward.” Worse: “On a go-forward basis.” What’s wrong with “from now on” or “in the future”?

  • 22185161

    On the other hand –

    Interviewees don’t use “real” language because ALL the hiring experts tell us interviewers won’t hire us if we do.

    So instead of saying, “My previous boss was a total nutjob, and the university was a dysfunctional, professionally incestuous quagmire and allowed him to be. So I had to leave that place in order to preserve my physical and mental health,” —- I had to say, “My previous institution is a great place for people like me who sought to combined faith-based learning with high standards of scholarship. However, I increasingly found that I missed the opportunities and challenges of an academic medicine environment. My boss completely understood and supported that I needed to find an environment where my skills could be utilized to their best advantage.”

    In other words, I used the appropriate buzzwords. And it worked – I got the job of my dreams.

    The fact is, being candid only works if you know the person(s) with whom you are being candid. And the vast majority of the time, interviewees do not know their interviewers.

    My practice is to not judge too harshly those who use buzzwords I personally cannot stand. I work to listen for the meaning behind the buzz and make my judgments accordingly.

  • polisciguy

    Let me see if I can clear it up for you: Learning-based outcomes means whatever the expert whose company is paid mid-five figures to low-six figures (and who touts their Ph.D. in education, but tries to pretend it’s not that big of a deal at the same time) tells you it is this year. I would not bother to memorize the definition, as it will change, as will the terminology, in 3-5 years (if my experience in the k-12 arena is any indication).

    By the what you do, with all your advanced degrees in your subject area and 15 years of experience, is actual teaching. Please, for the sake of students who need to be fed substance over flash, let us never confuse flavor-of-the-month terminology with actual instruction. While we can (and do) always polish our efforts in the classroom, reinventing the wheel (please pardon the cliche) every time someone gets a idea in their grad school program is silliness bordering on dangerous for the intellectual future of our nation.

  • polisciguy

    By the way, I don’t think John Keating (Robin Williams) from Dead Poet’s Society ever said “Seize the learning-based outcome.” If he did, he really butchered the Latin on that one.

  • 12080243

    Take buzzwords from our administrators at the University of Southern Mississippi–maybe other institutions, too–and they are left with nothing to say. They are communications, public relations devotees and practice their blather. Here’s a test: when your administrators begin using buzzwords and metaphors, ask them for explanations and details. See what happens. You may get a better understanding of your university. 

    Chauncey M. DePree, Jr., DBA, Professor, University of Southern Mississippi, http://www.usmnews.net

  • terrymurray

    But it’s more than that – buzzwords are often empty. Even when left in, nothing is actually being said.

  • 12080243

    So true. As pointed out in the article, “transparent,” for example, is no longer meaningful. Transparent used to have meaning in accounting. Transparent meant that the numbers in financial statements accurately measured something in the real world. Or, the speaker’s words accurately represented real world conditions. Politicians, bureaucrats, and administrators desired association with the positive attributes of the word “transparent” without its technical meaning. They often used it in contexts and about themselves that were demonstrably false. “Transparency” became a joke. A buzzword. Vacuous. As you pointed out, empty.

  • minnesotan

    “Impactful.” I’m not yet willing to concede that this is even a word, yet I saw it on a job ad this month. Bah!

  • allison_vaillancourt

    Smooth! I think you used strategic language rather than buzzwords. Happy to hear you made a successul escape. On a go-forward basis, I’m sure you will leverage every opportunity to exploit optimal synergies so that you transform the organizational paradigm by coloring outside the lines.

  • mbelvadi

    “Teaching and learning” when it’s obvious from the context that they really mean “teaching”.  Apparently the word “teaching” can’t be used without “and learning” anymore. Kind of like when “the breakaway republic of Chechnya” was in the news – no news reporter/anchor seemed able to just say “Chechnya”.

  • eliz5901

    Right now I’m hating “nimble.”  What happened to well-written? Clearly argued?

  • etmiller

    Or just “public opinion” instead of “the Arab street” (as though only Arabs used streets).

    The first problem for me is that these words usually get used by people who want to sound like they’re saying something more than what they’re actually saying, or to give the impression that they have some kind of special understanding by using these words.

    The other problem for me is that they’re often simply redundant. “Learning-based outcomes”–isn’t it generally agreed that, in education, ALL outcomes are ostensibly learning-based? Until we also start honestly using a term like “bureaucracy-promoting outcomes,” then why bother to say “learning-based”?

  • born2teach

    This article had me laughing out loud, and is a wonderful afternnon read!  The buzzword phrase that makes me crazy is “going forward”…

  • duppy_conqueror

    I am “passionate about” “best practices”! And buzzwords!

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