Anyway, the point is, this kind of overuse of sports metaphors has pervaded every part of our lives. There are the annoying terms everybody uses at work that aren't sports-related, but are completely meaningless:
"Let't table that."
"Segue"
"30,000 feet level..."
"Reach out to..."
"Valule proposition"
"I'll be out of pocket that day..." (What??)
And so forth. I have dozens written down in a notepad, trying to come up with the most ridiculous. Two favorites are plane-related: "This project is circling to land," and "We're building the plane as we fly it." Gosh, those make me laugh.
Anyway, Bob Katz has written an article about the overuse of sports metaphors in business and how lame it really is. If you're looking for some reading material and want to feel smart because you're reading Forbes, go for it.
9 comments:
I thought the picture was Tom Crean at first.
I meant to post this on your most stupid phrases used by sports announcers. Trickeration. Its not even a word. Please only use real words when talking about trick plays.
Some annoying and meaningless phrases my boss uses and everyone copies as a result...
-circle back with (follow-up)
-one off (to talk 1on1)
Matt -- Absolutely... those are on my list. It's a full page or two of notebook paper now....
"Hard stop" is another one I hate. Can't we just say you need to stop at 2 PM? Not that you have a "hard stop at 2"?
Ugh.
People love sounding important.
"The ball is in our court now." If you are referring to basketball wouldn't you say it's in our possession now, not in our court? If it is in our court are you trying to tell me we are playing a home game? What are you trying to tell me?
My lazy annoying tool of a boss loves to use these types of phrases. That is one reason why I'm doing work right now.
Here are several that irritate me:
"Get plugged in"
"At the end of the day..."
"Elevate the bar"
"We need to hit this one out of the park."
"Basically..."
"I'll touch base with you on that"
"In reality..." Really??
"We need to ground ourselves in reality here..."
"We can't fumble this project."
"We have to stay focused"
Most of these statements are spoken into a bluetooth head set in the office.
"Go forward basis..."
Ahhh reading this is so cathartic, I always get so irritated listening to people vomit their canned phrases that help them avoid dealing with reality. Why is it so easy for some to use tehse, but so irritating for so many others when they do?
My problem is, I think, that using phrases like these helps people sound important and avoid dealing with reality. i.e. if something is going to happen in the future say "This will happen next week/month/year." not "This will happen going forward."
In reality, though, I just think that it's part of human nature, people trying to find a common language so that they can assure mutual understanding...
GA Boiler -- I'm thinking "ball is in our court" is more of a tennis reference than a basketball one. It's in our court, so we need to volley it back. Maybe?
Okay, you all are all motivating me to share my list... if I can find it. It's long. A couple of us spent work meetings capturing all annoying phrases a couple years ago.
Now I gotta look for it.
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