Scrub away some of your jargon
Tip: scrub away some of your jargon
Jargon is like the gunk that builds up in your bathroom sink. Time for a spring clean!
When we come into a new workplace, we learn the jargon that goes along with it.
We need to know it to function
To fit in, we need to use it
We're brilliant adaptors!
Do you remember that 6-month period at a new job where you were baffled by the acronyms? You sat through meetings with only a vague sense of what people were talking about.
About half a year in, it all started to make sense. You began using the jargon and acronyms with the best of them.
Adaptation achieved – you've learnt the workplace's shorthand!
But what about the new people?
New hires will read your writing. They'll guess what your acronyms are – sometimes they'll be right, sometimes wrong. They'll be gob-smacked at the heights your jargon has reached.
They'll go home every day exhausted from all the newness.
What about your effectiveness?
When we hear people talking in jargon, we turn off. They seem more interested in their status as an expert or an old hand than they do in getting work done efficiently.
I don't know about you, but that's the last impression I want to give!
Keep questioning your own jargon
Can you replace SOP with procedure or guide?
Can you stop leveraging capability and start making the most of people's skills?
Just like your bathroom sink inevitably gets dirty over time, jargon will always creep in. Why? Because we're social creatures who adapt to the language of those around us.
Have a good spring clean today – question your jargon.