“Get down in the weeds” – This means to go into detail, to discuss the complexities of the issues. “Don’t reinvent the wheel” – Don’t try to be innovative, just keep things simple. How would you react if someone used the phrase: “ Let’s sharpen the point of this pencil?“ Management Jargon: The Cringey Sayingsįrom the slightly cringey to the much more cringey, here are ten further examples that are often used by a manager or team leader who may be a little too enthusiastic to share their wisdom. “Robust” – When you could easily use simple alternatives like “strong” and “powerful”, you must start to wonder what’s going through someone’s mind when they use the word “robust”. As I am not, I will now use the phrase “go and speak to” instead. “Reach out” – This is one that I have been guilty of using myself, but our reader Janette assures me that it “should only be said if you’re a member of the Four Tops”. It is also cringeworthily referred to as “doing the groundwork”. “Lay the foundations” – A round-about way of saying “prepare”. This a word typically used by an English student who gets over-excited by their thesaurus, wanting to impress their teacher. “Ideation” – Simply another word for “thinking”. Instead of sharing them with you, this phrase is often used as the speaker doesn’t understand the lessons themselves and wants to skip onto their next point. “High-level learnings” – These are lessons that have been learned at the top level of your organisation. It’s a nice way of saying “research something until you can take no more”. “Deep-dive” – In the management sense this means to explore something extensively. So, instead of “cross-pollinating”, try working with your colleagues and sharing ideas. “Cross-pollinate” – Some scientists are now saying that human beings are not the same as bees. “From the cradle to the grave” – This means from start to finish, which is much better to say, unless you are feeling particularly morbid. “Let’s put something in the calendar” is also an acceptable alternative. “Calendarise” – If you calendarise something you schedule something. The extra few syllables of saying “put things into groups” are well worth the extra effort. “Bucketise” – This is the act of putting things into “buckets” or, as a normal person would say, “groups”. “ Cross-pollinate“, “ ideation” and “ high-level learnings” are all classic examples of management speak.