What Are The Most Destructive Terms in Business?
What are the Most Destructive Terms in Business?
Submitted by Dermot Hikisch, Head of Community Development, B Lab
Psychologists propose that the words we use pre-determine the mindsets we go into business with and results we see as the outputs. To test that theory, institute B hosted the first of a series of dialogues intended to gather insights about business-speak from leaders that care.
Participants included B Corps like Conscious Brands, Luna Pads, Fairware, Sustainability TV, and many entrepreneurs working in the sustainability space.
After grounding everyone in the motivation to dive deeper into this ignored issue, attendees gathered together to share ideas on what doesn’t work, what does, and whether change in the language we currently use every day could be changed.
Almost surprisingly, participants brainstormed a significant number of more constructive terms than negative, even though the majority of attendees recognized that they were using 20th Century terms more often, and for some, almost exclusively.
Most Destructive Language Terms in Business
“Crushing the competition”
“Deadline”
“Execution”
“Guerilla Marketing”
“Killing two birds with one stone”
“Pain point”
“Take no prisoners”
“Ground Zero”
“Bury the hatchet”
“Embarking on a campaign”
“Unsuspecting target”
“Headhunters”
The top votes for “most inspired” 21st Century Constructive Business Language were:
“Rowing in the same direction”
“Low hanging fruit”
“Cross Pollination”
“Enrollment”
“Engagement”
“Eco-system”
“Building”
“Harvest”
“Hosting”
“Nurture”
Amongst the participants, there was agreement that the spirit of business a company chose to operate under drove many of the terms then used in the workplace.
It was reassuring to hear that a number of the terms were being used in the workplace already. Perhaps not as frequently as we hope, but the foundation for 21st business speak is already being built for many of these entrepreneurs.
The Changing the Language of Business dialogues will continue with stops at the Hub San Francisco, SVN Spring Conference, Business4Better, Sustainable Brands, and online via twitter at #talkBB or visit www.talkbetterbusiness.com