If you leverage robust revenues, practice 24/7, think outside the box and optimize results-driven values, you'll find a synergistic win-win client-focused mindset for speaking effectively.
Boy, isn't that clear and concise?
Why do people fall into the jargon trap? It's probably for peer acceptance or to show they are as smart as the next person.
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Bob Elliott of Boca Grande
But are you that smart if half your audience doesn't know what you're saying?
If you're the kind of person who is drowning in bureaucratic jargon, please resist it. A Medicare official once talked about the "ultimate negative health care patient outcome." Only Medicare insiders knew he was talking about death.
And speaking of death, some health insurance companies define it as "involuntary disenrollment."
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Editors' note: Bob Elliott, creator of the Boca Grande Camera club and board member of the Boca Grande Art Alliance, spent a career improving communications at large corporations such as Pfizer, Cigna and Westinghouse, where he witnessed many of the faux paus detailed in the book "Make Your Point," which he co-wrote with Kevin Carroll. As a communications consultant he developed relationships with top American companies such as General Electric, MasterCard and Wal-Mart and also worked with personalities such as model-actress Cindy Crawford and tennis star Jimmy Connors. The preceding was an excerpt from "Make Your Point,"which is available at amazon.com.
Don't you just love it?
It doesn't sound so bad that way, does it?
Too bad most people don't know what the heck "involuntary disenrollment" means. Buzzwords, jargon and doublespeak can be the death of communicative language.
Not so long ago, a consulting firm came out with a software program called "Bullfighter" that edits out jargon. In saluting it, "The New York Times reported: "The people blamed for incentivizing companies to repurpose, build mind share and utilize change agents have taken aim at their own lingo."
Let go of the lingo. Like the late great sportscaster Howard Cosell used to say: "Tell it like it is."
Editors' note: Bob Elliott, creator of the Boca Grande Camera club and board member of the Boca Grande Art Alliance, spent a career improving communications at large corporations such as Pfizer, Cigna and Westinghouse, where he witnessed many of the faux paus detailed in the book "Make Your Point," which he co-wrote with Kevin Carroll. As a communications consultant he developed relationships with top American companies such as General Electric, MasterCard and Wal-Mart and also worked with personalities such as model-actress Cindy Crawford and tennis star Jimmy Connors. The preceding was an excerpt from "Make Your Point,"which is available at amazon.com.


