Fun with Work Jargon

In the consulting world, and this may be true for the "normal" corporate world as well, certain jargon is used in lieu of common phrases. I've compiled a list below of the ones I hear most often, and admittedly find difficult to avoid using :)

1.) I have a couple of questions/concerns/issues "around"...

I feel the word "about" is being highly marginalized these days. I do have to admit that substituting "around" for "about" is more visual.

2.) It's my expectation that...
And people are always needing to...
3.) Set expectations
Contacting someone can take many forms. Sometimes you may...
4.) Ping...
Or...
5.) Touch base with...
Or...
6.) Circle back with...
Or...
7.) Close the loop with...
someone if there is an open issue "around" something.
And if you happen to have the misfortune of being surgically attached to a pager, you don't "page" someone, you...
8.) Page "out" to someone
And if you, for example, forgot to "page out" to someone concerning something important, you obviously didn't do your...
9.) Due diligence
And are probably not...
10.) Adding value
Or being a...
11.) High performer
Which all can, in the end, turn out to be a...
12.) CLM (Career Limiting Move)
Which can have you...
13.) Riding the bench or unstaffed
...for quite sometime.
A lot of times during a meeting, you may have to...
14.) Revisit
an issue or...
15.) Take it offline
perhaps in a...
16.) Parking lot session
where you can discuss the business'...
17.) Core competencies
and how they can be...
18.) Leveraged
to create...
19.) Synergy
So you may have to come up with a new...
20.) Game plan
that might not fit the...
21.) Paradigm
that everyone is used to. Which may cause some people to...
22.) Push back
23.) ...at the end of the day
when they actually needed it...
24.) Like yesterday.

Just Finished a Book

Wow, it's been quite some time that I last made a blog entry, and apparently I cared a lot about bathroom manners :)

This blog entry is really just to document the fact that I actually read (and finished!) a book. I have an odd habit of reading a book 75% through and then tossing it. I think it typifies how quickly I get bored with things. Thank God I work for a consulting firm where I bounce from project to project. Anywho...

The book I just finished is called "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," by John Perkins (www.johnperkins.org). Caveat: this book is not for conservatives or oil company executives.

To summarize, this non-fiction, confessional book covers the career of an "economic hit man," or EHM, who essentially was responsible to forecasting overly auspicious economic conditions for developing nations that would serve as the basis for "approving" billions of dollars in loans from American financial institutions to the developing nation. The loans were granted with the knowledge that they would never be repaid and would serve as leverage whenever the United States needed, for instance, oil drilling rights, UN votes, etc. The loans were made for infrastructure projects (electric, telecommunications, etc) that would in turn be "won" by American engineering and consulting firms (Bechtel, Haliburton, and the author's then employer MAIN). The book's focus is around the "corporatocracy" that is America's means to a global empire and influence. Many comparisons are made to previous attempts at creating world empires, e.g. the Roman empire, and highlights America's covert and sometimes overly blatant methods of achieving political goals. The author backs all this with his insider knowledge and historical references, which helps the book read sometimes more like a spy novel.

Overall, a 4 out 5 stars. The book starts off exciting, slows through the middle, and then ends with the typical, "how are you now going to go and change the world" rhetoric, which made me take away a star.

The book will definitely make me read more between the lines of world news and events and has definitely opened up my eyes.