Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
The latest catch phrase
In the past, I’ve bemoaned the fact that administrators have their own argot, an English made blithering by its narrow vocabulary and restrictive metaphors. Last decade’s catch phrase was drilling down, an Oedipal image that could mean “analyze the data,” “study the problem,” “talk to the relevant parties to find out what the hell happened,” and probably half a dozen other concepts. In a phenomenon well known to anyone familiar with corporate board meetings, The Boss would use “drilling down” in a sentence, and then everyone else in the room would have to drill down on something or another. It got tedious.
Today, I found out this decade’s catch phrase. I was down in Pasadena for our big chief’s meeting and our regional business meeting, quite literally an all-day affair involving lots of talking, some not-very-good food, and a medley of egos. (To be fair, the egos were calm today. The bull elephants saw no need to slam chests.) And in the midst of this, everyone was leveraging.
Leveraging, I gather, can mean “use our collective might to force the powers that be to do our will,” “use our numbers and organizational status to do some pretty awesome research,” or “cajole, wheedle, and bully.” Our regional chief said “leveraging” and suddenly all the chiefs had to “leverage” something. God forbid any chief’s car got a flat and he had to leverage his car to put on the spare. He would have been tossed out of the meeting for the sin of literalism.
Leverage this.
That said, it was a productive meeting. Minimum of bullshit, a good solid working meeting, which is what we surgeons are good at when we’re at our best. I learned a few things, which is always nice. And I got to have dinner with my sis tonight, which is nice, too.
By the way, I am about 3/5 of the way through Mieville’s Kraken, and I have to say that this is the book American Gods wanted to be, and then some. Maybe I’m comparing apples and oranges, but I think not. (More like, I’m comparing British fantasist with British fantasist.) Kraken is consistently funny, innovative, exciting, engaging. So good, in fact, that I’m starting to think that just maybe I should give Mieville’s earlier work a second chance.
D.
Leveraging is old news. While you were swanning around MD/PhD school, I was deep in the trenches of my MBA – even back in the late ’80’s we were leveraging (synergizing was the groaner for me). No drilling down – I think we still called that analysis (how boring! how pedestrian! Geez, anyone can analyze!).
Let’s bring back catalyze! You’d probably rather cauterize. Lobotomize?
Euthanize. Morselize. Catabolize.
Better than American Gods? WOW!
I adored “American Gods”…but then again my sense of humor runs to the dark and pantheistic…so, well, right up my alley. Did you read/like “Anansi’s Boys?”
I’ll ‘fess up to being a Gaiman fan-I have yet to read anything by him that disappointed me. I’m a literary gourmand where sci-fi and fantasy are concerned.
My personal hated word? “Impacted.”
Used (offhand) instead of “had an impact on,” “will have an impact on,” “will have had an impact on,”or some such.
Mainly because in my mind the word “impacted,” comes with two appendages: “molar”, and “fecal matter”.
So I associate the word with tooth pain and constipation.
I tend to be out of touch with the latest in buzz-speak. I remember the overuse of ‘partnering with your stakeholders’, known in Dean-speak as ‘doing your fucking job’.
Christine probably has one or two – she is closer to people who used to say ‘partnering with our stakeholders’ non-ironically, so she knows what they say now.
hylie: I liked Anansi Boys better than American Gods. And yes, I’m liking Kraken better than Anansi Boys. Kraken has grabbed me more than either AB or AG ever did.
Yes, impacted is a horror show of a word.
Dean, I do like the delightful morass of “partnering with your stakeholders.”