Dan Pallotta has a fun rant about jargon titled “I Don’t Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore.” He explains how business conversations use such buzzwords as “paradigm shift” and “synergy” without true substance. He mentions five “strains of this epidemic” such as:

Abstractionitis
We have forgotten how to use the real names of real things. Like doorknobs. Instead, people talk about the idea of doorknobs, without actually using the word “doorknob.” So a new idea for a doorknob becomes “an innovation in residential access.” Expose yourself repeatedly to the extrapolation of this practice to things more complicated than a doorknob and you really just need to carry Excedrin around with you all day.

Acronymitis
This is a disease of epic proportions in the world of charity. I was at a meeting just two days ago at which several well-meaning staff members of a charity were presenting to their board, and the meat of their discussion revolved around the acronyms SCEA and some other one that began with “R” that I can’t recall. In the span of three minutes these acronyms must have been used eight times each. They were central to any understanding of the topic at hand, but they were never defined. So I had not the vaguest idea what the presenters were talking about. None. Could have been talking about how to make a beurre-blanc sauce for all I know.

Dan concludes:

You will gain tremendous credibility, become much more productive, make those around you much more productive, and experience a great deal more joy in your working life if you look someone in the eye after hearing one of these verbal brain jammers and tell the person, “I don’t have any idea what you just said to me.”

Sounds like a good resolution to take up this year. Click over to the article to read it in entirety. And don’t forget to vote for your least favorite buzzword/expression (as of this writing, “thinking outside the box” leads as the least liked expression with about 18% of the vote).