Cut the Clutter: Why we need Less Jargon and More Clarity

Sometimes, comedians say things that are more eye-opening than self-help gurus. I recently watched an old George Carlin video where he said, "People add more words than necessary to make it sound important." Boom! Truth Bomb! How true is that!

In IT and business, we see this all the time. We don’t “fix issues”; we leverage synergies to optimize solutions. Meetings aren’t just discussions; they’re synchronization touchpoints for cross-functional alignment. Instead of saying “Let's roll out an update”, we hear “We are driving a strategic deployment to enhance platform scalability and user engagement.”

Simple ideas get buried under layers of jargon, acronyms, and cushioning - making things more complicated than they need to be. At what point did clarity become a casualty?

The real problem? This obsession with sounding sophisticated often leads to confusion, misalignment, and wasted time. If we focused on keeping things simple and workable, execution would be faster, communication clearer, and collaboration smoother.

So here’s a challenge: The next time you’re writing an email, giving a presentation, or explaining a project, ditch the jargon. Say it like it is. After all, the best ideas don’t need to be decorated —they just need to be understood.

What’s the worst corporate jargon you’ve heard? Drop it in the comments!