Say what?

Each year, Merriam-Webster updates their dictionary with the contemporary words or phrases that infiltrated the zeitgeist of our culture. Some are new to the world words that have come into play and are accepted into the dictionary due to their commonplace status, like “hangry”, and others are a new use of old words such as “gig worker.” Some of them last, some do not, and others just kind of get so overused that they fade away with the cause of death listed as eyeroll.

In the workplace, all too often we hear the unpacking of new jargon in a variety of settings leaving us to be impressed with one’s command of new-speak and their ability to quickly adapt to integrating the newest of terms into common conversation. Eventually, when we catch up, everyone is using the same term in nearly every other sentence. We all remember where we were the first time we heard “paradigm shift” or “thinking out of the box.” Now, admit it… you probably uttered those phrases just a few times after you made the effort to assimilate them into your own conversation.

The following is a curated list (yes… curate is on the list) of terms to think about incorporating into your lexicon to help with day-to-day corporate speak (* just a note: no Covid or video meeting terms made the list… they are on mute).

CURATE: Once reserved for museum operators, curate is now commonly used to describe any assemblage of interconnected things to create a cohesive experience. Your personal trainer can curate an exercise plan, your app can curate an optimal user experience, your friend can curate a playlist on Spotify for the next road trip.

TRUSTLESS: Go anywhere around blockchain and you’ll hear the term trustless. This at first seems to be quite the oxymoron as trustless means having a lack of trust. However, this term has now taken on a meaning that the Oxford Dictionary has yet to incorporate. Trustless means not needing to rely on trust. The distributed ledger of the blockchain married to the immutability of the data creates an environment referred to as truth. Truth is immutable; therefore, trust is not needed.

UNICORN: While we can all still romanticize about the horse with a single-forehead conical horn that flies over rainbows, the unicorn of today is a different unique dreamy creature, it is the nonpublic start up that is valued at one billion dollars or greater. The quest for the next big idea is the dream becoming the next unicorn.

UX and UI: Product creation is no longer the big push; it is how are you planning to market or compete with your product that is the topic that now makes for vigorous discussion. UI, or user interface, versus UX, or user experience, is the contemporary approach to marketing and creation. Now, watch as these terms are randomly substituted for each other or witness the debate over which is more important. It is easier to just keep in mind that UX and UI are different, but codependent.

FRICTION: While the basic definition will nail down that activity of rubbing your feet on the carpet to get a spark when you touch your friend’s ear, friction is the new bad thing to avoid in optimizing the UX. Essentially, anything that stands between where you are and where you want to be is friction in a process. That extra click, the need to accept the user agreement, the code that is texted to your phone before login are all points of friction. Its up to the people designing the UI to assist in the UX by eliminating friction.

ESG: The mantra of corporations for many years has included a focus on diversity as well as other big picture initiatives that establish a responsibility to ethical motives and not simply profits. The new catch all for these endeavors is ESG, which stands for environmental, social, and governance. Three simple letters to capture three moral imperatives that are way bigger than just three letters. However, companies today are encapsulating their good citizenship focus by referencing the incorporation of ESG into their mission.

POC: The idea of a test program or limited run as a proof of concept before a full investment or launch is nothing new. However, why waste so much breath in so many words when a simple acronym, POC, can get you to the finish line faster and make you sound like you stepped right out of Silicon Valley.

While we may have removed pinging people from our lingo, avoid boiling the ocean, and no longer look towards a win-win as our closing line, we still succumb to the reality that a turn of a phrase in a current context can distinguish ourselves as being up to date. There are plenty of people who want to declare themselves as an anti-jargon hero, but we need to recognize the difference between trying too hard to sound cool from being recognized as someone with a finger on the pulse on the flavor of the day.

Now, let’s go check all the boxes on our vocab quiz.

OPINIONS EXPRESSED HEREIN ARE EXCLUSIVELY THOSE OF THE AUTHOR