Business Slang: Incentivize

Business Slang Unfortunate coinages are turning up like bad pennies. And we seem to be making up words at an alarming rate.

“In the same way that people in social groups tend to wear similar clothes, people create slang and new words to show that they’re all part of the same group, ” says Grammar Girl. It’s about group identity.

Can You Incentivize Someone?
My introduction to business slang was in MBA school. My classmates started saying “incentivize” to mean “motivate.” They thought it sounded cool. I had a real aversion to the made-up word. Much to my dismay, incentivize seems to have made it into popular use. I find motivate to be infinitely cleaner. In fact, I’m committed to never using incentivize in any written piece again.

Is It Wrong to Verbify?
Is it wrong to create a verb from a noun, adjective, or other word? Is it wrong to verbify? Grammar Girl says she doesn’t object to verbifications (more slang) when they’re smoother to write and they allow for cleaner sentences. In fact, I just penciled in my edits.

Is Verbification an Internet Phenomenon?
I’m not exactly blaming the Internet for another social ill. I’m just noting that there’s a rapid explosion of business slang that is related to Internet products. You know you hit it big when the name of your product becomes the generic verb for doing something. Right Google? Googling, twittering, digging – I’m even used to slashdotting. They all sound fine to me. I’m not so wild about facebooking – maybe verbification is something to think about when naming your next start-up.

Now I’m going to get back to KnowHRing.

About Business Slang
Business Slang is a new weekly feature on KnowHR. We’ll run it every Monday.

In Business Slang, we’ll help you keep up with the latest slang to make the rounds in corporate meetings rooms. You have your favorites, too. Please send your HR and business slang suggestions to slang [AT] knowhr [DOT] com – we’ll feature some in an upcoming articles.

Posted on January 21, 2008 by Sarah Chambers
Filed Under Business Slang

Comments

Viewing 15 Comments

rick 8 months ago 1 point
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Sarah, you started with my fav business slang word. Do you think there is a difference in meaning between motivating and incentiving?

My sense is that a person can be motivated through either intrinsic or extrinsic rewards while they are incented only through extrinsic ones-- usually cash.

Good to see you posting. Write on!

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Paul Hebert 8 months ago 1 point
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I am with you 100% - see my post on the word "incent" - and the comments - very interesting.

http://incentive-intelligence.typepad.com/incen...

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Frank Roche 8 months ago 1 point
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Incent. Incense. Coincidence?

This is going to be a fun weekly feature. I'm looking forward to many more...and you have so many to chose from.

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http://www.ifractal.com

Sarah Chambers 8 months ago 1 point
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Rick,

I always thought you were more accepting than I was. You made me think though. I have to admit that after thinking, the main difference I see between motivating and the word I swore not to use again is that motivating is a word I am willing to write... Thanks for making me think more. I always appreciate that... and, I urge you to click on the link in Paul Herbert's comment where a reader suggests a different nuance for the i-word...

Paul,

We do agree. And I also found the comment on your post interesting. The idea that incent (forgive me) can be used neutrally without connoting something positive (and the implication that motivate is always positive) is thought-provoking. After some consideration, however, I don't really buy it. I consider coercion and punishment negative forms of motivation.

Thanks for the thoughtful comments.

Sarah

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Sarah Chambers 8 months ago 1 point
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Frank,

It's fun... and it's sad at the same time. There are so many great words to choose from, why do we have to make up bad ones to replace them? Lot's of fuel for the fire.

Sarah

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Frank Roche 8 months ago 1 point
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Sarah, I'm the king of making up nicknames, so I don't have a lot of wiggle room on the made up words. ;-) But I don't like business slang, especially when people don't recognize how silly it sounds.

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http://www.ifractal.com

Rob 8 months ago 1 point
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And I thought you Yanks all loved your made up words!

I'll be looking forward to knowledgizing your weekly blogifications.

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http://www.mentalskills.co.uk/blog

Jason Rodriguez 5 months ago 1 point
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If Merriam-Websters says it's so, then it has to be true! :)

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incen...

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Kim Mason 5 months ago 1 point
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I dislike the word incentivize. It is certainly abused, and it's doubtful that there is a legitimate use for the word.

However, I do think that there is one case for which it is difficult to find a suitable word, and so the word 'incentivize' was invented. The case is when describing a system which encourages any rational person to behave in a particular way, usually with a connotation that the behaviour is undesirable.

For example, one could say that poorly drafted tax laws encourage misallocation of capital. The word promote could also be used. However, encourage seems too imprecise, the kind of encouragement being unclear, and promote is usually associated with advertising.

I prefer the word 'induce' in this circumstance. However, this is pushing the limits of many people's vocabulary. Hence we have a new word; incentivize.

Finally, Jason Rodriguez, Merriam-Webster is known to be a very descriptive dictionary. If enough mush-brained parrots chatter a particular word over and over, it will end up in Merriam-Webster. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm must leave for work to leverage synergies and incentivize proactive behaviour going-forward.

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Kim Mason 5 months ago 1 point
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'Motivate' is also a suitable word to be used instead of the evil 'incentivize'.

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Dominic 4 months ago 1 point
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What's the problem here? The English language has developed continuously over the centuries through invention and foreign 'imports'. Shakespeare is credited as having coined many new words - he probably had the purists of his day rolling the eyes!

The beauty of English is its richness, and it will continue to flourish in the future - so lighten up!

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mollymauk 3 months ago 1 point
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I knowledgify what it significancizes but I'm not sure we needed a nouniverbified word to fill the role.

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Tony 2 months ago 1 point
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I just got of an webinar (a real word?) with some "think tank" consulants from D.C. They "incentivized" everything.

I lost the connect to the presentation because I was searching for a better word than "incentivize". I like motivate much better.

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Frank Roche 2 months ago 1 point
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Tony...incentivize is just the worst. A webinar...even funnier.

Molly...too funny. That's a mouthful.

Dominic...yes, there is a move in language, but it doesn't mean we have to like them all.

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http://www.ifractal.com

Irina I 1 day ago 1 point
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Kim, I agree with you. I think it is acceptable to use "incentivize" in an economics context, where "incentives" are words that are used constantly. It is just cleaner to use "incentivize" in that context than motivate. But if you are not talking specifically about behavior in economics, it is much better to use "incent" or "motivate." Motivate is especially relevant when talking about organization behavior.

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