Comments on: Business Slang: Incentivize

By: AG

AG — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:41:19 +0000

I am sorry I didn’t use a better example because it’s clear the one I used was simply a point of comparison – motivate doesn’t adequately replace incentivize and we agree. But, your point is taken. I wonder how people feel about ‘incented’..

By: Kim Mason

Kim Mason — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:31:55 +0000

“Is saying we live in an incentivized world vastly different from saying we live in a motivated world?”

Well, yes, but I challenge you to tell me what ‘living in an incentivized world’ actually means. In this particular case, it’s utterly meaningless language. Does it mean that the world has an incentive to behave in a particular way? Does it mean that the world offers incentives? Does it mean that incentives are offered in the world by someone? Does it mean that the world has been turned into a mass of incentives? Imprecise waffle, I say.

At least by saying ‘a motivated world’, it’s clear that the sentence is waffle. This quote from George Orwell sums it up perfectly:

“If you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy. You cannot speak any of the necessary dialects, and when you make a stupid remark its stupidity will be obvious, even to yourself.”

This is why many people dislike the work ‘incentivize’. It usually means something for which a simpler and perfectly adequate verb already exists, or else it means nothing at all.

By: AG

AG — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:54:53 +0000

Is saying we live in an incentivized world vastly different from saying we live in a motivated world? yes.

By: Traci

Traci — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:59:40 +0000

It irritated me to hear the president use the word incentivize. I was yelling at the television, that isn’t even a word. I had to put my television on mute just to get the closed caption to see how they were spelling the non-word. Then he kept using it over and over and it sounded so stupid!!! A lot of slang and made up words are put in the dictionary if they are used enough. Remember the old saying, “ain’t ain’t a word if it’s not in the dictionary and you ain’t supposed to say it. Well it is in the Mirriam Dictionary as well, does that mean the president and the other leaders should go around saying ain’t? They are supposed to be an example to the youth. Remember how they raked Dan Quayle over the coals for spelling potato wrong? How come, none of the commentators are willing to give President Obama grieve for using business slang? Are they so uneducated that they weren’t aware that it isn’t a real word?

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:46:27 +0000

To hear “professionals” use the term “Incentivize” makes me bonkers!!! The verb is “incite” (it’s not just for use with riots!” and yet we seem quite content to allow the “make ‘em up morons” to subvert the language with whatever their lazy brains can come up with. After just hearing President Obama use “incentivize” during a live news conference, I feel there is little hope that the next generation will even know what a dictionary is, let alone know how to use one.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:54:32 +0000

This isn’t even a made up word, its been in dictionaries for at least 35 years it seem according to M-W. Is our language supposed to be stagnant? Maybe you should write a dictionary and it would be double plus good.

By: My Linguistic Pet Peeves | Wisdom and Folly

My Linguistic Pet Peeves | Wisdom and Folly — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 03:15:43 +0000

[...] with “incentivize.” So what’s the deal? Probably the term emerged in the business world, and this verbal virus spread from there. [...]

By: Irina I

Irina I — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:29:52 +0000

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.

By: Frank Roche

Frank Roche — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:11:52 +0000

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.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:42:56 +0000

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.