Business Slang: TLA – Three Letter Acronym
Young girls write TLA on folders and sneakers and backpacks. TLA, to them, mean true love always. Young businesswomen, and men, write TLAs in emails and PowerPoints and memos. But it’s not the same thing. In business slang, TLA means three-letter acronym. And businesses love their acronyms.
The OCE is Full of TLAs
TLAs, a branch of business slang, started in the office of the chief executive (OCE). We have the usual suspects – CEO, CFO, and CIO. We can get behind those. But if your company has a CRO (chief restructuring officer), watch out. If you CPB (conduct personal business) before COB (close of business) too much, it could be worse than a CLM (career limiting move). You may find yourself part of a RIF (reduction in force — and that means fired).
What’s a TLA for a TLA?
Just to add to the confusion, lots of TLAs contain numbers. B2B (business to business), B2C (business to consumer), E2E (eye to eye), F2F (face to face), A2O (apples to oranges), P2P (peer to peer), and V2V (voice to voice) are all TLAs. The standard ones don’t, e.g., PFP (pay for performance), LTI (long-term incentive), and L&D (learning and development). Once everything in a company becomes a TLA, then you’re in for it. Especially if you’re new.
Are TLAs SEP?
Employees often can’t remember what TLAs stand for. When it comes to key concepts, brevity is no match for clarity. Someone else’s problem (SEP)? Nope. BFO (blinding flash of the obvious) – LOK (lack of knowledge) is HR’s problem. My advice – CYA and PDF a dictionary of your company’s TLAs.
About Business Slang
Please send your HR and business slang suggestions to business [DOT] slang [AT] knowhr.com – we’ll feature some in an upcoming articles.
Business Slang: Top 10 Worst “-ize” Words
10 “-ize” words _________.
(fill in the blank)
10 “-ize” words that must die.
10 “-ize” words that make me cry.
10 “-ize” words I want to pulverize.
Why do so many business slang words end with “-ize”?
I dunno. But, enough of my complaining. Time for the list.
Ten “-ize” words that HR should ban from business
10. Featurize. Hiring managers may featurize jobs (add unnecessary features) thinking it makes them more attractive to candidates. For example, “You’ll be working 10-12 hours a day, sitting in this cubicle, but we’ll featurize and order you a new Aeron™ chair as soon as you accept the offer.”
9. Proceduralize. In the name of efficiency, managers often proceduralize processes – they make rules about how to do things so work becomes routine (boring?).
8. Supersize. Everyone knows this one. Contrary to popular belief, “Supersize it” is not proper English! Thanks McDonald’s.
7. Genericize / Anonymize. Great, there are two “ize” slang words that mean pretty much the same thing – to take away all distinguishing characteristics. So, bad managers can genericize reports and then take the credit. Or, good consultants may anonymize reports to get rid of the names of specific people. Either way, why not just clean the document? There’s no need to slaughter helpless words.
6. Productize. Companies productize services or technology to sell it to outside customers. Clever employees may do the same thing inside companies. HR is usually a cost center. So, they know better than almost any group of employees that when times are tough, it’s better to be helping your company make products. Hmmm - productize the comp cycle?
5. Operationalize. Um… this is a long way of saying “to do”? What could be more clear “than do”? I’m glad Yoda didn’t say “Try not. Operationalize.”
4. Templatize. As my son would say… OB-vi-ous. Even though it’s obvious that this means to make a template, do we need this word?
3. Bulletize. Who’s leading this language revolution? And who’s following? To make a list into bullet points. Just shoot me.
2. Calendarize. Schedule… or mark on your calendar. Who calendarizes? Lots and lots of people. Not me.
1. INCENTIVIZE. I can’t get this business slang word out of my head. I cringe when I hear it. The word you’re looking for is motivate.
10 “ize” words I despise! Business slang at its worst.
About Business Slang
Please send your HR and business slang suggestions to business [DOT] slang [AT] knowhr.com – we’ll feature some in an upcoming articles.
Business Slang: Top 10 Spoiled Sports Sayings
These ten spoiled sports sayings make you wonder if you’re at work or on the field.
Businesspeople Aren’t Playing Ball
Employees continue to foul words. Shouldn’t there be some penalty for this? Here’s the damage — Top 10 Spoiled Sports Sayings.
- Play ball. To go along with what everyone else wants. I was never very good at this. Increasingly important among the corporati (bonus business slang word — corporate elite).
- Ball park. To estimate something. Why do we insist on replacing perfectly good words? “Ball park” isn’t even in the ballpark.
- Goaltending. To protect your business. These days, everyone seems to be doing a bit of goaltending. Depending on the culture of your company, if you don’t protect your assets, you may have them handed to you.
- Right off the bat. To do something immediately. Except, no one says immediately anymore. In the land of hyperbole, immediately isn’t strong enough - it’s been replaced with yesterday, e.g. I need it yesterday.
- Step up. Short for “step up to the plate.” It’s not take your turn at bat, but rather take responsibility.
- Level the playing field. HR loves to level the field. Yep, you can leave out “playing.” Making things more equitable is always a good thing in HR.
- Play hardball. To get mean and get tough. Most companies don’t encourage winning at all costs anymore. But, there are degrees of playing hardball.
- Slam dunk. A complete and easy success. Managers love to hear when projects are a slam dunk. Results matter.
- The whole nine yards. In business, “the whole nine yards” means everything… but does it mean anything in football? Business people use the whole nine yards” as a sports phrase, even though it’s not. (That’s another issue all by itself.)
- Lateralled. To move to a new position that’s the same as your old position, only with a new title. Sometimes employees take lateral moves to learn new skills. But, in this time of hiring freezes and tight budgets, “lateral promotions” (more bonus business slang) are increasingly common (and unfair). I’ve got a sweet deal for you…more work, more responsibility, same pay. I think I’ll pass.
The sports words and phrases seem never ending… Who’s “on deck”? He’s way out in “left field.” There’s no “I” in “team.”
About Business Slang
Please send your HR and business slang suggestions to business [DOT] slang [AT] knowhr.com – we’ll feature some in an upcoming articles.
Business Slang: Concepting
If I told you “concepting” was coined in Amsterdam, what would you think? Something got lost in translation? Someone spent too much time in coffee shops?
That’s what I wondered. But, it seems the term “concepting”, which was invented 10 years ago by Amsterdam-based Jan Rijkenberg, is the same word in Dutch. That rules out translation errors.
What’s Concepting?
It’s ongoing communication. According to the originator of the term, “concepting” is the development and management of brands that embody concepts. Whew! Think Nike (dedication and excellence). Think Apple (simple, smart, different). Think Pepsi (cool kids).
Is Concepting Just Another Verbification?
“To concept” may easily be a verbification. Most people mean “generating ideas” or “developing concepts” when they say “concepting.” Like many business slang words, “concepting” can be adapted to other parts of speech too. “Concepting” can be used as a noun, sort of like branding (a real word). Or, “concepting” can be used as an adjective, as in “concepting company.” With so much flexibility, it’s easy to work “concepting” into casual conversation. Like many business slang words, people think saying it makes them sound knowledgeable.
Okay, gotta run. I’ll get back to concepting later.
About Business Slang
Business Slang is a weekly feature on KnowHR. It runs 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 business [DOT] slang [AT] knowhr.com – we’ll feature some in an upcoming articles.
Business Slang: Socialize
Dogs can be socialized. Cats can usually be socialized. But what about a wild idea?
Is “socialize” even slang?
“Socialize” is a real word, right? I used to socialize. It means to hang out with your friends, doesn’t it? Since we had so much fun adding -wise to words over the past 50 or so years – think businesswise, costwise, and timewise – adding the near homonym -ize comes almost naturally. Scary. For that reason, it’s these -ize slang words that I find most insidious. We can test an idea. If we must -ize people, can we familiarize them with ideas?
Is socializing new?
We’ve been familiarizing people with ideas for decades. Those ideas have seen a lot of abuse. We’ve thrown them against the wall to see if they stick. We’ve tossed them in the pool to see if they make a splash. And, we’ve floated them in trial balloons. While we were doing all of that inside of companies, we socialized ideas on potential customers by releasing vaporware.
Why do we socialize, anyway?
We socialize to do things like (deep breath) gain team share. Huh? Yep… and I’m going to explain it with more generally accepted business slang. Gaining team share means forming a consensus, getting buy-in, or building ownership. Usually this is done by creating the illusion that the group being socialized actually helped hatch the idea. Basically, in business, socializing is the means to an end. We socialize to get to do what we want to do. In life, socializing is the end – it is what we want to do.
If I had to guess, someone thought gaining team share was sort of like gaining mind share, only with teams. Consumer product companies spend countless advertising dollars trying to gain mind share – awareness of their product. Someone adapted/slaughtered this concept and began to spend countless hours trying to gain team share – support from a team of people for an idea.
If you have any creative ways to socialize your ideas, run them up your office flagpole to see who salutes.
About Business Slang
Business Slang is a weekly feature on KnowHR. It runs 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 business [DOT] slang [AT] knowhr.com – we’ll feature some in an upcoming articles.
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