Taboo Words
George Carlin is on my mind today: that old stand-up routine about the words he isn’t allowed to say on TV. I won’t repeat them here because who knows who reads this. I have a similar but less profane list. It is a list of terms that consulting clients have during my career warned me not to use while working with their organizations. Here is my list:
Leadership
Empowerment
Culture change
Vision
Teamwork
Feelings
Coaching
Values
Appreciative inquiry
Collage
Paradigm
Poetry
Hidden agenda
Metanoia
Spiritual
Organization development
Mission
Open space
Quality
Transformation
Collaboration
Fun
Usually, I am warned to eliminate a term from my vocabulary for one of four reasons: either the senior person is unexplainably averse to it, the organization has a strong “no good if not invented here” bias, someone is afraid of something, or a consultant who was there before me used it a lot and really screwed things up.
Sometimes, then, I have little to say.
Tuesday, February 7th, 2006 at 5:46 pm ◊ Comment or trackback◊ Send this post to someone who will thank you for it »
◊ Filed in: Talking & Listening
February 7th, 2006 at 10:55 pm
That’s funny. That’s akin to going to the doctor for a checkup and telling the doctor not to use the following words:
weight
exercise
cholesterol
diet
blood pressure
heart attack
stroke
diabetes
low fat
high fiber
Other than that give me your best diagnosis, doc!! Ha Ha.
February 8th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
You’ve got the picture dreamweavr!