CommSpace

Lost (in translation)...

Don't you hate corporate speak? You know, those funny little words and phrases that we hear so often while at work that we somehow get brainwashed into thinking that people really talk like that?

Hey let's face it, we all get caught up in the cycle and fall victim. Come on, admit it...remember that the first step(s) in a 12 step program to recovery is admittance and acceptance. We are all friends here. I'll even be the first to stand up.

Good evening everyone - my name is Matthew... (hi Matthew)... and I use corporate speak in my conversations and executive communications...

Its pretty well documented that corporate speak does very little to help engage and inform employees. In fact, it can do quite the opposite and actually be damaging to your credibility and the desired end result. So why do we do it? Now, I know that I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know...but WHAT are we going to do about it?

I say its time to STAND UP and revolt against corporate speak! We are all intelligent folks, and we can convey our thoughts, information, messages, etc., without terms like strategic alignment, efficacy, synergy, integrated solutions, streamline efficiencies and the like.

Its time that we develop our own MANIFESTO! Let's have a little fun with it. By commenting to this post (button at the bottom), submit your most hated corporate speak terms and we'll work to develop an Organizational Communications MANIFESTO that denounces the usage of these meaningless phrases and helps to unify us in the brother-(and sister-)hood of honest, straightforward employee communications professionals.

Who's with me?!Let us be free of the chains that bind us."its all for nothing if we don't have our freedom!"

OK, I'm done with my BRAVEHEART moment...seriously, send in some thoughts. We're allowed to have some fun while we work...its part of the HR Policies of Conduct. Once we develop the MANIFESTO we can hang it up on our virtual wall and begin practicing. Let's make it matter!

Lost...

As many of you can see from the calendar, its been a while since the last post. All I can say is that "Life Happens." Personally, its been quite a roller coaster ride this summer with many ups and downs. But I can finally say that I think that I am in a good space now and have learned more about myself this past summer than perhaps the entire previous year.

In addition to that, I suffered a bit of what my good colleague Adriana refers to as "blogger burnout." Quite honestly, I've sat down several times in the past month to post, but continually had trouble deciding what to write about. ONE thing that I have found is that over the last few months, the number of blogs that I monitor has tripled! And with that, about 90% of them don't inspire or interest me in the least...(in fact some of you may be saying the same thing about this blog now - ha ha)

Nonetheless, I'm back and I've got my groove back! Here are a few interesting posts that I've come across in the past month. I hope that you find them as interesting as I do/did.

• Here is yet another example where external blogging helps to create media balance; where the quoted is afforded the equal opportunity for clarification. What a power! Now you wonder why we are fighting so hard to help people understand the value of the medium in these big organizations.

• Not only am I intrigued by the fact that MONSTER is sponsoring a blog (though I shouldn't be surprised - who isn't these days?), I find this particular post to be rather appropriate for this day-in-time. There are some worthwhile articles linked towards the end of the post as well.

• We've got to step up our game on these blogs or run the risk of it being overrun with ad-laden, rudimentary stuff like this...uh-oh, I've already given it more promotion than it deserves...lets just move on...

• Never tell me that I don't give you the good stuff! Here are the twelve questions ("Q12") that Gallup uses to measure the correlation between employee engagement and business results.  Its stood the test of time - valid and reliable. Organizational metrics for your internal communications business case -> absolutely!

• Finally, a good post that Shel Holtz posted during the summer where he reinforces the importance of putting customers ahead of shareholders...hummm, sound familiar?  They term it SVE (Shareholder Value Enhancement) which sounds like a new automobile model to me. In any event, perhaps I've drank the koolaid (American slang for 'been brainwashed') but I firmly agree with the tenets shared here.

That's all for me now, but I promise that we'll be back to the normal posting schedule now that the new season has begun. Things are clearer now...I'm no longer 'LOST.'