We’ve all been there. The speaker has just finished. Maybe we were listening to the economist at the annual meeting or the expert who knows more than we do about how to achieve success. Everyone in the audience is looking out the corners of their eyes, without moving their heads, to see if anyone else understood what was just said. The speaker’s liberal use of buzzwords and otherwise uncommon language helped him clearly establish why he was the speaker and others were only the audience.
Buzzwords can be awesome. They can be fun to use. They can make us feel current, connected, and (if we are totally honest) maybe even a little smarter than the average colleague. However, in the wrong situation, they can have a negative effect.