Speak Like a President by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Jargon and Other Rubbish

“Generally, when people use jargon not to communicate but to impress their audiences with their importance...or use it to announce membership in a group, communication suffers and the jargon can quickly degenerate into something close to the twittering of birds.”

W. Lutz, “Jargon,” Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992)

The esteemed drama critic and translator Eric Bentley said, “Ours is the age of substitutes: instead of language, we have jargon.” You know that repeated and unnecessary words are an irritant that can become an audience’s open wound. The same applies to jargon. Avoid it unless you’re an expert talking to experts who understand the jargon code of your and their expertise. There are some who think that using buzzwords or subject terminology in speeches is a good idea. It is not. Many is the time that at banking conferences, there have been bankers listening to senior bankers, where it’s plain as daylight that the majority of the audience genuinely don’t understand “commodity super-cycle,” “light-touch regulation,” “tax equivalent yield,” or even “share of wallet.” Well, maybe not the last one. Yes, you’re right, of course—shame on them and they should all be fired. But, like a lot of these scenarios, it’s a case of the emperor’s new clothes, where nobody dares say “Excuse me, senior vice president who dictates my bonuses and keeps me in gainful employment, but would you mind telling me what ‘disintermediation’ means?” Would you ask that? Well, for the curious among you, let’s demystify “disintermediation.” In an economy, the movement of savings or investment funds away from institutions such as banks into higher-yielding investments in the securities markets such as money market funds or bonds is called disintermediation. Let’s pause for breath. Do you feel better now? Of course you don’t—unless you’re a disintermediation specialist, in which case you’re looking around the departure lounge right now and smiling at everyone knowingly.

Never Assume that Your Audience Will Understand Jargon

There have been several occasions at large corporate events when financial experts have clearly understood phrases such as “deferred annuity” (as do you of course) but struggled visibly with something like “defensive stock,” a phrase that a particular management consultant (guest speaker at considerable cost) repeated to the point where most in the audience were considering going to prison for a very long time for what they would have liked to have done to him. Again for those who care, “defensive stock” is a stock or share whose price remains stable or declines less in a falling market because demand for its product or service doesn’t decline in a slowing economy. See? For example, the stocks of utilities and food businesses are “defensive” because people still use electricity and buy food in down markets, but we may defer the purchase of a new car. Anyway, the point is (relatively) clear and it’s worth making again: don’t try and be smart at the expense of your audience. You may be seen as an expert, but the best experts

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