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Enough with the ‘engage’, already!
26 August 2010
How often do you use the word ‘engage’? Count how many times you wrote it in your last proposal, or brochure. You’ll find it hundreds, even thousands of times on corporate websites.
IBM 79,100 times ‘engage’ appears on IBM’s website,
UK Government 10,600,
GE 5,070,
Bank of America 3,270,
BP 696,
Walmart 346, and
General Motors 316.
It’s lost its meaning. Hugh MacLeod’s cartoon (above) illustrates the point. Hugh says, “What we really mean by ‘engage’ is simply communicating with people in real terms: Meaningful Conversation.”
Here are some other ways to say what you really mean. The word ‘engage’ could all-too-easily replace the more meaningful word or words in bold italics.
Let’s get to the point.
You’ll take notice if I give something relevant to you.
My ideas will stick if they stir feelings in you.
I’ll need to attract followers to make my ideas spread.
We’ll work together with organisations like IBM to help them improve their copy writing.
Most presenters fail to get the attention of their audiences.
Productive employers involve and enthuse their workers.
Jobseekers and sales professionals use their networking skills to find work.
You can now hire an expert to help you prepare for the talk of your life.
If you network with diverse people you’ll learn more about the world.
Will you take part in a debate about corporate gobbledegook?
What other overused, meaningless corporate words can you think of?
12 comments to ‘Enough with the ‘engage’, already!’
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Sales and marketing to make your ideas
stick and spread.
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Interesting topic, I use that word too, lol. One more example: Connect with people online.
Other words I still include in my tenders are “added value” and “customer delight”. To be honest I think I have forgotten what I originally meant by those phrases. Time to think again!
Perhaps that is the reason why I have a compulsion to rely on those phrases: I do not need to think.
Thanks for your extra examples, Isabelle and Jon. We could start a dictionary of words that organisations use, and use, and use! After a while, I think we all forget what we meant. So readers just filter them out.
Wow, exciting read man. Thanks for sharing!
When I was student in Social Communication, I heard frequently the word “sinergia” (synergy), applied to many things. We must create a “sinergia”, my teachers used to say. I also listened a lot of times the verb “legitimar” (to legitimize)…
Thanks, Boris. IBM uses the word ‘synergy’ 10,300 times on the web. Even better (or worse), IBM uses the word ‘synergistic’ 3,030 times!
This is what I’d call ‘corporate-speak’, a kind of jargon I don’t get much exposure to! I do know that as soon as one of these concepts becomes part of the argot, very soon it gets used to the point of uselessness. Constant vigilance with words is needed to make sure we don’t drift into ineffectuality.
When anyone wants to make an official statement for the purposes of business (or whatever), they want it to sound just that: official; and the way to do that, many people think, is to use words and phrases that are familiar from corporate-speak. Saying it afresh needs a little more thought and bravery. And common sense!
My contribution to this post is the word BUZZ.. If I hear it one more time, I might loose it. Especialy here in Israel, every potential client I mean asks me to create Buzz, make it Buzz, Generate Buzz… Do I look like an F’in BEE to you!?
good article – you make a fine point. some of my corporate clients caught on the social media hype and talk a lot about “listening to the conversation”, but in doing it, they end up talking and pushing their agenda 200% of the time.
and another one I have seen overused is the “value proposition”, which to me sounds as if you are having real difficulties placing your product, hence you struggle to make it a proposition to your customer, not confident enough to call it a solution. just a thought…
Personal unfavourite is: synergies. Nightmare.
Loved this post.
Neil Crump
@aurorahealthpr ^NC
For every HR person that is sick of hearing the same words used, it seems to me that there are 10 more who use them in keyword searches.
If you read the job description for any given job, odds are it will contain the same words that the article lists as verboten. In fact, job descriptions themselves are usually so broad and lofty that you wonder if anyone really knows what they want in an applicant.
Then there is the cover letter one must send, but first, instead of researching the company, the applicant is usually forced to spend an hour searching or calling the company to find a name to put in place of a generalized greeting.
It does seem that an applicant is caught between Scylla and Charybdis.
Of course I can come up with plenty of synonyms for the buzz words, but how do I know that the person reading my resume or cover letter will know their meaning?
A yearly guide book put out by a human resources association containing words you love hearing and words that make you want to gag would be most helpful. Is there such a guide? I would give up my last chocolate almond bar to find such a compendium.
The current situation simply leaves the applicant flummoxed!
Respectfully,
Sheila Greenfield
Master of Business Administration
Engagement is a word which has a thousand definitions if you speak to Internal Communications professionals. At the moment it seems like the Comms fashion to dislike the word or disapprove of its use..Its only when you look at the dictionary definitions of engagement that you get a proper idea of what it means..In IC where I work we have a mantra engage inform involve.