The business world is the breeding ground for trendy words and phrases, so it’s not surprising that a recent business meeting I attended was full of such words and phrases. Since my co-workers already look at me suspiciously (Not the Only One Who Hates Verbing), I want to make sure to note that this meeting didn’t include any of them!
Some of these words or phrases have already been discussed, either in my book or in the blog, but there were so many terms mentioned by the representatives of this company that I thought it was worthy of a post. A problem space was mentioned, which was the first time that I had heard the word problem mentioned in a meeting (other than when I say it) in the last five years; of course, that was tempered by the fact that I have no idea what a problem space is. I guess they could have been talking about a parking problem, but I doubt it since it was a meeting by telephone.
Concerns and issues were mentioned, but expecting to not hear those in a meeting would be like not expecting to hear thunder after lightning strikes a tree in your own yard. A couple of other noteworthy terms included verticals, horizontals (no diagonals, though!), compromises the user experience (I have never met a user who likes to be compromised), and valuable revenue opportunity.
That last one is the one that sold me because I think that means we’d make money on the deal!!
–Paul
Paul’s book–Literally, the Best Language Book Ever;
Everything Language and Grammar 