It all started in 1914 with a nine-dot puzzle. In the 70s and 80s it became an elitists' way of making job applicants feel like dirt. Since then it has turned into one of the most over-used, content-free catch phrases of our time.

The next time someone tells you that you need to think outside of the box, ask what that means. There’s a good chance that the initial response will be some stammering, a blank stare, or a frustrated turn-and-walk-away.

When this phrase is used, it often means one or more of the following:

• Don’t think the way you usually think
• Find a unique solution to the problem
• Be creative
• Do something unexpected

These are all GREAT ideas. But there are 2 big problems with this phrase.

Problem 1:

Face it, folks: saying “think outside the box” does not require thinking outside the box. So try to think of new ways to convey your desire for uniqueness. I’d give a few suggestions, but that would make it too easy for you.

Problem 2:

You shouldn’t have to tell people to be innovators. If an employee is always approaching you with concerns about problems he faces and you constantly have to tell him to find a way around the problem, you might want to start looking for a replacement.

Innovation and creativity aren’t things you can tell people to do, they are traits that they either possess or lack.

So give this phrase a rest. Maybe in 150 years or so no one will remember what it means. But until then, get back in the box.

The big problem: we spend too much time talking to the people in our offices. Of course, we can't stop talking to our co-workers—so what do we do?

To get a better understanding of communication, we need to spend more time genuinely communicating. When we spend all day staring at the same 5 or 10 or 50 people in our corner of the office, it’s easy to hear and not listen or to speak without saying anything.

Imagine a person with no knowledge of the English language. If this person were to find himself in southern Alabama, he would come to learn English, but it would be just one of a thousand brands of it. The same thing would happen if this guy only learned the English spoken in the north woods of Minnesota.

To understand the English language as a whole, you'd need to hear how it was spoken all over North America, Europe, and other parts of the world.

So if we want to understand how to communicate with the people in our small corner of the world, we need to experience communication in as many forms as we can.

When you take your car to get worked on, chat with the guy at the front desk. And don't just chat about the problems with your car, but about normal, human things. When you get your morning coffee, see if you can make a connection with the barista. If a plumber comes to fix a leak, ask him what he thinks about the latest news.

Often we think that these kinds of people exist only to fulfill their duty toward us and get out of the way. But if we will slow down, engage the people we come across, we’ll find that we get better and better at communicating.

So, how does this help corporate communication?

When we talk to people inside of our business world, it’s easy to rely on the unique, internal language that we're used to. So when you talk to people outside of your small world, you can't demand that people conform to your language. You get to create a new one.

Don't ask the girl at Starbucks about core competencies or tell the plumber that his work is synergized. That will get you socked in the mouth, or at least ignored.

Start talking to people with clear, interesting language. You will become a person who is easy to listen to, easy to talk to, and easy to communicate with. If it becomes how you communicate away from the office, soon enough you'll communicate like that at the office, too.

So the problem often isn’t what we say, it’s the limited number of people we say things to. Get out of the circle of peers you see most often and see if people who know nothing about you can understand the way you communicate. It will make you a friendlier person, and it will help you start talking like a human being, not a walking job title.

People are the key. They’re who we communicate with; so communicate with more of them.

"Big Picture" is a phrase that is used by people who clearly have no say in how the “big picture” actually turns out. It's a word for pawns stuck in middle management.

I did a search to see exactly what others said about the phrase. I went as far as to look for “big picture jargon” to see what some different takes on the phrase were.

That is when I found this:

Armando's Paper Writing and Presentation Page

It's a paper on how to give good speeches. His rules are:

1. Rule No. 1 - Don't use jargon
2. Rule No. 2 - Keep the big picture in mind
3. Rule No. 3 – (according to me) Hire someone to write this paper who knows what they are talking about.

We’ve been over this before. Jargon is bad. Clichés are bad. And “Big Picture” is a little bit of both.

Before I go on a rant, let me say this: "Big Picture" isn't the worst phrase in the world to use. It does after all help others remember the ultimate goal of a company. The problem with the phrase is that it is over used and often used without anyone having a clue what it means.

Instead of using this middle management phrase, think of other ways to convey what you want to say.

How about: “Here's where I see this going.” Or “It all leads up to this” or anything to make you sound like a regular person and not someone regurgitating information.

Or, better yet, say what the "big picture" is. If your company’s long-term goal is to increase profits, say so. If you want to cut losses, say so.

Corporate America needs to stop shrouding messages in catch phrases. Just say what you mean. When you start to say things that have real meaning, people will listen.

This is one of my favorites. Every time I hear this one used, I chuckle to myself. Here’s an example of it being used that will probably sound very familiar.

“With increased expenditures for research and development and a sharp downturn in the effectiveness of our marketing team, the liquidity of our organization has been a cause of concern. Due to the strength of the dollar, the tumultuous state of the economy and the unfortunate departure of many of our top-level executives, we will begin the process of regaining a strong hold in our markets.

Suffice it to say, it’s been a tough year.”

Using this phrase is the speaker’s way of admitting that everything he’s said to this point was utterly worthless and what he’s about to say is the only thing actually worth listening to.

I love hearing this phrase because it is usually unscripted, and it shows you just a glimpse of the person beneath the job title. For just a moment, the all-important executive breaks character and lets you in on a real, no frills message.

The best solution for this is very simple: start your message with the “suffice it to say” part, and then go into the details. In journalism, this kind of communicating is called the “inverted pyramid.”

Using the Inverted Pyramid

1. Start with the information they MUST have for your communication to be successful.
2. Give information that is helpful but not crucial.
3. Finish with information that is nice to know, but not as important.

Your meetings will seem much more interesting if they start with a line that sums up everything you have to say. If you try to string people along and give them a big surprise at the end, by the time you get there, most people won’t be listening anymore.

So start with the biggest information. Get your information across before everyone tunes out.

Today's topic: "In my opinion…"

But not just "in my opinion." On the block today are "the way I see it," "in my head," "to me," "from my perspective," and anything else vaguely resembling these phrases. They are often used as nothing more than vocal pauses—a chance to say something meaningless to use a second or two to gather a string of thoughts. But that doesn't make it right.

You've been in meetings like this before. It's a round table discussion and you're brainstorming your division's next great idea. Everyone is contributing and the creative juices are really flowing. But that one guy, usually his name is Tad or something like that, he just sits there quietly taking it all in. Your manager notices that he's not had any input.

“Tad, what do you think?”
“Well...in MY opinion...”

Really Tad? You've giving us your opinion? We figured that you'd give us the opinion of someone else.

If someone asks us a question and we answer, aren't we usually giving our own opinion? So why do we often start sentences by saying, "in MY opinion…" as if our listeners might think we have suddenly begun channeling another entity? Of course it's your opinion. Why else would you be talking?

Now this doesn't apply when you're telling "he said she said" stories or when you're giving the opinions of multiple people–that's why we need these phrases. But business related conversations mostly involve sharing our own thoughts. So these kinds of phrases are usually unnecessary.

Now, I'm not suggesting that we throw these phrases out. And, by all means, clarify when you need to. But there's no reason to count on people being confused.

Just assume that if you are sharing your own thoughts, people know that it's your opinion.

Jargon. Shop talk. Buzzwords. Clichés. Whatever you call it, we all overuse it. Jargon refers to any set of words or phrases that are usually used by a specific group of people. And jargon is like B.O.: it's usually easy to notice coming from other people, but it's less noticeable when you're the source.

Jargon is useful every now and then, especially when no other words will clearly convey your intended message. But it's something that needs to be used less. Here's why:

1. Most people don't know what you're talking about.

Outside of your small circle of colleagues, very few people understand what you are saying when you stat using jargon.

For example, if a client asks you for some work and you say that you're "out of bandwith," chances are they will think your cable modem is overworked, not that you're short on time and personnel.

You shouldn't talk to everyone like they are idiots, but you should not expect them to understand your unique language.

2. People will zone you out.

Remember last year's Super Bowl? It was one of the most exciting championship games in NFL history. Do you remember what the winning team's head coach said in his post game press conference? No? Do you know why you don't remember it? Because it was the same speech that the winning coach of the first preseason game of the 1986 season gave.

People in the world of sports are widely known as jargon-heads:

"We just played our game."
"You've got to take it one play at a time."
"I guess we just wanted it more."

The result? No one really cares much about what the athletes and coaches say, they just want to see what they do in games.

When you use too much jargon, people will eventually stop listening to you.

3. Jargon becomes a crutch.

Filling your meeting notes with jargon keeps you from having to develop any real content. You just peck away at the keys for half an hour and, presto, you have a sideshow full of words that business people use. That should be a good meeting, right?

Wrong.

If you're consistent jargon user, commit yourself to going without it for a week or so. When you remove those options from your vocabulary, you have to find some creative (and usually more effective) ways to get your point across. Or, save everyone some time and just come out and say what you need to say.

Bad: To utilize top-to-bottom communication, be sure to ping your immediate superior to touch base and settle any disputes that may arise.
Good: E-mail me if you have any questions.

Use pictures. Write a poem. Try interpretive dance. But stop leaning on jargon.

4. Jargon becomes a cover for ignorance, and getting called out will burn.

People often use jargon as a way to look smart. Say you're not too computer savvy but you're trying to impress the web team. So you start throwing around terms that you've read or heard about to look like a web pro, when you don't actually know the difference between the internet and the intranet.

But what happens if you use a phrase to cover for your lack of knowledge and someone asks for an explanation?

People can tell when you're weaseling out of a sticky situation. It' best to not get into those situations in the first place. If you don't know the first thing about a topic, don't pretend to understand it by throwing out buzzwords. When someone busts you, you lose any and all credibility you had.

People appreciate when you have the guts to say "I don't know." You might not look as good for a short time, but you'll come out with the respect of your audience, and a chance to come back to the next meeting with the answers that you didn't have before.

5. When jargons collide, communication dies.

Imagine a meeting between your company's marketing team and the guys from IT. If one or both sides use their respective jargon, there's a good chance that everyone will walk away from that meeting confused, frustrated and lost. But if both sides use plain language, you might net some results.

The worst is when two different sets of people use the same word to describe two very different ideas. A marketing blitz is a much different than a military blitz; "brand" means one thing to a graphic designer and another to a rancher. Your best bet is to save the jargon for later.

Conclusion

Talking to people like they're regular people makes you look less impressive, but it makes you a whole lot easier to understand.

What jargon have you heard too much lately?

Confused? Check out this list. It will help.

A simple definition of an idiom is:

…a word or phrase that, when said to someone who only knows formal English, is utterly confusing and pointless.

Idioms are (a few of) the things we say without considering what we’re saying. And when we use idioms, we’re rarely meaning what we say. But since there are unspoken rules and definitions that come along with idioms, it’s passable.

For example, if I tell you to “cut it out,” you know I want you to stop. But you also know that you don’t need scissors. And if I “make up my mind,” you know that I’ve made a decision, but that I haven’t created my own consciousness.

The rule with idioms is like the rule we apply to so many things: always in moderation. Sprinkle them lightly throughout your communication (get it?). Use them too often and you start to sound a little crazy.

A few can get your point across. Too many will distort your message.

And never, ever make up your own idioms. We have enough already, thanks.

Here are some excerpts from the annual reports of two large successful companies. One company gets it. The other does not.

Bad

Company: Merck

“It’s been a year since I reported to you about Merck’s Plan to Win — our blueprint for returning Merck to the industry–leading position it once enjoyed and which we are committed to reclaim…”

In other words, sorry we’ve been so terrible lately, but we’re working on it.

“I am pleased to report that the results of the past 12 months confirm that we are off to a strong start in executing our plan.”

And when I say “working on it,” I mean that we’re getting our junk together so we can work on it.

“As I look back over the past year, I believe we have gathered the momentum needed to meet the performance goal we established…”

To recap: We stink. We know we need to work on it. We’ve got a plan in place to get a plan in place to start getting the stuff we need to not stink so bad anymore. See you in 2035!

Not as Bad

Company: Caterpillar

“…projected sales and revenues should be close to $40
billion in 2006. That means we will have nearly doubled the
size of our company in just three years…”

In case you missed it, those are actual numbers.

“I feel incredibly good about our accomplishments…”

Incredibly good? That almost sounds like a phrase you’d actually hear someone say in real life. Does this guy even have his MBA?

The Point

Whether it is an annual report or an email to your cubicle-mate, the point of communication is to convey ideas. So here are two basic, boiled-down rules for communicating:

1. You must have an idea to convey.
2. You must convey it in a way that is easily understood.

So, simple communication is the best communication. Consider this the next time you’re drafting an email or, if you have a really terrible job, an annual report.