By Krysty Wideen

I saw this post on Renegade HR and couldn’t help but pass it along. It’s an advertisement for an iPad app called “Buzzword Bingo“. It gives you a bingo card on your iPad, and you get to mark a square when someone uses the buzzword in that square. You can even connect with other iPad users who have the app and play against each other.

Ok, so the app is basically useless. However, I think it is an interesting jab at the business world. There are so many concepts out there, and the word has become completely meaningless as it is used over and over again. It’s too bad, because lots of these concepts are quite valuable, but lose favour as the word becomes a buzzword (dialogue, brainstorm, design).

Where buzzwords are actually detrimental, is when they get in the way of having a real conversation. When people use words like “actionable”, “rockstar”, or “value-add” but never really drill down to what they mean, what they need, what they want.

What buzzwords get in your way? Which ones really have meaning for you? Any favourites?

Krysty Wideen is a learning and organizational development consultant with The Refinery Leadership Partners, based in Vancouver. Her professional interest and expertise is in emotional intelligence, type psychology (MBTI), conflict, team dynamics, learning design, and program evaluation. An emerging practitioner in her field, Krysty is actively seeking new information, ideas, insights, and experiences and loves to share them with the online community through the BC HRMA and Refinery Leadership Partners Blogs.