As a veteran of business meetings, conference calls, emails, and telephone conversations it is always amazing to me how often the words we use to express ourselves serve to confuse and not clarify the message we intend to send. How often have the following been said without regard for whether the listener(s) share the same understanding of the phrase as the speaker:
1) That product is a home-run
2) The competition threw us a curveball
3) In this turbulent economy, we have to keep our eye on the ball
4) We are going to take the gloves off
5) That product’s feature is a real knockout
6) To unseat the competition we are going to have to throw a Hail Mary pass and drop our 7) Getting to the decision-maker will be a slam dunk once we demonstrate the new product
While among fans of sports, the above may help to illustrate the points being made; for those that are less interested in sports, they represent confusion in interpretation and are off-putting. Yet, as much as clear communciation is stressed, these trite phrases continue to infiltrate every day business communication.
While I only shared some of the sports examples used, the same can be said for military examples (salute the flag, blitz, march to the beat of a drummer, fly in formation, etc.). The same outcome exists – without the shared context, the message is garbled.
What have been some of the expressions you have heard that served to muddle the message instead of clarify?
