[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: The Word of the Night: Jargon

[Email subscription to blog articles]

Posted by Speed Gibson:
The Word of the Night: Jargon
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1236124783.shtml


   Last night's District 281 School Board meeting featured a short
   presentation on addressing the Strategic Plan's goal (4-B) to "develop
   innovative, targeted communication that is clear, concise, and
   compelling." One facet all three panelists mentioned was the overuse
   and unexplained use of jargon, what the Minneapolis Public Schools'
   Chief Communications Officer Susan Eilertsen calls "Education Speak."
   I'm pleased to note that Executive Director of Human Resources (HR)
   Stephanie Crosby applied that advice minutes later in her own
   presentation, expanding and explaining the various acronyms and
   mysterious program names on her slides. She did it with a pretty big
   grin, too, as though she had been waiting for someone to agree with
   her all this time. OK, I'm being presumptuous, but hey, give her
   credit, especially for an HR person!
   That probably added a minute to this meeting, but that's not why it
   took five hours. Next meeting's Word of the Night: Verbose.