Comments on: Buzzword Bingo

By: Mrs Tilton

Mrs Tilton — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 21:11:41 +0000

Ah, but how many Sigmas, Meg? I settle for nothing less than seven meself.

By: meg

meg — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 17:27:58 +0000

“Sigma Quality Control”

By: morvern callar

morvern callar — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 12:28:53 +0000

… “disintermediation” might even make it into the Oxford dictionary: http://www.worldwidewords.org/turnsofphrase/tp-dis1.htm (the author of the website is a contributor to the OED)

By: Mrs Tilton

Mrs Tilton — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 11:37:50 +0000

I was in a meeting once with some shockingly expensive consultants and our mutual client. The most voluble of the consultants used the term ‘milestone champion’. So far as I can tell, the English for this would be ‘the person responsible for getting done some particular aspect of the task at hand’. I am pleased to be able to report that the consultants were, not long after that, reverse-integrated (shall we say) into the project.

By: gemma

gemma — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 11:05:03 +0000

“Run it up the flagpole and see who salutes it” is obviously an army expression, dating from at least WWII. Like many such expressions, it was once witty but has now grown stale.

By: andrew

andrew — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 10:37:35 +0000

“Skill-set” screams insecure middle management, not sure what they get paid for…

By: morvern callar

morvern callar — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 09:46:23 +0000

Try the gobbledygook generator.

By: humeidayer

humeidayer — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 03:12:29 +0000

the old web economy b.s. generator is still up and running.

By: Jeremy Osner

Jeremy Osner — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 03:06:30 +0000

John, that “flagpole” thing took me right back—the only place I have ever seen that phrase used was in the comic strip “Pogo” by Walt Kelly, during a discussion of one of Albert Alligator’s endless stream of business models, when Howland Owl and Churchy La Femme were discussing how to market the scheme.

By: GC

GC — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 01:21:51 +0000

http://www.jhu.edu/host/lounge/index.html (home to the famous Bruno Latour action figure, as well)

By: liberal japonicus

liberal japonicus — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 00:44:21 +0000

Fun faculty meeting games. More challenging is that you have to announce that you have bingo by saying it during the meeting. ‘When the students come to this program, I’m hoping that they will say ‘bingo!, this is an opportunity I want to take advantage of.’ Another bingo possibility is to list the annoying tics of other faculty on a bingo card, so when faculty member X sniffs three three times in an attempt to take the floor, bingo! A more challenging variant is to meet before the faculty meeting and make a random list of words and assign them to the various participants. The goal is to use the word in the faculty meeting. Really tough when you draw a word like ‘wildebeast’

By: bonkydog

bonkydog — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 00:30:32 +0000

‘If I “take ownership” of this project, do I get to keep any profit it generates? I mean after all, I OWN it, right?’

By: Mary

Mary — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 00:11:56 +0000

“adding value” is a favourite. Incidently, people I know call it Bullshit Bingo. I’m trying to make this leap myself. It’s been actioned.

By: Tom Runnacles

Tom Runnacles — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 22:38:47 +0000

John Q, If I remember right, the flagpole thing can be traced back to ‘Twelve Angry Men’, in which it’s a line given to the irritating adman who comes round to Henry Fonda’s point of view eventually. As to ‘taking ownership’, feh, I hear that one so often that I barely even see it as being a buzzword anymore. I believe I even ‘took ownership’ of something today, shortly after after being ‘actioned’ to do so. How do you type the sound of vomiting?

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 22:09:29 +0000

My own last-century favourite “run it up the flagpole and see who salutes” gets a good listing. On the other hand, I couldn’t find “taking ownership” (that is, of some plan the boss has dreamed up for you to implement).