Senior officer unoriginality
 

You, like me, may have noticed a distinct lack of original management vocabulary amongst our senior officer cadre and I think it behoves us to manage upwards to ensure that they do not become stale.

Take piece as an example. Mentioned once it is acceptable, e.g. "we need to reduce the delta on the afghan piece". When senior chaps start piece-ing all over the place it is simply incontinence.

The pressure is now on us to show that we will not tolerate such vocabularial laziness. Loquaciousness and prolixity without reason are not to be encouraged. We must however ensure that our leaders have a broad knowledge of the lexicon which they can employ in both extemporaneous and prepared speech.

I suggest a zero tolerence pigzing policy policed by the junta, at presentations, briefs and especially at shareholders. Keep a record of each use of a tired word or phrase and announce the scores at the end. Pay special attention to those on a career push and punish them harder. We may have to give the older ones up for lost but we need to catch the young ones before it spreads.

Ah, a piece de resistance perhaps.
But I wouldn't make a meal of it..... :p

Like this you mean?

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...rd+bingo&meta=

"... we will not tolerate such vocabularial laziness"
 

Such as "zero tolerence pigzing policy" for example?:)

Jack

OCCWMF,
Your piece has flagged up an interesting example of thinking outside the box in a lateral manner during a brainstoming session as part of a senior management level bonding adventure weekend. If only they would swap the paintballs for the real thing:ouch:
s37

BINGO!!!!!

Piece in a Bull****-Bingo context is a new one on me. That's probably because no manager up here would dare use it. I can imagine the chorus in response:

"Piece? Effin' piece he says!? Ahm gaggin' oan ma effin' piece so wull ye jist git oan wi' it ya numpty!"

For the uninitiated, a piece in Scotland is a sandwich vide Jammy or Jeely Piece - a jam sandwich. By extension it has come to mean any packed lunch one's wife sends one out with in the morning.

New Big Words
 

OCCWMF, you child,

Perhaps you'd like to approach OC29 or Stn Cdr Leeming for some new big words. I hear they have a few up their sleeves...

Think yourselves lucky you don't work in the high-flying world of business - "piece" is a part of everyday lingo, along with "talk to" (as in "I'm now going to talk to our key numbers for the last Quarter") - I have resolutely vowed not to use these terms, and leave the senior management to make linguistic arses of themselves....

Editted to say I forgot one - "space", as in "We need to understand what's going on in this space" - makes me cringe every time I hear it :yuk:

To which piece are you referring? The overarching or underpinning one? :ugh:

:cool:

TOG

Got a piece today about the new E&D policy proposals and the great plan to deliver it in the first two weeks in August.

Full of big words meant absolutly zilch apart from the piece about ID cards and burkas.

Piece.

Off.

I thank you.:ok:

Here's a nice 'piece':

Do keep up! - doing this or that "going forward" or "taking it forward" are the latest pieces of Management Bo££ocks doing the rounds of the bazaars at the mo'..........

I'm more concerned about the use of "delta" in this context. Surely we want the "delta" to continue towards a more stable country? :8

PTT - that was a direct quote. Luckily not referring to the stability of the piece.

Jack - thank you for your your vigilance dagnabbitrassafassagrrrrrthought I'd gotten away with that one.

Underpowered - That's the second time I've been called a child in as many days. Perhaps it's time to address the delta inwith my maturity piece.

TOG - perhaps a combination of both. We need a word to describe something that is both u/p and o/a. Discuss;)

From Max Hastings in today's Guardian:

There are constant complaints that decision-making is too centralised and cumbersome in the hands of the huge corps of MoD civil servants. These people have embraced management-speak in a fashion that promotes fantasy rather than efficiency. The MoD's formal mission statement describes Bill Jeffrey, the unimpressive permanent secretary, as "not only leading the workstream process, but driving it". This gobbledegook is characteristic of a mindset preoccupied with process rather than the pursuit of clear objectives.

Priceless.

OCCWMF - relieved to find I was not too guilty!

Now I need to drive my Bristol Groundschool workstream forward....

Current Role of the RAF:

Piece Keeping!:}

Looking at BEags pic 'taking it forward' does indeed spring to mind.

CK - I think we'd managed upwards well enough to prevent staleness!;)

"I'll make you an offer you can't understand"
 

There is a theory, well-supported in my experience, that many senior officers , and especially direct entry types with MBA-itis now write in a style which sets out to confuse rather than enhance. They have created a way of writing which not only redefines the conventions of good 'service writing' [do they remember that at all?], but sets out to say as little as possible that can come back and bite them. The fact is they don't want you to understand!

I seem to recall Winston Churchill : "Pray tell this day, on one side of a sheet of paper, the current state of the British navy". You'd get a bloody book today, and it would end up as a doorstop somewhere.

I was always taught the good old JSP of Service Writing was to be followed, and that all those good things in it like avoiding slang words and vernacular were there for a reason. It sounds like noone reads it these days.

Why do they write such gobbledegook?; because it's snobbery, that's why. By writing in a complex language only they can understand, they hope to exclude the rest of us. It also means they haven't worked their own ideas through, so dressing up weak arguments hides the fact they don't know what they're talking about!

They really get up the hair-lined passages leading to the respiratory tract through the cartilaginous prominence on my face.