12 most supercilious corpspeak terms

Some people doodle when they are bored. I do tallies of corporate speak.

I have been known to amass seven “leverages,” three “synergies,” an “actionable,” and a “non-harmonized” all in one two-hour meeting!

Why do speakers force themselves to use more syllables than necessary to get their points across? To use another corporate-speak term, perhaps they see themselves as “thought leaders” and think this type of language bolsters that identity.

Here are 12 of the worst offenders:

1. Synergy

People say this if they want people with complementary talents or resources to find a way to do something that would be impossible without working together.

Translation: “You have something I need. I have something you need. Let’s make something great together.”

2. Leverage

People say this if they want to use something that has already been done, bought or said to move a project forward without having to start from scratch.

Translation: “Joe already has his project management certification. Let’s take advantage of that instead of paying for someone else to get theirs.”

3. Pedagogy