The Big Idea Blog

If there were an HTML tag for "rant" I'd use it to give you the heads up that I was going to, so lets just pretend:

<rant on>

Stop calling your reports or work-products "artifacts".

Seriously.

You are not creating something for some future generation to dig up and contemplate about the role and use of whatever it is you think you are producing!

an artifact is an object recovered by some archaeological endeavor, which may have a cultural interest*.

The only people that really should be using that word are called archaeologists. If you're not an archaeologist, or if you aren't having a conversation with one, using the word "artifact" doesn't make you one.

Now, it's probably true that the work-product you're promising to deliver is going to get lost in some filing cabinet, or a hard drive or network share and probably will never see the light of day again requiring an archaeological effort to find it (unless you're lucky enough to have an audit, in which case it magically transforms into "evidence" as in "Exhibit A").

If anything your work-product is likely a by-product of some procedure or process that amounts to little more than a check-box on someones "deliverables" list.

</rant off>

See how useful that tag would be? While we're at it, try to go just one day where you don't use (or hear!) one of the top 10 overused business buzz-words:

Stakeholder

Heads up

Mission critical

Bandwidth

Touch base

In the loop

Low-hanging fruit

Moving forward

At the end of the day

On the same page

The author of this top ten list points out that:

"When overused or misused, however, buzzwords can overshadow or even distort the overall communication. Using too many buzzwords can lessen an individual's credibility as an independent, intelligent, creative thinker. At worst, it can make him/her look like a wishy-washy wannabe."

Some random links of other top overused buzzwords, jargon, and phrases for your amusement:

Commonly Used Business Jargon -- Includes some of my favorites: "Solutioning", "efforting", and the obnoxious "learnings" as a noun...

Overused Business Buzzwords -- You could probably build a 100% buzzword compliant status report generator from this list suitable for any project occasion!

100 Overused Marketing Phrases -- For fun, read through any advertisement to a friend and omit the adjectives and see if they can figure out what it is

Maybe adopt a "buzzword jar" that people have to put $.25 in every time they get caught using one of these puff phrases?

So, today's Big Idea is this: "Have a meeting (or just follow-up!) with someone instead of "touching-base" or "circling-back". Find the courage to call your spreadsheet/powerpoint/report what it is instead of what you want people to think it is."

The only artifact you might be leaving behind is the impression that you are a poser.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Yeah I know that software people have co-opted the term, but that doesn't mean they know what they are talking about. I have a Master's in Software Engineering and I can tell you that they are just kidding themselves and you. I recommend negative reinforcement, like a water-spray bottle used to re-train cats.

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