Predictors of beaconicity banned from holistically synergising stakeholder engagement
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 11:26 am
No it doesn’t make sense but so much local authority speak doesn’t. However the Local Government Association’s ban on jargon certainly does.
I’m not sure why local councils seem unable or unwilling to communicate clearly either internally or externally. They do seem to be among the worst offenders when it comes to the dark art of gibberish.
Maybe they think that using phrases like ‘coterminous, stakeholder engagement’ instead of simply ‘talking to people’ makes them sound, I don’t know, smart? Up-to-date? Credible? Cool even?
Well it doesn’t. Quite the opposite in fact. It makes it sound as if they either have something to hide or as if they haven’t a clue what they are talking about.
I’m delighted to see that one of my particular bug-bears, ‘across the piece’, is on the banned list. So too are several ‘cores’ as in value, principles and messages. I always find it amusing that core is usually accompanied by a mammoth list as is the word key.
Take a look at the full, mind-boggling list . Here are some that had me either shaking or scratching my head:
Cross-cutting – not what you may think.
Distorts spending priorities
Double devolution
Edge-fit
Flexibilities and Freedoms
Fulcrum – not sure what it means in local authority speak but I bet (deleted it) there is a simpler way of saying it.
Gateway review
Horizon scanning
Improvement levers
Innovative capacity
Menu of Options
Normalising
Place shaping
Predictors of Beaconicity
Promulgate – could be said so much clearer.
Rebaselining
Seedbed
Self-aggrandizement
Single conversations
Worklessness
Do you know your cross-cutting from your top-downing?
Take this BBC quiz to find out how fluent you are in gibberish.
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