There are a few common phrases that we over-use inside Microsoft.

 

“So” - I went to a daylong public speaking class once and the guy running it, a professional coach, said that most Microsofties began way too many of their sentences with “so.” I’d never noticed it (this was before I was in TM), but he’s right. I’ve never had a problem with uhms or ahhs but I still screw this one up all the time, despite +5 years as a Toastmaster.

 

I’ve heard two theories as to why we do this. The first is that we’re a bunch of laid back Northwest guys. “So, like, did you like the hiking trip?” The other is that we’re overly excited Microsoft types that start talking before we think and use “so” as our “uhm” equivalent. “So… like I have this really cool idea that I was thinking of. So do you have time to talk to me about it now? So…”

 

It’s interesting that laid-back Northwest and over ambitious Microsoftie don’t gel. Maybe it’s just that we (the US, not MS) are collectively ruining English.

 

“Impactful” - I don’t know why I dislike this one so much but I do. It started as only something some high level VP type or marketing guy would say. It seems to slowly be creeping its way down the corporate ladder. I’ve heard mid level managers that I really respect using it recently. Maybe at some point in the distant past George Washington or Rockefeller or a Roman Emperor or some other big wig began every sentence with “so” and the rest of us have picked it up from him, too.

 

I’m not alone in this opinion. From here:

 

Impactful: A non-existent word coined by corporate advertising, marketing and business drones to make their work sound far more useful, exciting and beneficial to humanity than it really is. This term is most frequently used in “team building” seminars and conferences in which said drones discuss the most effective ways to convince consumer zombies to purchase crap they clearly do not need or even want.

 

“Messaged” - Speaking of me almost screwing up, this blog is motivated by my near use of the word “messaged” this week. Not like instant-messaged. Instead:

 

“It has been messaged to me that need to keep this secret and that was messaged to my boss from the VP.”

 

Instead of saying “been messaged”, I could also say “told.” And instead of could, let’s say should or even better use “told.” As in, “My boss told me to keep this secret since his boss told him.”

 

First off, told is better because it’s active rather than a passive “been messaged.” But messaged is even worse than that. It feels like some PC game — politically correct, not the other PC games MS cares about. If my boss tells me something, it reminds me that he’s my boss who has the right to tell me stuff. We’re supposed to be one big happy family where information doesn’t get told down the hierarchy, but instead where we receive passive messaging.

 

Mind you that if I don’t do what the messaging tells me, I’ll be told I screwed up come bonus time no matter how they spin it.

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We should get “impactful” and “messaged” to be like “synergy.” I’m too much the realist to think we can have as much luck with sentence opening “so”, but we can try.

 

So I hope my messaging on all this has will impactful.