Jargon Monoxide Public Service Announcement #1

Thank Bob Sutton's post "Polly LaBarre on Jargon Monoxide" for the following series of posts for the week.

What is Jargon Monoxide?

Jargon Monoxide, as I am inferring from the post, is "hollow", "interchangeable" phraseology used by executives (in Polly's example), but it could be applied to alpha geeks, academics, marketing folk, etc.

Some examples from the post include:

• value added
• competitive advantage
• distinctive competence
• monetize

Other bloggers who caught Bob Sutton's post added their own examples.  Here are some from The Opinionated Marketers:

• synergy
• incentivize
• solution based
• customer-centric

Is Jargon Monoxide dangerous?

While Sutton's post does not explicitly state the dangers of Jargon Monoxide, he does contrast LaBarre's description of Jargon Monoxide with her description of "mavericks [who] are so effective at inspiring innovation".

From this information, I am assuming that exposing your audience to high levels of Jargon Monoxide could choke the innovation, inspiration and creativity out of them.