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Lesson 11 Office Cliche’
Lesson
LESSON 11
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11
Office Cliche’
✔
A. Warm up
Are there any overused business clichés in your language/country?
Do you find any of them useful?
B. Words and Expressions
Repeat after your teacher.
1. preconceptions - assumption; a preconceived idea or prejudice
2. poll - the process of voting in an election; record of opinion
3. predecessor - a person who held a job or office before the current holder
4. scribbled - written on something
5. bizspeak - the jargon (special words or expressions) used in business
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Lesson 11 Office Cliche’
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C. Reading
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Few things are as irritating as the jargon of the modern workplace. But what do our
everyday office catchphrases really mean and where do they come from?
1. It probably won't surprise you to learn that "thinking outside the box" has just been voted
the most overused business cliché in the country, according to a poll sponsored by the
gaming company Ubisoft. Apparently, "thinking outside the box", which refers to looking at
things from a new perspective without preconceptions, was invented by some suit in the Walt
Disney Organization years ago. Tiresomely enough, it is even now being used by
apparently-serious office workers not least as a slogan by the Welsh Development Agency.
2. In fact, next time you're on a British Airways flight look out for WDA's little ad during the
in-flight movie programme. In Wales "thinking outside the box comes naturally", says the
voice-over, although the organization's thinking is obviously not sufficiently "outside the box"
enough for them to avoid using the cliché "think outside the box".
3. Anyway, you may agree with the poll's verdict, or you may disagree, having your own least
favorite bit of business jargon. After all, there's plenty of irritating phrases that refuse to die.
4. "It's not rocket science" is another much-hated example, but it hardly has the impact in an
office environment these days that it might once have enjoyed, since it is heavily overused.
Word experts believe this most patronizing of phrases meaning "duh, are you stupid?" came
into the American business community's consciousness during the Cold War when rockets
were first developed. The act of launching craft into space was considered so extraordinary
that the science behind it was presumed to be extremely difficult. So anything else must be
relatively easy. The big question is, what phrase rocket scientists might choose to employ
when they decide to patronize one of their respected colleagues?
5. Elsewhere, it is strange how the greyest of tribes the accountants, the management
consultants, the, oh dear, "senior executives" and "team leaders" have managed to coin
usages that, although now overused and abused, were once colorful, fresh and filled with
meaning. Once upon a time "let's touch base" must have been a relatively charming way of
getting a business "contact", if I can use that expression, to keep in touch. When someone
got up in a Powerpoint presentation and said, for the first time in human history, that they
wanted their company or department to "push the needle", meaning `take things to the next
level', it must have stimulated corporate minds. "Swallow the frog" is a more recent
innovation, which has not yet become boring and nicely expresses the idea of getting the
nastiest task of the day out of the way first. But soon, as with all its predecessors, it will
quickly become tedious and uninspiring.
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Lesson 11 Office Cliche’
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6. But why? Why bother with the expressions such as "shoot the puppy" (meaning `make a
brutal decision')? Partly it's a matter of competition; the more memorable and lightly
amusing the words scribbled on a flip-chart, the more admiration the inventor will receive.
Partly, it's a matter of confusing the uninitiated and keeping them out. Mostly, though, it's
probably because there really isn't much that is genuinely new for people in business to get
excited about.
7. Despite the proliferation of laptops and BlackBerrys and Excel spreadsheets, working in an
office is as sedentary and limiting as it ever was. Some people love to "rebrand" old, tired
ideas in different ways, often to justify their own existence.
8. The absurdities of office life, including its strange language, have been joked about many
times over the years but sometimes, as these examples demonstrate, the world of bizspeak
really is just beyond parody.
D. Reading Comprehension
？
Answer the following questions based in the reading passage you have read.
?
1. If something is overused (P1), do you think it is used too much or too little? What is its
opposite?
2. What do you think suit (P1) means? Is the word approving or disapproving?
3. Which word in paragraph 4 describes a phrase that is spoken to someone as if they are
stupid or unimportant?
E. Discussion
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Describe a situation when you had to:
-think outside the box
-swallow the frog
-push the needle
-shoot the puppy
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