“Time to grab your go-go juice, check your coloring book, and hit the super slab. Don’t forget to pay the cash box, and flip your ears on – just in time to hear the news about some gator guts on the road-watch out! Hit the road long and hard all day and make sure you stop at the mandatory chicken coop in Jacksonville. When you’re done for the day, carry on right through to Miami and park at the TA for the night.”
Right now I bet half of you are nodding your heads knowingly, and the rest are wondering what the heck you just read. While talk of ‘chicken coops’ and ‘gator guts’ might sound like a Floridian farm gone wrong, those ‘in the know’ understand that these words are slang for ‘weigh stations’ and ‘shredded tires’, respectively. Sometimes, having a secret language at work is a good thing – it helps us get the message across to our colleagues while clearing away a lot of extra explanation, it’s fun, and it doesn’t hurt anyone. Or does it?
Some of the biggest talkers in the business world have suggested the opposite – that jargon just complicates the message and creates a culture where people aren’t saying what they mean. Virgin founder Richard Branson, one of the best minds in business, claims that he went years without knowing the difference between “net” and “gross” when it came to finances. Yikes! For this reason, he encourages those he deals with in business to speak in simple, clear terms, and to avoid challenging code words.
At Matchmaker, we don’t mind a little jargon here and there, but we prefer plain and simple straight talk. And to prove that, I’m going to go ahead and translate that paragraph above:
“Time to fuel your trucks, check your log book, and hit the highway. Don’t forget to pay the tolls, and flip your CB radio on – just in time to hear the news about that shredded tire on the road-watch out! Hit the road long and hard all day and make sure you stop at the mandatory weigh station in Jacksonville. When you’re done for the day, carry on right through to Miami and park at the Travel Center for the night.”
Say what you mean this weekend,
~Bob
