Let’s warp out of drive
9th March 2006 by Bill Boyd, ABC
One of my favorite Dilbert cartoons depicts several executives cackling over a strategic plan they purloined from one of their competitors. “Ooh! Look!” one guffaws. “They’re planning to ‘utilize synergy.’ We’re in trouble now!”
If Scott Adams had published that strip this morning, the executive might have been hooting, “Then, they’re going to drive customer satisfaction!”
When, exactly, did “drive” become the latest way to avoid speaking clearly? We drive traffic to the intranet. We drive employee engagement. We drive sales. We drive profitability. We drive everything except cars, cattle and Miss Daisy. And, frankly, it’s driving me crazy!
It’s time for a campaign to drive “drive” out of our communications. Let’s encourage. Let’s create. Let’s promote. Let’s do anything except employ a flaccid verb that fails to create a vivid mental image.
Then maybe we’ll drive some understanding.
March 9th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
How about instead we “impact” everything?
March 10th, 2006 at 4:42 am
My mission-critical objective is to utilize all my core competencies in driving impactfulness with key stakeholders.
March 10th, 2006 at 5:31 am
Don’t forget it’s ALL ABOUT THE BRAND! By the way, how’s your brand feeling today? Mine is fine, thanks for asking.
Good Friday topic.
March 10th, 2006 at 7:07 am
Prior to dispensing with “drive,” Bill, shouldn’t we identify an alternative term to utilize? Thanks for facilitating this discussion.
Translation: Before dumping “drive,” Bill, shouldn’t we decide on another word to use? Thanks for bringing this up.
March 10th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
Come to think of it, I think I use that word more than I should! I guess I like the fact that it conjures up images of taking control, “driving” as opposed to sitting in the back seat and letting it all happen.
Word usage is a fascinating topic. How about the dot.com era’s introduction on the twisted use of “monetize”? That used to mean establish something as legal tender or convert government securities to currency. Now it’s used as a reference to figuring out how to make money from something like a website.
Or what about “scalable” coming from that same era and often used as a reference to growing an online business. It’s interesting (and yes, sort of annoying) to have words pop up and take over the lexicon of the times.
March 23rd, 2006 at 7:22 am
My current favourite?
‘Linkcentivize’ - apparently meaning to reward disparate groups for working together and achieving a common success.
I have to say, from this side of the pond, it’s my North American cousins who have done most to ‘verbize’ the English language.
March 23rd, 2006 at 3:30 pm
“drive” is 5/6 of “drivel”