Business Rocks: Words Fail Me

When my youngest son was about five years old, he made up the word “figgert“. To figgert is a verb that means arguing because you’re being so polite and nice.

For example, if my wife and I our talking about collecting one of the boys from football, our conversation might go something like this: “I’ll go!“; “No, don’t worry, I’ll go!“; “No really, it’s fine, I’ll go!”

That, dear reader, is figgerting in action!

Having a word for something raises both our awareness and understanding of it. Inuits really do have 50 words for snow, including, for instance, “aquilokoq” for softly-falling snow and “piegnartoq” for the type of snow that is good for driving sleds.

Having access to so many words enables Inuits to achieve a level of understanding of that particular form of precipitation that our two words – ‘snow’ and ‘sleet’ – simply can’t create.

So, I’ve been thinking of the words in business that don’t yet exist but should. Here are some initial ideas:

• Stratesfear – describes the attitude of executives who refuse to create a clear and compelling strategy for their organisation;
• Denegate – when you delegate a task only to subsequently take it over again before it’s been completed; and
• Telemails – these are sent during a teleconference when attendees put their phone on mute and do their emails instead.

So, what do you believe are the business, management and leadership words that don’t yet exist, but should? Please send me your thoughts and ideas and I’ll happily share those that are printable!