Friday 20 February 2009

Corporate Speak Friday


Buzz-tastic word of the week: Cascade (kas-keyd)

"
anything that resembles a waterfall, esp. in seeming to flow or fall in abundance"



Apparently we no longer "pass information on" or "let people know" - oh no, loyal readers - we
cascade.

In a sentence: "please cascade this {information} to managers and staff if appropriate"

I dare everybody to use Cascade in this sense (with a straight face) in the next week!

4 comments:

Andrea Eames said...

Oh god, management speak is so awful. When I worked at the publishing company, my boss's favourite word was 'agreeance' as in, 'are we in agreeance?"

IT'S NOT A WORD!

Helena said...

Ju, I tried. Really. I just couldnt manage it with a straight face. I kept picturing waterfalls, or a bad 80's shampoo ad. Please cascade this failure to the appropriate sources.

Tara Vorhes said...

Oh how I love corporate buzz words! They are soooo funny!

I would bet that the "cascade" started with someone with a project management background based on the similarity to the "waterfall" methodology for PM and the language that is often used to describe it... and PM is quite bad with the 'buzz' words!

Melina said...

I used it in an email ... I know it's cheating but I needed to warm up to it first! Watch this space...