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Using Words

Funny list of familiar words with new meaning attached to them. Each one is great but people can still have their favorites. Mine is : Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach. 

The list made me think about the way we use words daily, how much of them we use and the effect that they have on others. In my job, I have to talk a lot and also listen to others talk a lot. When there is that much in volume of words flying in all directions, chances are very little or any of it is poignant or meaningful. I had a boss once who used to coach the team on how to use words for effect - trim how many words you use, be efficient and make them count. 

Generally sound advice and I try to apply if just about every time I speak. The results are interesting from what I see - the more effort I apply to being coherent and cohesive in what I say, the more it sticks out from the overall ambient noise that everyone else is contributing to. It sticks out and often not in the best way. 

If I dial it back some, relax about being concise and get closer to the average level, it fits in much better but I can't stand to hear myself.  So there is no good option as far as I can tell - atleast not in my particular situation. I pay attention to people around me whose manner of speech I like - most of them are subject matter experts in areas I know very little about. Wanting to learn from them is the driver for paying close attention and because so much new information is coming my way, the mechanics of how they deliver it is not relevant. 

The stuff that I got good at over the years has a lot to do with applying commonsense and listening closely to people as they describe problems they need to solve. I am not a specialist in inventory optimization and have not done that for the last thirty years. There lies the big difference perhaps. When the supply chain guru holds forth no one feels like a spot of common sense and a little good listening could have answered that problem - there is much more to it. So it's okay for the guru to be economical with their words, make them count and so on. It does not produce an alienating effect on those listening.



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