4 Responses

1. L&D
   NLP seems to be a big buzzword at the moment.

   Sandra Beale

2. Trainerspeak
   Sarah

   The following are not so much buzz words, more buzz phrases (and their real meanings):

   1. “Lets do a creative exercise!”
   Interpretation: You get to crawl around the floor with crayons and I film it for our Xmas party.
   2. “Who would like to introduce themselves first?”
   Interpretation: Which egotistical megla-maniac is daft enough to reveal their true self even before we have properly started?
   3. “Discuss it in pairs first and then I’ll collect your ideas on the board”
   Interpretation: I have lost the plot and need a few minutes to find my place. Anyway, half of you wouldn’t know a decent idea even if I wrote it on your forehead.
   4. “We have one of our senior managers coming in to talk to us this afternoon”
   Interpretation: I have chosen someone so dull that they will even make me look interesting. Besides, you all look like you need an afternoon nap.
   5. “I’ll have to get back to you on that one”
   Interpretation: I’ll get you later.
   6. “I’ll be covering that in a later session”
   Interpretation: I’d already planned to get you later.
   7. “My colleague will be covering that later on”
   Interpretation: We drew straws and I get to watch this time.
   8. “We don’t cover that on this course”
   Interpretation: I’ll have to get you next time.
   9. “If you have any feedback about the course, do put it on your evaluation form”
   Interpretation: Any upstarts who would dare to question what we do might as well forget it, our forms go straight in the bin.
   10. “We welcome your ideas”
   Interpretation: We don’t welcome your ideas but I am not allowed to say that.

   I hope that raises a smile!

   Graham

3. thanks!
   That’s hilarious! Thanks!

   Any more to add?

4. Mind your jargon
   I’m usually quite careful to avoid jargon, but slipped up in a workshop for an NHS client. It was soon after I’d completed an NLP programme, and I happened to mention a ‘well-formed outcome’.

   One nurse ended up in hysterics, as for her it sounded like a comment about bowel movements: ‘hello dear, have you had a well-formed outcome this morning?’

   Although I still use a lot of NLP, I tend to translate it into plain English first, as the language can get in the way. Pedant that I am, I cringe every time I hear ‘trainings’ being used as a plural noun.