The 7 deadly clichés — strike these words from your thinking. (Part 1)

How often does this occur to you when sitting in a business meeting?

“If I hear that word one more time, I’m going to strangle somebody.”

 Why is it that we speak in normal parlance in everyday conversation, but in our work lives turn into robots — spitting out clichés that we can all live without? It’s weird when you think about it. Today’s business culture prizes individuality and creativity, yet at the same time, there’s more groupthink and talk than ever before.

With the current demand that all things be grounded in “authenticity,” isn’t it time to ditch the jargon? For starters, let’s all try to eliminate these 7 words:

1. Millennial

There have been so many ridiculous overstatements written about the supposed psychographic profile of young people that when they hear this word, they must roll their eyes. It’s one thing to say that people who grew up using certain devices have more facility with them, but what about all the demeaning pop psychology assumptions applied to this entire group? It is said that Millennials are both narcissistic and socially aware. In other words, they just think about themselves — except when they’re obsessed with helping others.

Millennials are referred to as snowflakes, in need of safe spaces and prizes for simply participating. Yet the new economy, led by tech companies that hire young people almost exclusively, is characterized by a rough and tumble work ethic, where employees are on call 24/7. In other words, this is a lazy generation except when they’re working round the clock.

Finally, there’s the idea that Millennials live in their phones because they are addicted to social media. But, according to Pew research, this age group is more likely to use devices to look at educational content and apply for jobs. In other words, Millennials are out of touch with reality except when they use their phones to explore it in depth.

For those trying to create a marketing “experience” for young people, it makes more sense to refine your demographic. Pay more attention to the data and toss out the contradictory stereotypes.

2. Innovation

This word has been so overused, that today there’s nothing less innovative than innovation. Think about it, what is innovation? Isn’t it about doing something really big? Like iTunes, which figured out how to get people to pay for something they were getting for free (remember Napster?). Or how about Spotify, which many say is putting iTunes out of business? Then there are craft beers. By going local and custom, they shook up legacy brands, forcing the big guys to buy them out.

The point is, innovation forever changes the way things are done. More than just providing a “solution” (there’s another cliché), it creates new ones, especially today when technology is moving faster than we can keep up.

To all who use this word on your website, in your collateral, in your sell sheets and white papers … try something innovative. A new word!

3. Content

Once upon a time, there was copywriting, art, video, radio, broadcast, music, tradeshows, movies, film scripts, lyrics, poems, novels, comic books, tutorials, webinars, podcasts, collateral, direct mail, catalogs, pornography, photography, dialogue, monolog, analog, speech writing, street fighting, corporate training, mansplaining, brainstorming, house warming, non-conforming ….

And then one day, it all ended.

Somebody came along, took all of the above and threw it into a bucket. They mixed it up and poured out the result. For some reason, the mystic, the magic, and the music are all gone. What are we left with?

"CONTENT"

All the sexy, expressive disciplines became generic — like Hamburger Helper for the communications industry. What have we done to ourselves? It may have something to do with the attempt to quantify the qualitative. But we shouldn’t let the bean counters make us forget that communication is a human function, not a robotic one. By framing the way we connect with each other so abstractly, we run the risk of impersonality. And that’s bad for business. It makes everything we say sound phony.

Check in next week for part 2.

In the meantime, come visit Jerome & Brooke Storytellers here.