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Because it doesn't clarify nor is it more concise than the alternatives. A good example of this is "learnings". I have seen multiple managers use the word "lea
by quanticle 4y ago
Because it doesn't clarify nor is it more concise than the alternatives.
A good example of this is "learnings". I have seen multiple managers use the word "learnings", usually in in phrases like, "What were our learnings from this?" Or, "What learnings can we take away?" But there's already a perfectly fine word to use: lessons! The only reason to use "learnings" instead of "lessons" is to show that you're a serious manager. It's just empty signalling.
Similarly, "ring fence". Is it really that much better than, "set aside"? Does it add any nuance, or is it just meaningless change for change's sake?
I am far more tolerant of jargon in law and technology than I am of it in business, because, in my experience, legal and technology jargon does function as shorthand, putting complex topics into a labeled box that allows the speaker to quickly make their point without having to repeat a bunch of knowledge that the audience can be assumed to be familiar with. Business jargon, on the other hand, is far more often merely different for the sake of being different.
- kristianc 4y ago> The only reason to use "learnings" instead of "lessons" is to show that you're a serious manager. It's just empty signalling. I can’t really comment on Signalling, but the word learnings isn’t a new and modern invention. It’s in Shakespeare! It’s also a fallacy to think that there’s a canon of ‘acceptable’ words we can choose from, nor that we are only allowed one word per concept. Language evolves over time and acquires meaning through use.
- quanticle 4y agoI can guarantee that none of the managers I've interacted with who used "learnings" were making a reference to the Bard of Avon.
- kristianc 4y agoI’m sure they weren’t either, but that is kind of my point — English is one of the most flexible languages in the world and no-one except linguists really looks too hard into the etymology of the words they use, but use the words that fit the occasion and adapt accordingly. And sometimes this works rather well — much as you may despise the word learnings, we got the word scrumptious through the same process.
- wink 4y agoNon-native speaker here and I've always taken "learnings" as just a notch more formal and business speak than lessons, but I've mostly filed it under personal preference for the native speakers who used it. Not completely synonymous but mostly.