Can you give up jargon for a week?

If we clearly align our  ambitious intent to achieve the avoidance of  jargon with an effectively promulgated vision as to the clarity required, we should be in the right ball park to achieve a synergy on our teams to ensure optimum interaction with our stakeholders thereby achieving congruence between our espoused aim and the actuality of our interactions.  

Oops sorry what’s the forfeit again ????  

PS   I agree that jargon should be avoided.   Let’s keep things simple !   

The basic premise of this thread is that jargon is bad - not necessarily true! In many cases, it can be the only sensible way to communicate, without having to spell things out in great detail. How else would you explain to someone that you are sending them a url, for example?

The important thing about using jargon in communications is that EVERYONE must have the same understanding of what it means. This is not always easy, even between people in the same industry, but if you can be sure that they do, then in my book there's nothing wrong with using jargon.

As with all things in communication, the meaning lies with the RECEIVER, not the SENDER.

Well put, Jim.  Jargon is not necessarily a bad thing.  However, when it's referred to in this context, I think it's generally assumed that not all the receivers are necessarily in tune.

When they're not, it's a bad thing IMO. If you can't explain something without using jargon that the receiver can't understand, then you're simply not explaining it very well. :)

Paul

Margaret,

Possibly - as I said, the key thing is that both parties have the same understanding of any jargon used. This can generally be done between two people in the same organisation or the same industry, but not, I would suggest, where Joe Public is involved.

If I can give an example we can all relate to... two doctors, or a doctor and a nurse, can chat away about a patient being brachycardic, and both have a clear understanding of what is being said. But if they were talking to the patient, they would tell them that their heart is beating faster than normal.

I suspect, though, that many of the problems with insurance policies, contracts, (legal documents of any kind, really), is that they are not written in clear, unambiguous language that people can understand.

The computer industry is probably one of the worst for jargon - inevitable, to some degree, considering the nature of the beast. I was recently asked to provide comments on a requirements document for a new computer application. The document contained the following little gem: "The application will provide centralised platform with reduction interfaces". My response was "I have no idea what this means". (Not strictly true - I know what is meant by "a centralised platform", and I could hazard a guess at what is meanty by "reduction interfaces", but the point is, (a) I shouldn't have to guess and (b) if my guess is wrong, there could be significant implications for the application being developed.)