This isn't exclusive to XOM, but I'm currently in a meeting and I think I've heard the phrases "Kudos to " and ", do you want to chime in?" at least ten times. This kind of jargon makes me want to jump out of a window.
What's your favorite, or least favorite, XOM jargon?
@hieh+1cb12wIv oh my that reminds me! 10+ years ago, one of the first questions I asked the person who onboarded me was, "what does stewardship mean?" I was also an experienced hire, had business background and worked for 3 companies before EM. the colleague looked at me like I was an id--t, but he resigned soon after for 1.5x pay outside, during the 06-07 bo-m time
@+1jlv: I worked elsewhere for twenty years before joining XOM never having heard the word stewardship. I continue to be stunned at how much time is wasted on feeding the middle management beast with unnecessary meetings & presentations.
When you have no real talent and a desire to learn new skills to be a contributor, buzz words is the way to go.
I am always busy
Aligning with stakeholders
Without doing any real work.
Fit for purpose.
Creating clarity
@pku - 2 friends and I used to do this as well. The was a female manager in Lubes R&D (initials KW) who was out on a “special assignment”. This gave her the opportunity to attend lots of high level, international meetings with marketers and strategy managers. To show off to everyone, she used to send daily summaries of these meetings to everyone in Lubes R&D. They were so full of buzzwords and typical management jargon, that you seriously couldn’t understand what she was talking about - the only thing you could do was play “buzzword bingo” ! I am so pleased to learn that someone else did this.
Favorite (made me want to scream !) buzzwords/phrases:
“High grade our portfolio”
“Winning proposition” (it never was)
“You need more visibility”
“You need to tell me what’s happening, even if nothing’s happening”
This one really got me angry. It was from an VP of Lubes R&D (initials TM) in reference to a presentation by his favorite pet:
“Sorry I can’t stay, but you need to listen to this guy says. I don’t know what he’s going to say, but it’s going to be great”.
Visibility
Drill down
Keep your ears to the ground
Commercial intensity
And when people say ‘right’ as they are making their point to you, like you are goi g to agree with them….
The word “Toxic” is way overused by parrots
Check the box.
I used to tell my team. If it is not in the spelled out DOAG . You have full authority. "Culture, practice and process & "fear" seem to get in the way. These "unstated rules" get in the way an can be negotiated with a good boss willing to get things done. Employee and boss can make informed judgments. I told my employees, I expect you to exercise your full authority and if you do not think it is within your authority, let's talk. Most employees do not exercise their full authority. We got alot done. Plus every process had a way to get an "exception" to the standardized approach. We granted exceptions all the time.
Crown Jewel
Stewardship
Value Chain
Eyes wide open, disposition
Optionality
Actively caring
Yeah, right.
Commercial intensity.
Really, what the F is that??
Move in lock step
Level-set
Circle back
My genuine (as in a learned something by its use) favourite word leaned at EM was fungible
Brutal Truths
Collaborate
Win
Granular.
When I worked there at the Spring campus, I used to play Buzzword Bingo while sitting in hours of meetings or Skype calls. I yelled out “BINGO!” many times (in my head).
I also made a list of acronyms and afterwards asked coworkers or my sup what the he-l they meant.
Middle management loved to talk in buzzword/acronym jibberish that I doubt they understood. Was like living inside a Dilbert cartoon.
Leverage
unregretted attrition
It is incumbent upon us
Influence without authority
From my perspective…..
"... in terms of..." has become its own form of speech... and it is usually accompanied by some vacuous comment with no substance
Move the needle
One more ... "I appreciate you". Because the speaker of this obviously doesn't, or they wouldn't have to SAY IT (or type it in an email)
oh, and "value add"
"Align" and "synergy" were mine.
My fav LPSA
Anything goes wrong? Because didn't do LPSA.
Let me pivot to give context for clarity to gain alignment on delivering value.