BBC 6分钟英语学习 周末_管理讲话

Hello, catherine, here from BBC Learning English.

Just so you know, this program is from the BBC Learning

English archive. It was originally broadcast in November 2006 on our website.

Enjoy.

Hello. I'm Callum Robertson, and this is Weekender Blue Sky Thinking, getting your ducks in a row, thinking out of the box and reading from the same page.

Well, what are these strange phrases?

Well, their metaphorical expressions for the workplace, a kind of language that is described as management speak.

Management speak the way that managers talk to the employees when they want to encourage them and make them work harder.

If your boss said to you, we all have to get our ducks in a row, would you know what was meant?

And how would you feel about your boss for saying it?

Probably think the boss is insane, or maybe temporarily unwell, I wouldn't understand what he was talking about at all.

Well, that's one opinion, and it's not an uncommon one.

Nicola Clark has commissioned a report on communication in the workplace, and she believes managers have to think carefully about how they express themselves.

She calls management speak jargon. This is a word for the special vocabulary and language often used within a particular type of job.

Jargon. Jargon isn't always bad, she says.

But what does she think is very important?

It's fine to use jargon when it's considered shorthand and when everybody that's within that environment understands it.

If they don't, they just need to just really carefully think about what they're saying.

Communication is so important. She says, that communication is so important Jargon, she says, is OK if everyone understands it.

Using jargon can be an effective form of shorthand, which means a way of saying a lot in a simple sentence.

Indeed, every profession has its own jargon, but it's only useful if everyone understands it.

However, even if everyone understands it, that doesn't mean they like it being used.

As these office workers comment, I think the less management speak, the better.

It can just cause confusion, and quite often it's just a way of the boss showing off new management terms that they've learned on some expensive course.

I think it's a real shame that managers rely on on such cliches when they're communicating with their stuff, because it's re patronizing.

Those employees weren't fans of management speak.

They both thought it made their bosses look bad.

The 2nd speaker called the expressions cliches.

Cliches, expressions which I used too much and aren't original.

He also thought using them was patronizing, patronizing, treating the people you are talking to as stupid and unimportant.

BBC, learning English com. But what about managers themselves?

How did they feel about this type of language?

I spoke to Andrew Thompson, one of the managers at the BBC, what do you think is his attitude to this kind of language?

I asked him if he hears or even uses phrases such as Blue sky, thinking and Thinking outside the box.

Yes, I hear them quite a lot.

I hear them meetings. Colleagues use them.

I have possibly, although I'd like to say I haven't.

I've used them a few times.

There are always new phrases. And some of them actually say something and are useful.

And people use them, and they get come into the language.

And that happens in management. I'm sure it happens in all sorts of other areas.

So, you know, off the ones you mentioned, um, thinking outside the box, it does mean something.

I think it's terribly overused. But, you know, meaning innovative thinking, nonconventional thinking, um, I can recognize that.

And as an expression, it's a quick way of saying something.

So so I'm not saying all all management speak is terrible.

I'm just a bit skeptical about some of the phrases that come up.

Well, andrew isn't completely against management speak.

He says, sometimes it can be a quick way of saying something.

It can express an idea simply.

But he does say that some expressions are used too much.

And there are some phrases he is skeptical about.

Skeptical, he's not sure if they are actually very useful.

I went on to ask him if there were any particular phrases that he didn't like.

which one does he mention? I've taken an intense dislike to driving things forward.

And this is from an organization where one of our own departments, our finance department, if I can name and shame them, have a slogan which is driving finance forward,

which, in my humble opinion, is not terribly meaningful.

It just sounds vaguely positive. So what does it really mean?

So Andrew has

a strong dislike of the phrase Driving things Forward, which he says sounds a little positive,

but has no real meaning. And I suppose this is the main complaint with a lot of management speak, it's not clear.

Finally, I asked Andrew if he could explain the strange management speak expression we had at the beginning to keep all our ducks in a row.

Yes, um, we need to get organized.

We need to get ready. We need to be prepared.

And so arguably, why not say we need to be prepared, or we need to be ready for the next thing we have to do?

Um, you know, I'm not terribly against getting our ducks in a row, but I wonder how much it adds BBC learning English.

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