Chapel Hill must have one big vacuum, because the school there sucks mightily.
Chapel Hill must have one big vacuum, because the school there sucks mightily.
Dislike: operationalize
It seems needlessly stuffy. Sort of like the interviews that police officials give. I saw it used twice in a report recently, and both times it could have been replaced by "begin using." I believe "operationalize" was used correctly where I saw it -- something was being built and then would be used. But that was already clear from the context. "Operationalize" bugs me the same way that "utilize" bugs me. "Utilize" really bugs me (and can always be replaced by "use") -- its use stops me in my tracks. Makes me think less of the speaker, and sometimes makes me wish the speaker harm.
Switching gears -- and maybe this deserves its own thread -- but I really like the ampersand (&). And I like the Oxford comma. I was surprised to see them used together here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1505111218/
I work for one of the largest pharma companies and have developed a real disdain for corporate speak although, admittedly, I've used many of these from time to time. In addition to "operationalize," here are some classic examples:
Synergies
Game changer
It's on my radar
Elephant in the room
Take it offline
Think outside the box
Corporate values
Do more with less (or lately, do less with less)
Low hanging fruit
Ping me
Dive deeper or Deep dive
Drill down
Raise the bar
Action item
Bandwidth
To champion
Core competencies
Disruptive business model
Ducks in a row
Organic growth
Knowledge transfer
Move the needle
Out of pocket
Reinvent the wheel
Value added
Transparency
Rich
"Failure is Not a Destination"
Coach K on the Dan Patrick Show, December 22, 2016
The way you have described it matches my suspicion, but not what I would consider correct (or at least useful). I think of "operationalize" in the context of operationalizing variables or something similar; that is, to explicitly define them and identify the manner in which they are measured. Moving something from the realm of vagueness to the realm of specificity is something I think is pretty important, a thing that people often need prodding to do, and a thing that needs a name.
When I was in a business school strategy class with a mediocre professor, we would play buzz word bingo. Someone would randomly put these types of words and phrases on a bingo table, and also insert random words like guacamole. If you won, you had to say another random word to let everyone know (though I once had a classmate just yell out "bingo!") It was funny seeing people trying to get the professor to say words they needed. Though after a while I started feeling bad for him...
Yeah, I detest the use of words in that way. In the case of "operationalize," if people are using it that way then they are just using it wrong.
Sometimes I wonder how to ask people at the office not to butcher language so badly, but I can't think of a tactful way to do it. It seems to be the sort of thing that you understand or you don't.
I thought this was a fun list, but I can't take credit for it. It's from The Book of Lists #2.
Words rarely used in their positive form (only my favorites):
Canny (Scottish: free from weird qualities or unnatural powers)
Conscionable (conscientious)
Corrigible (correctible)
Couth (marked by finesse, polish, etc., smooth)
Delible (capable of being deleted)
Effable (capable of being uttered or expressed)
Evitable (avoidable)
Feckful (efficient, sturdy, powerful)
Gruntle (to put in good humor)
Maculate (marked with spots, besmirched [another good word])
Nocuous (likely to cause injury, harmful)
Peccable (liable or prone to sin)
Sipid (affecting the organs of taste, savory)
Only canny made it by the board's spellcheck. Maybe because it's Scottish. I have had friends that liked to comment "He has no couth". (Edit: not about me, of course!)
We have made it more than 450 posts in this thread and no one has offered "kerfuffle". So I will. It's great.
Just be you. You is enough. - K, 4/5/10, 0:13.8 to play, 60-59 Duke.
You're all jealous hypocrites. - Titus on Laettner
You see those guys? Animals. They're animals. - SIU Coach Chris Lowery, on Duke
I don't like very long words because I usually have a problem to read it first time
The name of my boat:
Callipygous.
Now I just need a boat.
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust
Engaged or Engagement - I'm very tired of these.
I work at a university and the concept is good, but the words are severely overused.
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust