David Brett-Williams: Business Tips: 8 Clichés To Avoid

Some one says, “Bull in a china shop” and you actually picture the scene. This bull, all big and mad and energetic, but he’s in a tiny little shop filled with delicate china. You see it; you might even chuckle at the comparison being made.

In days of old it would help you remember that conversation. But that same phrase today? You would get the point, but the comparison doesn’t stand the test of time. You register the phrase and what it means, but the benefits of the metaphor are diluted. Your words are wasted.

This is what a cliché is. And they’re insanely common in business. And they ’re making you mediocre. Mediocre? Yes. Average? Yes. Talking in empty clichés makes you — and the things you say — forgettable.

Clichés are prevalent and they are messy. Nobody has authority on declaring a phrase a cliché. There’s a lot of grey area between a clever metaphor and an overused cliché.

What might be wildly overused in one industry or geographic location might just be catching on in another. Especially in business, where there’s a ton of communication flying around. And business loves objective data — but pinpointing clichés is subjective and speculative. Until they start seeing clichés proven on some spreadsheet, most executives are going to carry on using them. And that’s a shame.

Or as Orin Hargraves puts it in “It’s Been Said Before: A Guide to the Use and Abuse of Clichés.”

“The difficulty that arises in the very definition of cliché is that its principal characteristics — overuse and ineffectiveness — are not objectively measurable. What, exactly, constitutes overuse? Who is to be the judge of effectiveness? You will hardly find a definition of cliché that does not include these ideas, but it is difficult, if not impossible, to find an objective standard by which to gauge them.”

And it’s unfortunate, but business clichés are more than just an annoyance. They water down your communication. You know that feeling when you say a word a bunch of times in a row and it starts to sounds different and meaningless? That’s what happens when you say, “think outside the box” 20 times a day. Your words lack meaning.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Here are 8 common business clichés, why they’re terrible and what to say instead.

1. ‘Think outside the box.’

Why it’s terrible: Probably the king of the workplace clichés. I once overheard a man beckon the poor soul on the other end of his phone call to “think like the box doesn’t even exist.” Now that is deeeeeep! Not only is the metaphor sufficiently pummeled to death, its origins are obscure and long forgotten. Turns out, it stemmed from some mental exercise involving lines and dots. Guess what kind of thinking you had to do to solve the puzzle? Cute at the time? Possibly. Stupid today. Definitely.

What to say instead: “Maybe there are solutions we haven’t considered yet.”

2. ‘Touch base.’

Why it’s terrible: A metaphor likely designed to make you imagine a baseball player re-establishing contact with a base before taking off down the field. But when’s the last time you heard “touch base” and pictured that scene? Also, best to avoid baseball metaphors in case you ever wind up working with people outside North America. They will likely just be confused.

What to say instead: “Let’s follow up on this later.”

3. ‘At the end of the day.’

Why it’s terrible: At the end of the day, it’s the end of the day. Trust me, a new one will start again. This cliché is an empty statement dressed up as a segway into something profound. The intention is to emphasise finality and long-term thinking. It’s a pretty lame trick.

What to say instead: Skip it altogether. Because this phrase is meant to lead in to some powerful statement. If the thing you’re saying is that important, just say it. Skip the empty intro. Steve Jobs never said, “At the end of the day, we created the iPhone.” If you created the iPhone, all you have to say is “we created the iPhone.”

4. ‘Thrown under the bus.’

Why it’s terrible: Where is this bus? Are we all on the bus? Who’s driving? And am I the only one who’s wondered how you throw someone under a moving bus? Logistically it seems complicated. But maybe the bus isn’t moving, in which case getting thrown under doesn’t seem so severe.

What to say instead: “Took the blame.”

5. ‘Drop the ball.’

Why it’s terrible: Not only is it an overused sports metaphor, it’s a soften-the-blow cliché. Which is cowardly and unnecessary. If you’re going to blame someone for something, just say so.

What to say instead: “I blame David.”

6. ‘Game changer.’

Why it’s terrible: Sigh, another sports metaphor. Too bad in sports actual “game changers” are few and far between (star QB breaks his arm). Maybe cloud computing is, in fact, a game changer. Your new staff handbook is not (Sorry to the HR Departments out there).

What to say instead: “This new thing is going to be really important for our future.”

7. ‘Batting 1,000.’

Why it’s terrible: Here’s a list of MLB players with a career batting average of 1,000: .

Short list, huh? Nobody is batting 1,000. Facebook isn’t batting 1,000, Apple isn’t batting 1,000. Batting 1,000 would mean every potential customer in your market is already a lifetime customer paying the maximum amount.

What to say instead: “We’re hitting all the goals we set.”

8. ‘Manage expectations.’

Why it’s terrible: Another giant cop-out cliché. Careful of these clichés. Because the meaninglessness of the cliché can be leveraged to admit to something you’d otherwise be embarrassed to say plainly.

What to say instead: “I’m not up for the job.”