Stop telling your co-workers to ‘think outside the box’

New York Post ^ | April 25, 2018 | SWNS

[sparklite2]

Top 40 most cringe-worthy phrases used at the office

1. Give 110 percent
2. Think outside the box
3. Hammer it out
4. Heavy lifting
5. Throw them under the bus
6. Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched
7. Pushing the envelope
8. Let the cat out of the bag
9. Let’s circle back
10. Win-win situation
11. Blue-sky thinking
12. Boil the ocean
13. Synergy
14. Low-hanging fruit
15. Take it to the next level
16. Barking up the wrong tree
17. Going forward
18. Let’s ballpark this
19. Run this up the flagpole
20. Back to square one
21. There’s no I in team
22. Back to the drawing board
23. Paradigm shift
24. Elephant in the room
25. Raise the bar
26. Drill down
27. Best thing since sliced bread
28. Deep dive
29. Skin in the game
30. Reach out
31. Touch base
32. Play hardball
33. Don’t reinvent the wheel
34. Kept in the loop
35. The bottom line
36. Down the road
37. I’ll loop you in
38. Hit the nail on the head
39. ASAP
40. Team player

[GnuThere]

Yes! I’ve started hearing this on news TV, “There’s a lot to unpack here,” says yet another analyst.

And I had never heard “boil the ocean.”

[leaning conservative]

The hate is strong for this one. It’s the new phrase used with teachers.

[RegulatorCountry]

Better than "think outside the box" is to have a bigger box of things you understand.

Oh, but that's not in your sandbox.

[FreedomPoster]

You need to automate your buzzphrases!

I was introduced to Gerry Cohen‘s yellow paper buzzphrase generator (in the picture at the link) in a business communications class ~40 years ago. Still funny and worthwhile, and now it has been computerized! See here:

https://horton.com/additional-resources/buzzword-generator/

Here’s a typical random buzzphrase: functional facilities support

Good stuff! Completely suitable for integrating into your next TPS Report.

[BillyBonebrake]

A lot of these phrases annoy because they’re shorthand for “I can’t solve it, you figure it out”.

[RegulatorCountry]

One that I hate, "time to put your big boy pants on". If you're worried about fashion then shut up and get out of the way!

That one got turned on it's head for a while there, before HR-enforced feminism became so draconian. Telling some histrionic drama queen to put her big girl panties on could be very entertaining.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

"Nothing is impossible!" Said by a sales critter who had just promised something we absolutely could not deliver in the time frame he had guaranteed.

To which I resort, "oh yeah? Try walking though a revolving door with skis over your shoulder."

[Cheesehead in Texas]

Empower the employees.

[CtBigPat]

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Mission Statement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyV_UG60dD4

[The FIGHTIN Illini]

My current gagger is “Perfect”. I want to reach out and slap the speaker! I hate that word.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

They forgot “It is what it is” and “At the end of the day”.

[Professional Engineer]

The elephant in the room ate all the low-hanging fruit so we had to think outside the bun and go for a run to the border.

LMAO. You owe me a keyboard.

[spintreebob]

M And E

You got it backwards.

[Gene Eric]

>> Empower the employees.

associates...

[Sicon]

[Gigantor]

Whenever I hear “think outside the box” I always raise my hand and ask, “Does it have to be a box?”

[Songcraft]

How about "Don't worry about the horse being blind, just load the wagon"?

(Oh, wait a minute.   That was Coach John Madden.   He was thinking outside the nine dots.)

[Secret Agent Man]

One of the pastors at one of the churches I go to uses this phrase and I cannot stand it.

[klimeckg]

You forgot “That’s just where i’m at”

[Bellflower]

Thinking outside of the box is actually something few know how to do much of any more. People have become so programmed.