Blue Sky thinking from the LGA

Council leaders have compiled a banned list of the 200 worst uses of jargon, with "predictors of beaconicity" and "taxonomy" among the worst horrors.  The Local Government Association says such words and phrases must be avoided for staff to "communicate effectively".  The LGA's list includes suggested translations of some terms, such as "measuring" for the civil servant's favourite "benchmarking", "idea" for "seedbed", "delay" for "slippage" and "buy" for "procure".   For most, though, no explanation is forthcoming or, perhaps, possible.  The LGA spokesperson Ms Eaton said: "Why do we have to have 'coterminous, stakeholder engagement' when we could just 'talk to people' instead?

This isn't exactly 'outside the box' thinking from the LGA.  People have been discussing this for years, and I've attending meetings to numerous to count where I've been able to complete my buzzword bingo scorecard within about 5 minutes, due to the presenter really going 'above and beyond' with their use of jargon.   Often when this happens, more time is spent trying to stifle a chuckle and decipher the lingo than is spent trying to understand and follow the content of the presentation. 

I've listed all 200 words below, some are worse than others, but most of them I consider idioms - words for which the meanings are untranslatable between one language (jargobabble) and another (English), and really should be avoided wherever possible.  However, just as some words and expressions fade into the texts of history,  new and exciting language appears, and we should embrace the best of the modern best, rather than making pariahs out of every single new word that appears.

Across-the-piece Actioned Advocate Agencies Ambassador Area based Area focused Autonomous Baseline Beacon Benchmarking Best Practice Blue sky thinking Bottom-Up CAAs Can do culture Capabilities Capacity Capacity building Cascading Cautiously welcome Challenge Champion Citizen empowerment Client Cohesive communities Cohesiveness Collaboration Commissioning Community engagement Compact Conditionality Consensual Contestability Contextual Core developments Core Message Core principles Core Value Coterminosity Coterminous Cross-cutting Cross-fertilisation Customer Democratic legitimacy Democratic mandate Dialogue Direction of travel Distorts spending priorities Double devolution Downstream Early Win Edge-fit Embedded Empowerment Enabler Engagement Engaging users Enhance Evidence Base Exemplar External challenge Facilitate Fast-Track Flex Flexibilities and Freedoms Framework Fulcrum Functionality Funding streams Gateway review Going forward Good practice Governance Guidelines Holistic Holistic governance Horizon scanning Improvement levers Incentivising Income streams Indicators Initiative Innovative capacity Inspectorates Interdepartmental Interface Iteration Joined up Joint working LAAs Level playing field Lever Leverage Localities Lowlights MAAs Mainstreaming Management capacity Meaningful consultation Meaningful dialogue Mechanisms Menu of Options Multi-agency Multidisciplinary Municipalities

Network model Normalising Outcomes Outcomes Output Outsourced Overarching Paradigm Parameter Participatory Partnership working Partnerships Pathfinder Peer challenge Performance Network Place shaping Pooled budgets Pooled resources Pooled risk Populace Potentialities Practitioners Predictors of Beaconicity Preventative services Prioritization Priority Proactive Process driven Procure Procurement Promulgate Proportionality Protocol Provider vehicles Quantum Quick hit Quick win Rationalisation Rebaselining Reconfigured Resource allocation Revenue Streams Risk based Robust Scaled-back Scoping Sector wise Seedbed Self-aggrandizement Service users Shared priority Shell developments Signpost Single conversations Single point of contact Situational Slippage Social contracts Social exclusion Spatial Stakeholder Step change Strategic Strategic priorities Streamlined Sub-regional Subsidiarity Sustainable Sustainable communities Symposium Synergies Systematics Taxonomy Tested for Soundness Thematic Thinking outside of the box Third sector Toolkit Top-down Trajectory Tranche Transactional Transformational Transparency Upstream Upward trend Utilise Value-added Vision Visionary Welcome Wellbeing Worklessness