From buzzwords to best practices.

No matter what you think of jargon and buzzwords, every business has an opportunity to succeed through people, focus, measurement and reinforcement.

Recently the term “Best Practice” proudly took its place among Forbes.com’s list of “the Most Annoying, Pretentious and Useless Business Jargon.” Best Practice was deemed “the single most pompous confection the consulting industry has ever dreamed up.”

That is how I started my Op Ed, “Beyond Buzzwords, Making Best Practices a Reality” in Nation’s Restaurant News‘ May 14 issue.   Every industry has jargon. Often that jargon is designed to differentiate those who are in the know from those who are not.  Jargon becomes a ticket to be allowed into the game.  But since human beings like the efficiency of shorthand, no wonder there are so many acronyms, slogans and buzz words out there.

I remember standing at lunch time with a new client’s manager in his restaurant dining room.  It seemed like food was slow coming out of the kitchen. “What are your ticket times?” I asked him.

“I don’t know what a ticket time is,” he replied with a great amount of honesty and very little shame.

Six month later, through people, focus, measurement, and reinforcement, he knew what ticket times were, and a whole lot more.