Podcast Summary: HBR On Leadership – "What Jargon Says About Your Company Culture"

Date: December 17, 2025
Host: Kurt Nickish (HBR IdeaCast)
Guest: Anne Curzan, Professor of English, University of Michigan
Producer/Intro: Amanda Kersey

Episode Overview

This episode delves into the pervasive use of jargon in business language, what it reveals about company culture, and its impact on how teams communicate and include (or exclude) colleagues. Linguist Anne Curzan shares her expertise on why jargon develops, how it evolves, and practical considerations for leaders and professionals navigating workplace language.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Definition and Role of Business Jargon

• Jargon as Professional Lexicon
  • Curzan frames jargon positively—as specialized vocabulary forming around shared professional activities.
  • Jargon offers useful shortcuts but can also create in-groups and out-groups.
  • Quote (Anne Curzan, 02:13):

    “When groups of people get together and are involved in a shared enterprise, they will often create and use a set of specialized terms. That kind of language can provide you with useful shortcuts. It also can create a sense of insiders and outsiders, and there are both benefits and drawbacks to that insider outsider distinction.”

2. Why Does Jargon Irritate?

• Exclusion and Euphemism

  • Jargon annoys those who feel excluded, but also when it acts as euphemism (e.g., using “restructure” for layoffs).

• Resistance to New Words

  • Discomfort with new language isn’t limited to business; it's a perennial phenomenon across all social change.
  • Quote (Anne Curzan, 03:34):

    “For hundreds and hundreds of years, people have complained about new words. That seems to be one of our responses…"

• Cultural Concerns

  • Anxiety about business language reflects broader concerns over the influence of business in society.

3. The Spread and Persistence of Jargon

• Innovation and Branding

  • Business favors the creation of jargon due to innovation and branding needs, sometimes producing a profusion of synonyms and buzzwords.

• Personal Confessions

  • Curzan admits distaste for “impactful” yet recognizes, as a linguist, that there’s no structural reason to avoid it.
  • Quote (Anne Curzan, 05:59):

    “I myself do not like the word impactful … For some reason, I don’t like it, but I will get over it.”

  • Sometimes, even resisted terms infiltrate your own speech.

• Lifecycle of Jargon

  • Jargon can lose its sense of novelty or fade out with time.
  • Quote (Anne Curzan, 06:39):

    “Some of these words will stop feeling jargony. Some of them will have their moment and sort of die out."

4. Jargon as Cultural and Social Capital

• Economic Value in Language

  • Understanding workplace jargon can be valuable, signaling competence and facilitating communication.
  • Managers, though, should reduce barriers by using clear and inclusive language.

• Learning Workplace Language

  • Adapting to a new work environment involves learning not just jargon, but registers, formalities, and communication practices.
  • Quote (Anne Curzan, 07:44):

    “You’re certainly needing to learn the jargon, but you’re also needing to learn other ways in which the language of that workplace works… All of that is going to be different and is something we’re learning as speakers and writers in addition to the jargon…”

• Audience Awareness

  • Choosing language appropriately depends on your audience's expectations and familiarity.
  • Quote (Anne Curzan, 08:44):

    “As savvy speakers and writers, one of the things we should always be thinking about is who is the audience? … What kind of language is going to be persuasive, trustworthy, accessible to this audience?”

5. Cross-Cultural Communication and Idioms

• Metaphors and Cultural Reference

  • Business jargon often relies on idioms or imagery from specific cultures (e.g., baseball), which can confuse international colleagues.
    • E.g. “Touch base” (baseball)—unclear for non-Americans
  • Quote (Kurt Nickish, 10:12):

    “Touch base is something that drives British English business people crazy when they’re working in US Environments…”

• Origins of Business Phrases

  • “Think outside the box”

    • Originates from the “nine dot puzzle,” meaning to creatively solve a problem by extending beyond the obvious constraints.
    • Explanation (Anne Curzan, 11:14):

      “The only way to connect the nine dots with four lines is to have the lines extend outside the box. And that is the speculation of where that comes from…”

  • Evolving Interpretations

    • When everyone is “outside the box,” the phrase loses punch—it becomes overused.

6. Examples and Histories of Jargon Terms

• Synergy

  • Traces from 1600s theology (“cooperation between human will and divine grace”), through physiology, to modern business speak.
  • Shifted with organizational trends (from efficiency toward human potential).
  • Quote (Anne Curzan, 13:31):

    “Synergy has been jargon in a few different fields over the course of its history…”

• Low Hanging Fruit & Quick Wins

  • Low hanging fruit—a vivid metaphor for easily achievable objectives, first cited in manufacturing (1972), then common in the 1990s.
  • Quick wins—similarly, originated in sports metaphors.
  • Quote (Anne Curzan, 16:20):

    “I don't want to lose that when people complain about business jargon. ... There's nothing wrong with an evocative metaphor…”

• Move the Needle

  • Refers to visibly making a difference; metaphor from analog instruments (speedometers, dials).

• Bootstraps

  • Original meaning: to attempt the impossible; now means achieving success without outside help—an example of idiom evolving beyond literal origins.
  • Quote (Anne Curzan, 20:02):

    “Now it means to succeed without help, to succeed through your own efforts. ... The fact that you can't actually, it's impossible to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, it doesn't matter.”

7. English as the International Business Language

• Why English Dominates

  • Driven by social, economic, and political power—not linguistic structure.
  • English was a minor language 500 years ago; its global dominance emerged via colonization and the rise of powerful, English-speaking countries.
    • Quote (Anne Curzan, 21:06):

      “Languages become powerful international languages, not for linguistic reasons … It's about social, political, and economic power.”

• Evolving Global English

  • Most English users today are non-native speakers, often using English alongside multiple languages.
  • Varieties of English (“world Englishes”) are diverging, especially in multinational contexts.

• On Standardized “Globish”

  • Simplified, transactional versions arise naturally but are hard to fix globally.
  • Creativity and cultural variation mean language will always adapt and morph.
    • Quote (Anne Curzan, 25:46):

      “Efforts to create one version of a language … that the whole world is going to speak tend not to be successful, because speakers are very hard to control.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On jargon’s double-edged nature:

  “It also can create a sense of insiders and outsiders, and there are both benefits and drawbacks to that.” (Anne Curzan, 02:18)

• On resistance to new language:

  “For hundreds and hundreds of years, people have complained about new words.” (Anne Curzan, 03:34)

• Personal admission:

  “I myself do not like the word impactful … For some reason, I don’t like it, but I will get over it.” (Anne Curzan, 05:59)

• On evolving metaphors:

  “If we’re all outside the box, then you need to be outside, outside the box to really be outside the box.” (Kurt Nickish, 12:14)

• On the cultural roots and drift of “synergy” and similar terms:

  “Synergy has been jargon in a few different fields over the course of its history.” (Anne Curzan, 13:31)

• On the inevitability of language change:

  “It’s part of being a human language. … We love to play with language.” (Anne Curzan, 16:20)

• On English’s global status:

  “Five hundred years ago, if you had said that English was going to be a world language, people would have laughed in your face.” (Anne Curzan, 22:05)

• On attempts to “fix” global English:

  “Efforts to create one version of a language … tend not to be successful, because speakers are very hard to control.” (Anne Curzan, 25:46)

Key Timestamps

• 00:03-01:46: Introduction & context
• 02:09-03:34: What is jargon, and why does it matter?
• 05:10-06:39: The life cycle of business buzzwords and personal biases
• 07:34-09:16: Adapting to new workplace language and knowing your audience
• 09:28-11:53: Cultural pitfalls of idioms (“touch base,” “think outside the box”)
• 12:28-14:57: The shifting meaning and impact of metaphors and buzzwords (“synergy”)
• 15:26-17:42: The power and history of metaphors like “low hanging fruit,” “quick wins,” and “move the needle”
• 19:17-20:21: “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps”—idiom evolution
• 20:47-23:54: English’s rise as global language, economic and cultural forces
• 24:11-26:48: The future of English—“Globish,” world Englishes, and language change

Conclusion

Anne Curzan’s linguistic lens highlights how business jargon, far from being mere clutter, reflects organizational cultures, power dynamics, and the evolving nature of English itself. While jargon can enable efficiency and even creativity, leaders should balance its use with the imperative for clarity and inclusion—particularly in today’s global workplace.

Recommended for:
Anyone navigating business communication, team leaders aiming to set an inclusive tone, or those curious about why our office vocabularies sound the way they do.

For further reading on business language evolution, see Anne Curzan’s books: “Fixing English” and “Says a Kinder, Funner Usage Guide.”