March 26, 2010
Guru is not usually one to praise any public sector initiative, but full marks to the Local Government Association (LGA) for publishing an annual list of words that shouldn't be used by government bodies.
The list of 250 words includes new words such as: trialogue, wellderly, goldfish bowl facilitated conversation, tonality, webinar, under-capacitated, clienting and disbenefits.
The previous list of non-words included: taxonomy, rebaselining, mainstreaming, holistic governance, contestability, predictors of beaconicity and synergies.
One of the words on the list is a personal bugbear of Guru's: "stakeholder". But a cursory glance at a few public sector websites shows that it is still used by all and sundry. Even esteemed colleagues on Personnel Today have been known to use the word, such is its preponderance. Ban it now!
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