During our off-site planning meetings at MullerOver headquarters, we set out to find the low hanging fruit, next gen viral ideas, and synergies to create a win-win, cutting-edge, eco-friendly environment. Smitty, our office manager, broke free from the business-speak hypnosis and pointed out that our entire two-day agenda had no discernible meaning.
After much debate, we realized that we had gotten sucked into a web of business speak and immediately used the two day off-site meeting (except the team-building ropes course) to develop the following list of banned cliches and descriptions within the office:
Thinking outside the box.
A passive/aggressive phrase meant to insinuate that the listener was stuck in a limited way of thinking, while the speaker had achieved a level of business enlightenment not seen since the dalai lama. Or Steve Jobs.

Throw under the bus.
This was a cute phrase 15 years ago, but now it’s just gotten plain silly. While I’m sure it’s just a lame business cliche, I still feel a need to stay an extra step away from the curb when a Greyhound goes by. Read more »