Don’t you just love corporate speak?
- Let’s circle back
- Table that until next month
- Let’s do a deep dive on that
- Synergy
- Game changer
- It’s on my radar
It’s a language unto itself and sometimes it even creeps into our non-business life. Have you ever wondered where some of those phrases come from?
Here’s one for you: “The handwriting is on the wall.”
The art we’re talking about this week is Rembrandt’s Belshazzar’s Feast. This painting, done in 1635, depicts the story from the Old Testament book of Daniel. In the story, Babylonian King Belshazzar, son of the famous Nebuchadnezzar was having a big party with a bunch of his family and friends. As is common with parties, after lots of alcohol, Belshazzar told his servants to fetch the sacred cups from the Jewish temple his father had raided decades before so they could liven up the party. Well, that was a big no no. As they were raging, a hand appeared and begin writing on the wall:
“mene, mene, tekel, upharsin”
As you can imagine, that freaked everyone out and the king demanded his wise men translate but they couldn’t. His wife suggested finding the now-elderly Hebrew prophet Daniel (he of the Lion’s Den fame). Daniel translated it as:
“God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; your kingdom is given to the Medes and Persians”
And sure enough that night, Darius the Mede and his armies snuck into the city, captured it, and sent Belshazzar into exile.
And nobody lived happily ever after.
The handwriting was on the wall.
If you’ve never heard this story before, you’re not alone. Most people have no idea where this or so much other jargon comes from.
And that’s the lesson for this week. When speaking, just use normal words. Communicate clearly and if you must use jargon, don’t assume everyone knows what you’re talking about.
But if you DO want to use it, why not tell the back story behind it to really drive home your point. “The handwriting on the wall” might really come to life if you use it to give a word of warning that some corporate initiative might fail.
YOU could save the day!
So, circle back on that point, maybe table it until next month when you can do a deep dive. After all, nothing on my radar is more of a game changer than that!
(You little synergizer you!!)