hot button word – Noun
i. a word that triggers a highly charged emotional or political response
Words matter. I’m sure you’ve experienced something like this before: you walk into a meeting with business leaders, totally prepared and ready to convince them that one of your fancy business architecture techniques is the right approach for handling for some big concern they have. Everything is going well when all of a sudden you say some hot-button word with negative connotations that someone doesn’t like and “down the rabbit hole” you all go. One simple word and you spend the rest of the meeting on the defensive. I believe a key attribute to being a successful business architect is eloquence, the ability to clearly express a thought and be persuasive. Even some of the most eloquent speakers, however, can get derailed by hot-button words. For some time now I have been maintaining my own personal list of words not to use with executives. Here are few examples:
Roadmap
Ah, the roadmap, a key architectural deliverable that explains how to get from current state to future state. I have been part of many teams that were roadmap factories. And these weren’t just simple roadmaps, they were quite impressive works of art: standard color palettes, interdependencies, lifecycle phases, eliminate dates, etc. all laid out over multiple years. The problems with most roadmaps today:
- They take a ton of time to create and maintain
- Nobody uses them
- Often by the time you are done creating the roadmap, it is already out of date
Many people in organizations have become disillusioned with roadmaps and rightfully so. Think about this: when was the last time you pulled out an actual roadmap to help you get somewhere? If you did, it was probably printed 10+ years ago and useless. Today we rely on GPS. It knows where you are at, you tell it where you want to go, and then it starts to guide you. If you go the wrong way, it recalculates the best new route and adjusts. This is a great analogy for architecture planning. Architects should think more of a compass instead of a roadmap as the tool for migrating from current to future state architecture.
Journey
It is very difficult to stay caught up with the accelerating pace business changes. When working with business leaders on how to help them solve problems, the last thing they want to hear is that they need to embark on a journey. In today’s business climate, there is no time for journeys. To some people a journey implies a lot of upfront preparation, a detailed plan, and a long timeline. As in the roadmap example above, know where you are, know where you are going, plot a course, and get going. Your destination could certainly change, and you will have to continuously correct your course, but that is the essence of business today.
Transformation
This one is very context specific. In an organization where everyone knows things are messed up and significant changes are needed, a transformation may sound pretty good. For an organization that is suffering from change fatigue, however, the word transformation will likely get you thrown out. The word often has negative connotations of massive reorganizations and multi-year programs. In today’s era of everything needing to be fast, this is one word that may be too dangerous to keep in your vocabulary.
Seamless
When was the last time anything you tried to make work was seamless? This one can really get you into trouble, either by agitating someone that had a bad experience the last time they were told something would be seamless, or by setting expectations too high. Be realistic: we work in complex environments where nothing is seamless. Be confident, but not arrogant.
Artifact
This one is unfortunate because I really like this word. I have to admit, though, that any time I use it with a non-architecture audience, I feel a bit eccentric. Other than treasure hunters and architects, who uses this word? Our business wants recommendations and solutions, not artifacts. This is one word best left for internal team discussions.
Future Candidates:
And I have a few that are on the edge of moving onto my list: agile, taxonomy, and, cloud So in summary, be eloquent. Words matter. There is no fool-proof way to know what hot-button words to avoid with every audience, but there are a few things you can do to improve your chances:
- Know your audience. Be prepared.
- Slow down. Listen carefully. Don’t react too quickly to questions.
- Maintain your own list of hot-button words to avoid for your company, client, or audience and come up with alternatives.
What are some hot-button words that you avoid?
This article was prepared by Dean Heltemes in his personal capacity. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not represent the view of his employer.
