IT teams work primarily on hardcore technical subjects. They get immersed in their respective fields, and the terminologies used on the job will become second nature and get added to their overall vocabulary. When an employee communicates, the words acquired from their field of work are used freely, and differentiating work-related terminologies with normal speech will be like picking out a needle in a haystack. The employee may not be aware that certain words used are not understood by people outside the profession. This is referred to as jargon. In other words, jargon is a form of technical terminology and it can be highly subjective in nature. What may seem like everyday language to you may be impenetrable to someone else.
Jargon, although often irritating, can be useful when used in the right context. It provides a short form of expressing difficult ideas. The problem is that IT folks may not necessarily know when to use it and when not to. Jargon innocently used without considering the target audience could come across as arrogant and insincere in the eyes of the beholder. Some use jargon as a way of impressing others, but it can rarely be pulled off; rather, it leaves a bad impression.
Here are some tips to help IT employees know how to handle jargon:
- Be aware of when to use jargon. Jargon is sometimes necessary but is best avoided during most communication.
- Start by identifying the recipient of communication. The intended target audience could be peers within the team or a customer.
- Gauge the subject knowledge that the recipient could possess. There is no prescribed way to do it, go by instinct. When communicating with customers, avoid jargon usage by default. When communicating with a peer, jargon may be useful as it shortens the message and increases the effectiveness.
- Get the communication reviewed by somebody outside the subject matter when messaging customers, or anybody outside the technical team.
- Employ tools such as MS Word that fail to recognize certain terminologies. When the wavy red lines appear, it is an indication of words that are outside the ambit of normal English words.
- Default communication must be simple everyday language. Alternately, a style guide can be prepared and circulated to the team.
Action Point
Exercise (for readers to attempt at the end of this topic followed by a group discussion):
- Identify the jargon that you use on a regular basis. Also, against each instance of jargon, put a check mark indicating whether the word has gone into the communication involving the customer (or somebody outside the technical team).
- What are some of the communication mediums in your organization that justify the use of jargon? Hint: contract documents, technical guides, and so on.
- List the jargon that the customer uses and start employing them in your mutual communication.
- Identify a technical situation at work. Communicate the situation with peers in a language that is understood by peers (read with jargon). Now, the second part of the exercise is to convey the same information to the customer. How can you explain it without recourse to jargon?