It happened to me once when I was negotiating a large commercial contract. After a little bit of oral duelling, the person on the other side of the table said, and I quote, “C’mon. Let’s cut to the chase. Let’s open the Kimono”.
“Open the Kimono”!
Brilliant stuff – what a way to describe coming clean about where you really stand. Ever since that wonderful moment I’ve thoroughly enjoyed listening out for similar gems.
In recent times, it seems that people are as keen as ever to “reach out” to me and I’m often asked whether or not my clients have any “skin in the game”. I guess to answer that question I really need to do some “blue-sky thinking”, you know what I mean? “Think outside the box”, “extend my bandwidth”. In fairness I didn’t really know I had a box, and blue-sky thinking is quite an exotic pastime for a boy from Wales – “cloudy-sky thinking” would be more appropriate but it doesn’t sound as good.
So it got me thinking about some other little phrases, and I’ve decided to “circle back around”, really “drill down” and “give it 110%”. To get this article done I’ve “taken myself off-line” and I’ve “kicked everything else into the long grass”. So let’s get interactive here. Why don’t you spend the next couple of days listening out for these wonderful office phrases which mean very little. It’s a great game working out which of your colleagues is the king or queen of office phraseology.
Now that it’s “on your radar” you won’t be able to resist. Even better, make your own phrases up and try and get them to stick. The more outrageous the better. Just say it with confidence and say it often. It’s a “no-brainer”.
As for me I guess I’ve wasted enough time here “boiling the ocean”, so I hope you enjoyed the read and hopefully we’ll “touch base” soon.
