Management Insult 1: "Intellectual Property"

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For a while now, I've been building a series of definitions of 'management-speak' terms that insult human intelligence. One day I might even find a publisher and release them as a dictionary, but for now, I thought I'd share a few of them from time to time. I make no apologies for these being slightly tongue in cheek. My argument is that for a leader to be effective they need to be grounded in the real world and not delude themselves through their use of obfuscating language.

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Intellectual Property (especially when abbreviated to IP)

Used to refer to an idea that someone had, that they think is very clever, and would like everyone to know they had. Generally fall into three types;

An idea that was so blindingly obvious that lots of people will have already had it.

An idea that is simply a regurgitation of age-old wisdom.

'Ideas' that are just ways of simplifying something.

Generally used by 'knowledge workers' to justify ludicrous fees or to bolster their own poor self-esteem.

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Best wishes

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GRAHAM WILSON
London + Oxford - 07785 222380
Helping Organisations & People Achieve Things They Never Dreamt Were Possible
grahamwilson.org; inter-faith.net

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