Say what? Know your buzzwords
Abigail Radnor translates the lingo
Reach out To contact someone
Touch base To contact someone
Route to Talk to
Workshop this Talk about this
Bubble it up Pass on to someone more senior
Cascade Pass on to someone more junior
Take this offline Discuss outside the meeting
Circle back Discuss later
Connecting the dots Understanding something
Get your legs under yourself Know what you’re talking about
Ducks in a row Organise information
Deliverables Results
Content-rich Contains information
Bottom out To reach the lowest point
Helicopter view An overview
Quarterback To be in charge
The net net The final decision
Scalable It can be made bigger
To integrate across verticals Talk to people in other departments
Tissue session Discussing the details
Digging into the weeds Discussing the details
Drill down/deep dive To explore an idea in close detail
Dial it up/down Do more/do less
A hard stop A definitive end to a meeting
Bandwidth Your ability to work (eg “I don’t have the bandwidth for this right now”)
Ceremony/huddle/retrospective/scrum A meeting
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