2013: the year of (self) actualisation?

I hope not. But Trendwatching has just listed the nine new business buzzwords it expects us to hear more of this year. And ‘datashaped’ (all one word), ‘remapped’ and ‘(self) actualised’ are all in there.

A list like this makes my heart sink. Not just because buzzwords almost always sound horrible, but because they’re simply not effective. They’re too ambiguous, too easy to ignore and far too easy to misunderstand.

Here’s an example:

If you wanted to use ‘remapped’ in a sentence, apparently you could say: ‘The essence of the remapped world will be feeding 2013’s demand for multi-directional consumerism.’

You could say that. But no one would have a clue what you were on about.

It would be clearer to write something like: ‘2013 is going to be a big year for emerging markets. They’ll be producing and exporting more than ever before – to developed and other emerging markets.’

If you’re writing about new ideas, describing them with new words doesn’t help. In fact, the more complex the idea, the more straightforward your language should be. It’s the only way you can be sure that your readers will really understand it.

So let’s ditch the jargon and make 2013 a year for great new ideas, described in good old-fashioned language.

Who’s with me?