"Who moved my cheese beyond the tipping point and out of the square?"

Did they do so using industry best practices? Did it go from good to great?

Before I started working with executive leaders, I worked with teenagers for 15 years. There is one amusing commonality that I find in both groups – Fads! Just like the teenagers that we thought we outgrew, business professionals love to impress their colleagues with the latest catch-phrases and concepts from the latest business books.

Here are my favourite corporate clichés and business buzzwords that have lost their meaning:

* Best Practice – The more cynical among us would define "best practice" as whatever concept the consultant is trying to sell you at the time. However, the savvy business leader would ask "How do you define best practice?" "According to whom?" "How does this relate to my business?" You will be hard pressed to find a bigger proponent of innovative and effective than I am; however, if you cannot apply the best practice to your specific needs, then it may not be "best practice" for you.
* Think out box – If we all thought outside of the box as many times as we were encouraged to do so, we would probably be teleporting to work by now. Unfortunately, people are prone to get back into the box when the thinking is over.