December 12, 2010

THE HONOR THE TEAM PAYS TO EACH OTHER'S USELESSNESS:

The subtleties of corporate English (Johnson, Dec 8th 2010, The Economist)

To your point

Usage: It's terribly important, at least in American business meetings, to be constantly acknowledging the contributions other people have made, so that everybody feels included. But instead of "as you said" or "as Jane mentioned", it's "to your point" or "to Jane's point".

Source: No real mystery here: it's the common phrase "make a point". But I think this is a clue to the real meaning, which is...

Subtext: Since it's possible—oh, so possible—to say a lot at a meeting without making any points at all, saying "to Jane's point" is, in the continuing spirit of positivity and good team relations, a way to bestow even greater recognition upon Jane's contribution. After all, if something is worthless, we say it "has no point", and business documents are all in bullet points. So I will posit that a "point" is now actually a discrete unit of measurement (soon to be adopted under the Système International) for useful contributions. Kilopoints, megapoints, nanopoints et alia all to follow, just as soon as someone has invented the measuring tools.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 12, 2010 9:37 AM
blog comments powered by Disqus
« | Main | SHE HAD HER HAND ON THE GOSPEL PLOW: »