Medical professionals commonly use jargon to discuss software systems, medical devices and terms. Yet, too much jargon can disengage patients and harm workplace culture. Here are four tips to mitigating excessive jargon, according to a March 19 report published in Harvard Business Review.
Jargon can facilitate workplace bonding by reinforcing a shared identity. It is a linguistic tool that serves technical purposes while also signaling membership to a medical professional community.
However, many overuse jargon to overcompensate being insecure about their professional status, the report said. Jargon can disengage patients and other individuals outside the professional medical field and make them feel excluded. It can also hurt an audience's perception of a speaker and make them seem manipulative, less likable and conniving.
Four tips to minimize unnecessary workplace jargon:
- Understand what jargon is harmful.
Jargon can signal the credibility patients need to feel they're in good hands, yet it can also be costly when excessive jargon cuts off mutual understanding. - Prioritize being understood.
Figure out if there is a simpler way to convey a message by replacing jargon with non-jargon equivalents and identify what jargon is essential and what is not. - Mitigate jargon at the top.
Lower-level professionals associate jargon with status. Breaking that association can be the key to changing communication norms. Healthcare leaders should minimize jargon in their communication if they want other employees to follow. - Let others know.
Letting others know that excessive jargon use is not in an organization's norms is an effective way to minimize it. A resounding message to other executives that the purpose of communication is to be understood can spread the message.