Why Business People Speak like Idiots: A Bullfighter's Guide »

Brian Fugere is a recovering jargonaholic. After authoring some of the worst jargon the consulting world has ever seen, he formally admitted his problem and entered a twelve-step program. He is currently in rehab and has been jargon-clean for the last two years. He is a partner at Deloitte Consulting and was formerly its chief marketing officer. Brian lives in Danville, California, with his wife, Gail, and their four children.

Chelsea Hardaway is an authenticity nut. She can detect hogwash and spin from a country mile, and has spent her career helping companies trade in the usual corporate gibberish for more honest, human communications. She is the president of Hardaway Productions, a brand and communications consultancy that helps clients cut through the clutter. Previously, she was the global brand director at Deloitte Consulting. Chelsea lives in Half Moon Bay, California.

Jon Warshawsky, a former eighth-grade spelling champion, is a manager at Deloitte Consulting and helped start the firm's e-Learning practice. In 2000, he founded Cappuccino, a newsletter covering organizational change and learning. In 2002, Mr. Warshawsky returned to his roots as a grammar curmudgeon and led the development of Bullfighter, the software that quantified idiocy in the world of business writing. He lives in San Diego.

* Mp3 CD Format *. This is just the kind of synergistic, customer-centric, upsell-driven, out-of-the-box, customizable, strategically tactical, best-of-breed thought leadership that will help our clients track to true north. Let's fly this up the flagpole and see where the pushback is.

The Language of Business

Part One: The Obscurity Trap

• 1 The Fog of Business
• 2 The Smartest People Use the Dumbest Words
• 3 Size Matters, But Not How You Think
• 4 It Depends on What the Meaning of "Is" Is

Part Two: The Anonymity Trap

• 5 You've Been Templatized
• 6 The Power of Imperfection
• 7 Being Funny Is Serious Business
• 8 Pick Up the Damn Phone

Part Three: The Hard-Sell Trap

• 9 The Non-Sell Sell
• 10 Kick the Happy-Messenger Habit
• 11 Flop Penance

Part Four: The Tedium Trap

• 12 Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll for Business People
• 13 Make Your Point by Making Theirs
• 14 An Actuary's Guide to Storytelling
• 15 The Substance of Style

Monday

Resources: A Bull Spotter's Guide