Wordsmith collection

Work, Creativity & Productivity

by Wordsmith @wordsmith

88 knowledge-worker words for clearer meetings, memos and decisions — from stakeholder and synergy to triage, salient and galvanize.

• execute To kill, especially as punishment for a capital crime.
• implement A tool or instrument for working with.
• deliverable Able to be delivered.
• leverage A force compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot.
• retroactive Extending in scope, effect, application or influence to a prior time or to prior conditions
• alignment An arrangement of items in a line.
• ownership The state of having complete legal control of something; possession; proprietorship.
• efficiency The extent to which a resource is used for the intended purpose.
• nuance A minor distinction.
• tactical Of or relating to tactics.
• streamline A line that is tangent to the velocity of flow of a fluid; equivalent to the path of a specific particle in that flow.
• ethical Of or relating to the study of ethics.
• paradigm shift A radical change in thinking from an accepted point of view to a new one, necessitated when new scientific discoveries produce anomalies in the current paradigm.
• transparency The quality of being transparent.
• exigency The demands or requirements of a situation.
• cogent Reasonable and convincing; based on evidence.
• judicious Having, characterized by, or done with good judgment or sound thinking.
• iterate Said or done again; repeated.
• disruptive Causing disruption or unrest.
• workflow The flowrate at which a flow of work takes place.
• prudent Sagacious in adapting means to ends; circumspect in action, or in determining any line of conduct.
• contingency The quality of being contingent, of happening by chance.
• salient Worthy of note; pertinent or relevant.
• impedance The act of impeding; that which impedes; a hindrance.
• scrum A tightly packed and disorderly crowd of people.
• granular Consisting of, or resembling, granules or grains.
• bottleneck The narrow portion that forms the pouring spout of a bottle; the neck of a bottle.
• brainstorm A sudden thought, particularly one that solves a long-standing problem.
• compliance An act of complying.
• empower To give permission, power, or the legal right to do something.
• KPI Initialism of kingpin inclination.
• prototype An original form or object which is a basis for other forms or objects (particularly manufactured items), or for its generalizations and models.
• pivot A thing on which something turns; specifically a metal pointed pin or short shaft in machinery, such as the end of an axle or spindle.
• deadline A time limit in the form of a date on or before which something must be completed.
• synergy A synonym of binding energy.
• delegate delegated
• optimize To act optimistically or as an optimist.
• morale The mental and emotional state of a person or group, especially their level of confidence, enthusiasm, and loyalty with regard to a function or task.
• autonomy The right or condition of self-government; freedom to act or function independently.
• consensus A process of decision-making that seeks widespread agreement among group members.
• accountability The state of being accountable; liability to be called on to render an account or give an explanation; liability to be held responsible or answerable for something.
• curate An assistant rector or vicar.
• proactive Acting in advance to deal with an expected change or difficulty.
• trade-off Any situation in which the quality or quantity of one thing must be decreased for another to be increased.
• momentum Of a body in motion: the tendency of a body to maintain its inertial motion; the product of its mass and velocity, or the vector sum of the products of its masses and velocities.
• stakeholder A person holding the stakes of bettors, with the responsibility of delivering the pot to the winner of the bet.
• strategy The science and art of military command as applied to the overall planning and conduct of warfare.
• visionary Having vision or foresight.
• scope The breadth, depth or reach of a subject; the extent of applicability or relevance; a domain, purview or remit.
• inevitable Impossible to avoid or prevent.
• pertinent Important with regard to (a subject or matter); pertaining; relevant.
• irrelevant Not relevant, as
• succinct Encircled by, or as if by, a girdle; drawn up or wrapped tightly.
• eloquent Fluently persuasive and articulate.
• productivity The state of being productive, fertile, or efficient.
• agile Having the faculty of quick motion in the limbs; apt or ready to move; loose-jointed.
• triage Assessment or sorting according to quality, need, etc., especially to determine how resources will be allocated.
• articulate Clear; effective.
• initiative Serving to initiate.
• diplomatic Concerning the relationships between the governments of countries.
• liaise To establish a liaison.
• holistic Related to holism.
• dissent Disagreement with the ideas, doctrines, decrees, etc. of a political party, government or religion.
• inclusive Including (almost) everything within its scope.
• iteration A recital or a second performance; a repetition.
• mitigate Mitigated, alleviated.
• galvanize To coat with a layer of metal by electrochemical means.
• bleeding-edge Of or pertaining to something, such as technology, which is too new and untested to be reliable or to have any assurance of safety; (in a weakened sense) that represents the latest developments in something.
• solicit Solicitation.
• critique The art of criticism.
• prioritize To value, do, or choose something first, or before other things.
• unprecedented Never before seen, done, or experienced; without precedent.
• collaboration The act of collaborating.
• orthogonal Of two objects, at right angles; perpendicular to each other.
• process A series of events leading to a result or product.
• heuristic That employs a practical method not guaranteed to be optimal or perfect; either not following or derived from any theory, or based on an advisedly oversimplified one.
• bandwidth The width, usually measured in hertz, of a frequency band.
• burnout The experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest, especially in one's career.
• milestone A stone milepost (or by extension in other materials), one of a series of numbered markers placed along a road at regular intervals, typically at the side of the road or in a median.
• paradigm A pattern, a way of doing something; especially a pattern of thought, a system of beliefs, a conceptual framework.
• resilience The mental ability to recover quickly from depression, illness or misfortune.
• feedback Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results.
• ideation The conceptualization of a mental image.
• innovation The act of innovating; the introduction of something new, in customs, rites, etc.
• facilitate To make easy or easier.
• constraint Something that constrains; a restriction.
• strategic Of or pertaining to strategy.
• objective Of or relating to a material object, actual existence or reality.

Definitions from Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0) and Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).