Toward more picturesque 'RIM speak'.

Like records and information management (RIM) professionals, magazine editors constantly look both forward and backward in time, planning for future projects and leveraging what has been learned from past ones--all the while keeping a pulse on the present. Editors and RIM professionals alike always seem to be fighting a battle against deadlines, so they work to do things right the first time around to avoid repeating mistakes and wasting time.

The key challenge to getting things right in almost every profession is using the right words. Doctors need to write precise prescriptions; lawyers need to write exacting contracts; RIM professionals need to employ the right words to manage every bit and byte of information. In dealing with e-discovery and legal holds, for example, a misused word or phrase can easily be the culprit in a misunderstanding among RIM, IT, and legal specialists.

In a perfect world, everyone should be on the same page, speaking the same language. In our imperfect world, however, staff members across an organization's various business functions are frequently on different pages--often because of the acronyms each uses--particularly in speech. With so many acronyms floating around, most professionals are drowning in a bewildering alphabet soup.

Information technology (IT) experts, in particular, play fast and loose with their "tech-speak" abbreviations--perhaps not fully realizing that much of what they say is indecipherable to everyone else. Lawyers often rattle off acronyms too quickly--particularly those "fine print" contractions. Meanwhile, RIM professionals, who bandy their fair share of acronyms, are hesitant to admit when they don't always know what IT and legal professionals are talking about.

Everyone knows what IBM, FBI, CIA, CEO, RIM, and CRM stands for. But how many know what NIS, ICT, ERM, CST, HIPPA, NSAD, CMS, and ALS, mean? How about ESI--a common acronym buzzing around corporate offices of records managers? Although RIM and IT professionals will know that it means "electronically stored information," for IT professionals, the acronym could easily be confused with enterprise services infrastructure or enhanced serial interface.

Publications, like IMJ, create style guidelines that dictate grammar, punctuation, and usage--including the practice of spelling out acronyms on their first reference. However, because formal grammar tends to fall by the wayside in everyday speech, one solution is to explain every acronym every time it is used. Another, perhaps better, solution is to try to avoid uttering so many acronyms in the first place.

Another impediment to effective communication is the use of corporate buzzwords and phrases. Rather than zeroing in on the precise word needed, too many professionals rely on vague corporate cliches like proactive, paradigm, solution, leverage, and strategic. Business people also rely on worn-out corporate metaphors such as "picking the low-hanging" fruit, "thinking outside the box," "putting lipstick on a pig," or "de-siloing" your departments. The trouble with these colorful metaphors is that they disconnect from actual monochromatic office life, which tends to center around more mundane functions like getting malfunctioning computers working, scheduling meetings, and answering e-mail.

One reason the original 1960s TV show "Star Trek" is still popular today--through it was written more than 40 years ago and takes place hundreds of years in the future - is because the series employed what linguists term standard American speech. The characters avoid faddish expressions, slang, and jargon. True, the show developed its own futuristic lexicon--"phaser," transporter," Klingon," and "Vulcan mind-meld." But, generally, the characters (even alien creatures) keep their English plain and simple.

Like "Star Trek" characters, human members of functional business teams tend to come from different backgrounds. So why not take a page from the "Star Trek" book? That is, avoid jargon and acronyms to keep communications clear. One example of good "RIM speak" can be found in a news item on page 18: "FTC Offers Data Theft Guidelines." The item describes A Guide for Business, a handbook featuring practical tips for businesses on securing sensitive data. It could serve as a model for how professionals should speak. "Take Stock, Scale Down, Lock It, Pitch It, Plan Ahead," the handbook advises--plainspoken good advice for every professional seeking to "live long and prosper."