More Praise for The BS Dictionary
When I worked with Bob Wiltfong at The Daily Show it was clear he was full of BS. Im glad to see hes found an outlet for it.
Stewart Bailey, Former Co-Executive Producer,
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
This is the book I wish I had written.
Tripp Crosby (of Tripp & Tyler), Entertainers and Creators
of A Conference Call in Real Life
As a corporate executive, I thought I understood all the business jargon known to (wo)man. But no BS, this dictionary has shown me Ive only scratched the surface. Im now on a mission to push the envelope and circle back to this hilarious, sometimes cringe-inducing book again and again whenever I need a magic bullet for corporate translation.
Christine Walters, Television Development Executive
Page-turner is not a word I would normally associate with a dictionary, but this book is just that. It is filled with one delicious entry after another, giving insight into some of the most commonly used business words and phrases in todays corporate world. At Four Day Weekend, we have taught thousands of business leaders the power of yes, and at their jobs. I say yes, and to another volume of The BS Dictionary!
David Ahearn, Co-Founder, Four Day Weekend Comedy
I referred to Bob Wiltfongs Daily Show field pieces to learn how to do the job. Im glad he wrote a book I can use to finally figure out what the hell everyone in the office is saying.
Ronny Chieng, Standup Comedian and Reporter,
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
The BS Dictionary is a cross between an old school dictionary and an Urban Dictionary, with a huge dose of biting personality. This book is hilarious
and addictive.
Bob Kulhan, Founder and CEO, Business Improv
This is fantastic book not only clearly defines many of the business words and phrases in the corporate world, but it also gives the origin of each phrase in a very fun and informative way. I cant think of a better way to learn (and laugh about) the foreign language that is todays business speak.
Kathleen OConnor, Professor, London Business School, Visiting
Associate Professor, Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management
In addition to being an actually helpful resource, The BS Dictionary is also a joke book, a history lesson and a trivia fans delight. If you love to learn and laugh, youll agree it gets on the green.
Jane Borden, Journalist
Author, I Totally Meant to Do That
One thing I know about Bob Wiltfonghes a funny guy. And thats no BS! If anyone can make business humor more than an oxymoron, its him. This book should be required reading for anyone who thinks an occasional laugh is a good way to cope with the corporate world. Ill force all my employees to keep a copy on their desk. Or is that pushing the envelope?
Pat Dolan, Owner, Newsday
2020 ASTD DBA the Association for Talent Development (ATD)
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
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Ordering information: Books published by ATD Press can be purchased by visiting ATDs website at www.td.org/books or by calling 800.628.2783 or 703.683.8100.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020933993
ISBN-10: 1-950496-16-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-950496-16-7
e-ISBN: 978-1-950496-17-4
ATD Press Editorial Staff
Director: Sarah Halgas
Manager: Melissa Jones
Community Manager, Management: Ryan Changcoco
Developmental Editor: Kathryn Stafford
Production Editor: Hannah Sternberg
Text Design: Shirley E.M. Raybuck
Cover Design: Rose Richey
Printed by Versa Press, East Peoria, IL
Bob
To my wife, Jill: You are my unicorn, my rock star,
my GOAT. In a nutshell, I love you!
To my kids: If you ever feel like youre in the weeds and life has left you holding the bag, know that we are all attending a series of lunch & learns on this Earth and that Mom-and-Pop love you to the ends of the universe.
Tim
To my mom and dad, the two best people I know.
To my wife, Julie, and sons, Alex and Eric: You give me joy every day.
To the town and people of Lakewood, Ohio: You are where you come from.
And Im proud to say I come from there.
Lastly, to my friends: Thank you for always being there.
SIDEBARS
PREFACE
Dear Reader,
Were going to take off our kid gloves and be aboveboard with you. At the end of the day, most of us have to work 24/7 to survive. We could give you the blow-by-blow on why that is, but thats like putting lipstick on a pig, yes? Why boil the ocean to find the reasons? It is what it is.
As such, we believe its important to disambiguate the common phrases of our jobs and to open the kimono on idioms and clichs that stretch our bandwidth of understanding and make us wonder if our careers are scalable. Plainly put, how we communicate in our jobs is where the rubber meets the road for our future and can determine whether we can establish the mindshare necessary to move the needle. Trust us, as professionals who are long in the tooth in the world of corporate training and marketing, this is not our first rodeo!
Weve gone beyond the low-hanging fruit of just giving you parts of speech and red-flagging definitions. For all intents and purposes, thats table stakes here. Look, we went against the grain by giving you what we think each word or phrase really means when used in the business world. Some thought leaders might suggest these BS definitions arent worth their salt and are just a white elephant meant to increase SEO for the book. We realize the BS definitions certainly represent a thinking-outside-the-box approach to a standard dictionary, and we had a SWOT team of editors throwing shade at us for doing them. However, we stuck to our guns and put our John Hancocks on these Easter egg definitions, if you will, because we think the sweat equity results in great deliverables and a USP for a client-facing book such as this. The net-net is a win-win for you and for us.
That is why we wrote this game-changing book: to give you cut-and-dry definitions of some of the most cookie-cutter words and phrases used in todays business environments. Hence, what follows is a deep dive into what these words really mean. The upshot of this 360-degree approach is making you the master of the universe with the new normal of communication in the business world! Kudos to you for leaning in to this content!