7 comments

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  Scott McArthur

  10 months ago

  Socialize! Now it's not often I get cross at work but this is one of those words that makes me want to be sick every time I hear it. It should be a rule that if you use that word you should have to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 3 for the rest of your life!
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  Frank Roche

  10 months ago

  Scott, that's quite a punishment. ;-)
  
  I detest the use of that word to mean "Get people to agree with me." It's fakey-fakey.
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  Sarah Chambers

  10 months ago

  Scott,
  
  Funny. I think most people are so accustomed to hearing socialize at work that they don't even blink. But... faced with the watching nearly any movie 3 forever maybe they'll think twice. At least I your colleagues will.
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  Steve

  10 months ago

  I’m sorry this word would evoke such feeling as to doom someone to POTC:Dead Man’s Chest for all eternity. While I would not like to endure that fate I believe there are contexts in which this word is most fitting.
  
  For example, if I have an idea and I want to familiarize my team with it implies that the idea is complete and the members of the team are expected learn and understand it not offer suggestions, change, provide input, etc. The idea has already been decided. However, if I want to socialize an idea, and this is my interpretation only, only the very outline or concept of the idea is formed. I would want and expect from the team input, suggestions, objections, etc. to improve and refine the idea (or the ‘trial balloon’, ‘flag pole’, ‘swimming pool’, et al. horrendous euphemisms that the cool kids use). Familiarization is a passive activity (I expect the team to learn it) whereas socialization is an active activity (I am responsible to teach it). It is in that teaching that the idea may undergo some changes and or modifications that may aid in its adoption or rejection. But then again, in the end, isn’t that what socialization is all about, learning and adapting to fit into society…
  
  If there is another word out there that would describe the activity of going out within the organization to promote a new idea and work for its adoption (that isn’t ‘idea champion’, ‘change agent’, etc.) I would be interested in what that would be. Just so long as it doesn't mean I need to sit through any Leonard Part 6 until the cows come home...
  
  Thanks for the post Sarah! The discussion of language is alway intriguing.
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  Sarah Chambers

  10 months ago

  Steve,
  
  Thanks for the thoughtful response. It makes me hopeful to see that there are still people who actually mean it when they say they want input. I admit to being a bit cynical. But, socializing to me often means convincing a group – frequently by leading the members of that group to believe they helped to develop the idea.
  
  You actually do let the team contribute... you should definitely use any word you like!
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  Frank Roche

  10 months ago

  I wonder if there's such a thing as anti-socialize. It means "Do what I say," or as I heard a lot when I was a kid, "I don't have to have a reason, it's because I'm your mother." An alternate spelling could be antisocial-ize.
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  Sarah Chambers

  10 months ago

  Frank,
  
  Anti-socialize is the shorter version of what "because I'm your mother" conjures for me... "because I'm the boss" or even maybe "because your performance review is coming."
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