Acronyms can seriously suck

Acronyms can suck

Never discount the importance of simplicity in a presentation. One way to simplify is to eliminate jargon. One way to eliminate jargon is making sure that the audience understands any acronyms in the presentation.

These days, acronyms are everywhere. Here is one list of business and finance acronyms. Some of them (CEO – Chief Executive Officer; B2B – Business-to-Business; YTD – Year to Date) are well known; others less so.

Regardless of the level of sophistication of the audience, the chance for misunderstanding increases with the use of acronyms. For example, some people know COB (close of business) but not EOD (end of the day) and vice versa. Thus, COB—which is close to COD (cash on delivery)—may or may not be clear to the recipient of an email requesting that a product be delivered COB.

Indeed, people make mistakes with acronyms that they use all the time:

Elon Musk on acronyms

In his terrific biography of Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, Ashlee Vance gives us an inside look into one of the most brilliant minds of the 21st century. The book offers many insights into the man and how he has reinvented the way in which we can do business.

I particularly enjoyed Vance’s recounting the time, in May 2010, when Musk sent an angry email to all the employees at SpaceX. He was concerned about the excessive use of acronyms in the company. The subject line of the email was “Acronyms Seriously Suck” and this is how it read:

There is a creeping tendency to use made up acronyms at SpaceX. Excessive use of made up acronyms is a significant impediment to communication and keeping communication good as we grow is incredibly important. Individually, a few acronyms here and there may not seem so bad, but if a thousand people are making these up, over time the result will be a huge glossary that we have to issue to new employees. No one can actually remember all these acronyms and people don’t want to seem dumb in a meeting, so they just sit there in ignorance. This is particularly tough on new employees.

That needs to stop immediately or I will take drastic action—I have given enough warnings over the years. Unless an acronym is approved by me, it should not enter the SpaceX glossary. If there is an existing acronym that cannot reasonably be justified, it should be eliminated, as I have requested in the past.

For example, there should be no “HTS” [horizontal test stand] or “VTS” [vertical test stand] designations for test stands. Those are particularly dumb, as they contain unnecessary words. A “stand” at our test site is obviously a *test* stand. VTS-3 is four syllables compared with “Tripod,” which is two, so the bloody acronym version actually takes longer to say than the name!

The key test for an acronym is to ask whether it helps or hurts communication. An acronym that most engineers outside of SpaceX already know, such as GUI, is fine to use. It is also ok to make up a few acronyms/contractions every now and again, assuming I have approved them, e.g., MVac and M9 instead of Merlin 1C-Vacuum or Merlin 1C-Sea Level, but those need to be kept to a minimum.

This passage struck a chord with me. I worked for five years as a lawyer at the World Health Organization. The organization has hundreds of acronyms for different departments, processes and systems and I was probably able to remember two dozen or so at most. My favourite was GSM, which stands for Global Management System, an important online administrative tool. The acronym GMS already existed, so they created a new one.

Elon Musk on acronyms

Think about acronyms in the context of your presentations. It is one thing to use them with people who understand them; it is an entirely different matter when speaking to an outside audience. What is obvious to you will not necessarily be obvious to them. A confused audience means a reduced chance of getting your message across.

8 tips for using acronyms in a presentation:

  1. As Elon Musk wrote, “The key test for an acronym is to ask whether it helps or hurts communication.”
  2. Keep the number of acronyms in a presentation to a minimum.
  3. Well-known acronyms (e.g., USA, CEO, SOS) need no explanation.
  4. The more sophisticated the audience is with regard to the topic, the more leeway you have using acronyms.
  5. Notwithstanding Nos. 3 and 4 above, err on the side of caution.
  6. The first time an acronym you use on a slide, you should write the name out in full and then define the acronym; e.g., “We need to hire a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).”
  7. Once you define a term, you can use the acronym on subsequent slides. However, it is a good idea to repeat the name in full, at least from time to time, to ensure that the audience understands.
  8. Be especially careful when using acronyms or abbreviations that can have multiple meanings. For example, “n/a” (also written “N/A”) can mean “not applicable”, “not available” or “no answer”.

Final thoughts

Acronyms can be useful in a presentation. Just be sure that they are a help and not a hindrance. Otherwise, you might well get a question from the audience like this one from Robin Williams in a classic scene from Good Morning Vietnam.

Like this article?

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Linkdin
Share on Pinterest
mannerofspeaking

mannerofspeaking

  1. Great article. I do agree fully that we use too many acronyms especially in the Medical field. Customers are lost daily as a result. R

  2. What an interesting insight into Elon Musk’s leadership style, and that he’s the one who approves new acronyms – if any! (I’d have thought a CEO would delegate that task!)

    When I saw this article, my 1st thought was that it might be about acronyms that are made up, but whose whole purpose is to help listeners remember the content. Those can be extremely helpful. Examples are: SMART goals, Nancy Duarte’s concept of STAR moments (Something They’ll Always Remember), and my own concept of PACE (which means to make content Personal, Actionable, Conversational, and Emotional).

    I suppose acronyms like that are intended to be explained to listeners (in contrast to how most acronyms are used), and to make the content “sticky”. So as you say, hopefully they’re a help, not a hindrance.

    1. Thanks, Craig. Yes, my focus was on acronyms that are part of the lingo of a given profession or organization. I am a big fan of creating acronyms to help people remember something. Indeed, in “Made to Stick”, the Heath brothers use “SUCCES” as a way of helping us remember Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional and Stories.

      1. John, you might be interested in my latest post, which covers 5 benefits of creating an acronym to represent your talk’s key message. Appropriately, those 5 benefit use an acronym too – MOIST.

        (The post also mentions 4 reasons why SUCCES from “Made to Stick” is a pretty bad acronym!)
        To read the post, just click on my name above.

        1. Thanks, Craig. Those kinds of acronyms are helpful. And they work best when there is only one such acronym in the presentation and none of the other ones.

  3. Another great posting on an important topic: simplicity in communications. Thanks.
    If acronyms do not contribute to one or more of Ted Sorensen’s four pillars (Clarity, Brevity, Levity, Charity) of good communication, then they should be removed.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

nine + seventeen =

Testimonials

John delivered a keynote address about the importance of public speaking to 80 senior members of Gore’s Medical Device Europe team at an important sales event. He was informative, engaging and inspirational. Everyone was motivated to improve their public speaking skills. Following his keynote, John has led public speaking workshops for Gore in Barcelona and Munich. He is an outstanding speaker who thinks carefully about the needs of his audience well before he steps on stage.

Karsta Goetze

TA Leader, Gore and Associates

I first got in touch with John while preparing to speak at TED Global about my work on ProtonMail. John helped me to sharpen the presentation and get on point faster, making the talk more focused and impactful. My speech was very well received, has since reached almost 1.8 million people and was successful in explaining a complex subject (email encryption) to a general audience.

Andy Yen

CEO, Proton Technologies

John gave the opening keynote on the second day of our unit’s recent offsite in Geneva, addressing an audience of 100+ attendees with a wealth of tips and techniques to deliver powerful, memorable presentations. I applied some of these techniques the very next week in an internal presentation, and I’ve been asked to give that presentation again to senior management, which has NEVER happened before. John is one of the greatest speakers I know and I can recommend his services without reservation.

David Lindelöf

Senior Data Scientist, Expedia Group

After a morning of team building activities using improvisation as the conduit, John came on stage to close the staff event which was organised in Chamonix, France. His energy and presence were immediately felt by all the members of staff. The work put into the preparation of his speech was evident and by sharing some his own stories, he was able to conduct a closing inspirational speech which was relevant, powerful and impactful for all at IRU. The whole team left feeling engaged and motivated to tackle the 2019 objectives ahead. Thank you, John.

Umberto de Pretto

Secretary General, World Road Transport Organization

I was expecting a few speaking tips and tricks and a few fun exercises, but you went above and beyond – and sideways. You taught me to stand tall. You taught me to anchor myself. You taught me to breathe. You taught me to open up. You taught me to look people in the eye. You taught me to tell the truth. You taught me to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. I got more than I bargained for in the best possible way.

Thuy Khoc-Bilon

World Cancer Day Campaign Manager, Union for International Cancer Control

John gave a brilliant presentation on public speaking during the UN EMERGE programme in Geneva (a two days workshop on leadership development for a group of female staff members working in the UN organizations in Geneva). His talk was inspirational and practical, thanks to the many techniques and tips he shared with the audience. His teaching can dramatically change our public speaking performance and enable us as presenters to have a real and powerful impact. Thank you, John, for your great contribution!

Sara Canna

HR Specialist, World Health Organization

John is a genuine communication innovator. His seminars on gamification of public speaking learning and his interactive Rhetoric game at our conference set the tone for change and improvement in our organisation. The quality of his input, the impact he made with his audience and his effortlessly engaging style made it easy to get on board with his core messages and won over some delegates who were extremely skeptical as to the efficacy of games for learning. I simply cannot recommend him highly enough.

Thomas Scott

National Education Director, Association of Speakers Clubs UK

John joined our Global Sales Meeting in Segovia, Spain and we all participated in his "Improv(e) your Work!" session. I say “all” because it really was all interactive, participatory, learning and enjoyable. The session surprised everybody and was a fresh-air activity that brought a lot of self-reflection and insights to improve trust and confidence in each other inside our team. It´s all about communication and a good manner of speaking!"

Jon Lopez

General Manager Europe, Hayward Industries

Thank you very much for the excellent presentation skills session. The feedback I received was very positive. Everyone enjoyed the good mix of listening to your speech, co-developing a concrete take-away and the personal learning experience. We all feel more devoted to the task ahead, more able to succeed and an elevated team spirit. Delivering this in a short time, both in session and in preparation, is outstanding!

Henning Dehler

CFO European Dairy Supply Chain & Operations, Danone

Thanks to John’s excellent workshop, I have learned many important tips and techniques to become an effective public speaker. John is a fantastic speaker and teacher, with extensive knowledge of the field. His workshop was a great experience and has proven extremely useful for me in my professional and personal life.

Eric Thuillard

Senior Sales Manager, Sunrise Communications

John’s presentation skills training was a terrific investment of my time. I increased my skills in this important area and feel more comfortable when speaking to an audience. John provided the right mix between theory and practice.

Diego Brait

Director of the Jura Region, BKW Energie AG

Be BOLD. Those two words got stuck in my head and in the heads of all those ADP leaders and associates that had the privilege to see John on stage. He was our keynote speaker at our annual convention in Barcelona, and his message still remains! John puts his heart in every word. Few speakers are so credible, humble and yet super strong with large audiences!

Guadalupe Garcia

Senior Director and Talent Partner, ADP International