Hello, Catherine here from BBC Learning English. Just so you know, this programme is from the BBC Learning English Archive（档案馆）. It was originally（ 最初） broadcast（广播） in November 2006 on our website. Enjoy! Hello, I'm Callum Robertson and this is Weekender. Blue sky thinking.

  Getting your ducks in a row（(一)排）. Thinking out of the box and reading from the same page. Well, what are these strange phrases? Well, they're metaphorical expressions for the workplace（工作场所）. A kind of language that is described as 'management（管理） speak'. Management speak.

  The way that managers talk to the employees when they want to encourage（鼓励） them and make them work harder. If your boss said to you, 'We all have to get our ducks in a row', would you know what was meant and how would you feel about your boss for saying it? Probably think the boss is insane（患精神病的） or maybe temporarily（ 暂时地） unwell（不舒服的）. I wouldn't understand what he was talking about at all. Well, that's one opinion and it's not an uncommon（不凡的） one. Nicola Clarke has commissioned（委任） a report on communication（通讯） in the workplace（工作场所） and she believes managers have to think carefully about how they express themselves.

  She calls management speak jargon（行话）. This is a word for the special vocabulary and language often used within（在……之内） a particular type of job. Jargon. Jargon isn't always bad, she says, but what does she think is very important? It's fine to use jargon when it's considered shorthand（速记） and when everybody that's within（在……之内） that environment understands it. If they don't, they just need to really carefully think about what they're saying.

  Communication is so important. She says that communication is so important. Jargon, she says, is okay if everyone understands it. Using jargon can be an effective（有效的） form of shorthand（速记）, which means a way of saying a lot in a simple sentence.