About us

When Don Watson wrote Death Sentence* a torrent of letters and emails began from people rebelling against managerial language. Since then Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words, Contemporary Clichés, Cant & Management Jargon and Bendable Learnings have been published.

This site is for people who have silently wept into a crumpled copy of their company's mission statement, for teachers who want to work in classrooms and not learning precincts, and for all those who have been underpinned by an innovative, value adding, creative, sustainable, diverse and optimised framework.

*In UK - Gobbledygook, Atlantic 2004, in US - Death Sentences, Gotham Books, May 2005.

Why Weasel Words?

'In 1916 Theodore Roosevelt declared that the 'tendency to use what have been called weasel words was "one of the defects of our nation".' 'You can have universal training or you can have voluntary training, but when you use the word "voluntary" to qualify the word "universal", you are using a weasel word,' he said: 'it has sucked all the meaning out of "universal".'

(Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words, Contemporary Clichés, Cant & Management Jargon, page 3).

If you have any suggestions or comments about this site, please email us at: touchbase@weaselwords.com.au

  
 
 

Don Watson Speaks
To engage him for talks
(or even workshops) send an
email to Helen Smith.

 

networking
To exchange business cards, glances etc. Have a drink, take tea, dine with. Do what's necessary. (More if it's agreeable).

'2.50pm. Coffee and Networking.' - Governance seminar brochure

'I networked my arse off.'
- Participant in governance seminar.

(Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words, Contemporary Clichés, Cant & Management Jargon, page 222)

 

Read this interview with Don Watson

'Everything is outcomes-based. Running a chook farm is outcomes based. Being a chook is outcomes-based.'
From a conversation between Don Watson and Deeta Kimber of ANZAPT (Australian & New Zealand Association of Psychiatrists in Training)