Foster, foster, foster

You may, like us, have heard colleagues complaining about the use of the word “foster” throughout management’s speeches and text, when this word seems to be rarely used elsewhere. The word “foster” is indeed fashionable in the Office: There is hardly a management text where there is not something “fostered” or someone “fostering”. A COO managed to use it twice in the same sentence in an interview for the Gazette.

Often used – and now somewhat hackneyed – the expression “foster our future” also contains a catchy alliteration.

But what does “to foster” means? According to Marriam Webster “to foster” is to promote the growth or development of: encourage. Therefore anything and everything can be fostered, obviously. The fashion of the word is also confirmed by its use in published books in GOOGLE statistics which shows a growing use of the word over time, and two peaks around the 1980 and 2000.

No wonder the word is so fashionable now at the Office: Any trendy managerial gibberish or “revolutionary” concept in the United States finds its way to the EPO about 20 years later, such as “management by objectives”. First, a fashion is developed and taught in the best US universities. About 10 years later the fashion arrives in Europe. Another 10 years later, it finally reaches the Office, at a time when it is abandoned everywhere else, e.g. because it was not working or even dangerous..

Buzzwords are indicators of empty statements which make the communication artificial and simply show a lack of authenticity. They are a symptom of a disconnection from the work floor.