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'Learnings' Is A Stupid, Stupid Word
Attention, Masters of Business Administration of Corporate America: Quit using the word 'learnings'. It makes you sound really stupid. The word you really want is 'lessons'.
Your pal,
Jeffrey
October 13, 2004 in Deep Thoughts | Permalink | Digg This! | Post to del.icio.us!
Comments
I have not encountered this expression before, thank god. "Learnings" sounds kind of like something you leave behind you after training. A nice steamy pile of learnings.
Posted by: Laura | Oct 13, 2004 12:46:32 PM
Yes. Such a pile sounds like something that one should 'leverage'. (Which happens to be my other most-despised MBA coinage.)
Posted by: Jeffrey Mcmanus | Oct 13, 2004 1:21:21 PM
What you're really looking for is "solution."
Posted by: Adam Trachtenberg | Oct 13, 2004 9:56:04 PM
No no, a solution is what you create after learning lessons.
Posted by: Jeffrey McManus | Oct 13, 2004 10:03:23 PM
And how do you get people to participate in learnings? Why, you incentivize them.
Posted by: mike grover | Oct 14, 2004 1:13:26 PM
heh.
Posted by: Jeffrey McManus | Oct 14, 2004 3:25:39 PM
Hi Jeff - is it possible for you to get me a name of a person in business development at ebay? I would really appreciate it - thanks
Posted by: Theresa | Oct 22, 2004 8:56:41 PM
We don't really 'do' business development, actually. What did you have in mind?
Posted by: Jeffrey McManus | Oct 23, 2004 12:06:50 AM
Let's put it all together: Use a catapult to leverage your granular pile of learnings through the aether into a porcelain vat half-full of water, where the learnings would splash and dissolve, creating a solution.
Posted by: Josh McHugh | Nov 3, 2004 5:56:11 PM
I agree with you; 'learnings' sounds like somein your ma back in Arkansas taught you how to done.
I fear, however, you are fighting a lost battle.
Posted by: Don Hadden | Jan 10, 2006 4:55:26 AM
Yes, but how will we opportunity the challenges created when the synergies created by fully incentivized participants don't leverage the learnings?
Posted by: Joe | Apr 5, 2006 5:54:05 PM
You, sir, are the devil.
Posted by: Jeffrey McManus | Apr 5, 2006 6:39:46 PM
Messrs. Webster, Chambers and Collins deny all knowledge of "learnings".
Case closed!
Posted by: John Ladd | Nov 14, 2006 2:13:53 AM
As do the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries. Please cease and desist...
Posted by: Bret | Dec 3, 2006 1:49:17 AM
"Yesterday's neologisms, like yesterday's jargon, are often today's essential vocabulary."
– Academic Instincts, 2001[1]
OR:
"Dynamic verbiage can breakthrough into seamless integration with pre-existing communication infrastructure in accordance with the concurrent migration of obscolete habits of mind."
- Me, (2006)
Posted by: Mitch Williams | Dec 13, 2006 11:09:17 AM
I believe the word that learnings is attempting to replace is "findings," not solutions or lessons.
Posted by: steve | Mar 14, 2007 9:10:23 PM
Agree with Jeff. Often seen people using "Learnings" in the place of "Lessons". (e.g. "Key Learnings" in place of "Key Lessons Learned")
Posted by: aravind ajad | Apr 17, 2007 4:51:11 AM
Unfortunately, it seems you're wrong about one thing Jeffrey - THEY GOT WEBSTER TOO!
b (1) : something that is learned or taught ; specifically : a subject that is taught in school
"learning." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (2 May 2007).
Posted by: Nick Quaintmere | May 2, 2007 8:48:34 AM
I should have used the preview function! The usage examples somehow disappeared:
b (1) : something that is learned or taught (increasing the practical value of the learnings -- H.R.Douglass) (the film does provide learnings -- Catherine M. Adler); specifically : a subject that is taught in school (emphasize the mastery of essential learnings -- M.B.Smith)
"learning." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (2 May 2007).
Posted by: Nick Quaintmere | May 2, 2007 8:52:43 AM
Sorry, pal, I didn't assert that "learning" isn't a word. I'm jumping on the usage of the word "learnings" as a highfalutin replacement for the word "lessons".
The dictionary definition you found works when you're trying to say "Today the class is learning how to read." It doesn't work when you say "The workgroup leveraged cutting-edge paradigm shifts to disintermediate the established model and take away learnings moving forward."
Posted by: Jeffrey | May 2, 2007 8:53:00 AM
Yes, of course. I thoroughly agree with you. I was just playing devil's advocate! Learnings is, for me, what the Germans so amusingly call an "Unwort" or anti-word (anti being used here in the same sense as anti-Christ). I encountered learnings while checking some translations, and accordingly directed the translator straight to this page. He argued that learnings is legitimate Business-Speak, and besides, if teachings is OK, what's wrong with learnings... What can one say to that? (I blame Buddha!)
P.S. I love the example sentence. You should send it immediately to Scott Adams.
Posted by: Nick Quaintmere | May 3, 2007 1:44:47 AM
Mr Macmanus, you are a scholar and a gentleman and in both forms well learned.
Posted by: Derryl | Jun 25, 2007 1:41:56 PM
I proactively touched-base with my colleaguem and insghted a qualitative round table forum to expound a dissemination plan for the denotation of the idiomaticity “learnings”.
We deliberated before electing to prevaricate further annunciation with the caveat that abusers of “learnings”, ie marketeers, simply aren’t as colloquially empowered as the populus generale and necessitate fosterings of delicate admonitions.
Posted by: Stuart | Jun 28, 2007 10:48:35 PM
Thanks for the learnings. I will attempt to leverage this knowledge for future high-level meetings.
Posted by: Stacy Sherman | Sep 5, 2007 9:55:51 AM
Evil!
Posted by: Jeffrey McManus | Sep 5, 2007 9:56:54 AM
Hey, if it's good enough for Borat.... !
Posted by: elbuho | Nov 9, 2007 1:00:50 AM
Thank you all for making this discussion available on the web. I recently joined a company where the parent organization uses "learnings" in the titles of reports, as a noun in conversation-- everywhere. They intend to say 'lessons learned'. Thanks for the sanity reinforcement. I'm not nuts!
Posted by: Roger | Jan 18, 2008 5:52:15 AM
I work in a school where the principal congratulated the students on a fine display of their learnings. She also asked me to submit a write-up of my learnings at a recent conference.
Still don't think it's a "real" word!
Posted by: TMatt | Mar 17, 2008 6:48:06 AM
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