Insights from Outside the Bubble: Reform-ese

by Detlef Palm

They may grate on your nerves, but as a UN and UNICEF reformer you need to use certain words to fit in. Appropriate verbiage will intimate that you have a vision. As an aspiring or accomplished UNICEF thought leader you should work the following terms into your reform vocabulary.

Reimagine – Apparently everyone is already thinking outside the box. Some prefer to ideate.

Knowledge-to-action – Others just hoard knowledge for the sake of it. You know how to use it!

Deep Dive – Previously called brainstorming; indicates the need to come up with ideas. Be prepared for those who want to drill down.

Positive disruption – Distinguish yourself from evolution, which sounds so yesterday.

Game-changers - best used in connection with transformational. It doesn’t matter what game exactly you are concerned about, but business-as-usual doesn’t cut it any more.

Ecosystem – Tell your audience in a whiff that you understood how everything hangs together, in UNICEF, the UN, or aid, or global politics.

Trillion – Nobody can visualize a trillion, which is million times a million. Sprinkle some trillions into your presentation to indicate that you think big.

Citizen science – Harness the wisdom of the crowd. Never mind it has been wrong as often as it has been right.

Blockchain – Almost nobody can explain what a blockchain is, but few will admit to it. Mentioning blockchain will smother any criticism of your presentation, as everyone feels so behind.

Data intelligence – You master those nasty algorithms that seem to control everything.

Front-loading – one of the few ambiguous terms in reform-ese. Front-loading your analysis may be no good, as heavy insights will weigh you down.

Client – You think business-like, not charity-driven. Best to combine it with value generation.

Cross-fertilisation - use together with cross-functional. The holy grail of development.

Non-linearity – where others are confused, you see patterns; continue by calling for multi-dimensional responses.

“4.0” – you are ahead of 3.0, which other reformers are thinking about right now. For less mature audiences, 2.0 may be just fine.

Walk the walk – or is it walk the talk, or talk the walk or whatever?

Co-create, recalibrate, re-purpose, right-size, catalyse and upskill – use any of these verbs to connect any of the above nouns to form a complete sentence.

Agile, innovative, dynamic, flexible, adaptive, authentic, assertive – use any of these attributes to add an exciting, authentic, positive glow to your proposals.

Here is a sample sentence: In UNICEF’s ecosystem, adaptive block chain technology will be the game changer to dynamically re-purpose citizen science and enable staff to assertively walk the walk towards positive disruption.

It works for me. Try out different combinations!

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