Motivation and the corruption of language.

As the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon goes: "I like to verb words." says Calvin. "What?" asked Hobbes. "I take nouns and adjectives and use them as verbs. Remember when 'access' was a thing? Now it's something to do. It got verbed. Verbing weirds (sic) language." Hobbes commented "Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding."

Incentives are rife with verbing, ie nouns turned into verbs. Hence giving a gift becoming 'gifting', creating an incentive becomes 'incentivising', just two examples of the horrible corruptions of the English language.

Part of this convolution of English is a deliberate attempt by incentive agencies to make the subject of incentives and motivation seem more elaborate, an arcane practice with secrets known only to the sorcerous experts. But it's a sham, a cover up, a pernicious attempt to put distance between an 'expert' (the agency) and a lay-person (the client).

Be very wary about any company or organisation that starts banding around phrases like "empowering the gifting experience' or "delivering incentivising opportunities". At IncentiveDirect we try to talk straight, and aim not to bamboozle our clients and customers with a secret jargon.

Remember, "Language is a virus", as William Burroughs once wrote.