Cisco Chief Jeetu Patel Says Jargon And Acronyms Make Workplaces Less Inclusive: "I Don't Like"

Jeetu Patel, the president and chief product officer at Cisco, recently shared his thoughts on corporate jargon and acronyms that are common in offices worldwide. During a roundtable discussion with Fortune, Patel explained his strict rule against internal acronyms.

"I don't like acronyms, especially Cisco-manufactured acronyms that happen at runtime," Patel said, as quoted by the media outlet.

"If there's a meeting and there are acronyms that are used, there are times that I've just terminated the meeting."

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According to Patel, he has occasionally terminated meetings on the spot when employees used abbreviations, and some participants didn't get it.

He discussed an incident when he noticed staff saying "you have to get JP to approve". He didn't realise that the staff were referring to him.

"I'm like, who's JP? He's like, that's Jeetu Patel. I don't even go by JP," he said.

The Indian-origin tech leader noted that his aversion to jargon comes down to basic workplace inclusion.

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He believes that when colleagues throw around internal terms, newer team members or individuals unfamiliar with the shorthand often hesitate to speak up.

Terrified of looking uninformed or "stupid" in front of their peers, they stay silent rather than asking for clarification.

"They don't know all the colloquial acronyms that we've come up with, but they feel too stupid to ask because they don't want to be intrusive and invasive in a meeting," he explained.

"And so, what ends up happening is they don't know, so they'll just keep quiet."

"So now people are talking past each other, and you've got a third of the population that does not feel comfortable asking what that means, and the two-thirds that are using the acronyms feel like that's superbly efficient. But how is anything efficient that a third of your company does not even understand what you're talking about?"

To prevent this kind of exclusion and encourage open communication, Patel wants corporate communication to remain straightforward and transparent.

"I actually think that using acronyms that are not industry standard is a very non-inclusive thing to do," he said.