Q: Why is this argument relevant now?A: All of this technology and data doesnt mean a hill of beans if people dont understand it. I could live with the fact that people use jargon or that the average employee receives 120 to 150 emails in any given day, but people are using more jargon and the number of emails people receive is increasing at 15 percent per year. Something has to give.

Q: Where does jargon come from?A: Many management types try to make management seem more scientific. So they bastardize wordsoptics and synergies and alignmentsthat are just nonsense. If youre paying a consultant $300 an hour, you want it to sound scientific. But management is not a true scienceits a social science or a discipline.

Q: So whats your goal?A: Theres no guide in there. I cant say, After seven emails its time to pick up the phone, or, If its about a strategy decision you should never emailits not like that. I want people to think about how they communicate.WILEY, $35, 272 PAGES

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B O O K S Phil Simon says that he wasnt always a great communica-tor, but hes spent a long time trying to improve. Though his background is in technology, he's evolved into an author and speaker, and has written seven books about business, technol-ogy and communication.

MESSAGE NOT RECEIVED: WHY BUSINESS COMMUNICATION IS BROKEN AND HOW TO FIX IT

BAD COMMUNICATIONESPECIALLY JARGON-FILLED EMAILS AND

CORPORATE MEMOSIS DRAGGING BUSINESS DOWN, PHIL SIMON WRITES.

D E F I N E I T

People have always complained about language changing, Simon says, and jargon and acronyms can sometimes be useful. Yet far too frequently people will throw out an acronym without defining it.

F R E E D O M T O C O M M U N I C AT E

It's easy to blame tech companies for all the digital noise

that surrounds us, but we are

responsible for how we use technology

and how we communicate,

Simon writes. We are not conscripted

to update our Facebook statuses,

tweet and +1 something.

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