Hiring Instructional Coaches and Firing Scope Creeps

This post is Part 4 of a 5-part series. Catch up on Parts 1, 2, and 3.

I’m an English major who married a business major. Given all of the troubles of the world today, this may not sound like a huge problem. But in the day-to-day struggle of how people who love each other learn to live with each other, it’s sometimes a thing.

My husband and I have differing skill sets, and that’s helpful. He knows how to use spreadsheets like nobody’s business, and I often need his tech support. I know how to edit things, and he asks me for help with that. We complement each other well. But our work worlds divide on an issue that will surely hound us until retirement: our choice of vocabulary. Here are some examples:

• He says “utilize.” I say “use.”
• He says “dialoguing.” I say, “having a conversation.”
• He says, “We need to be proactive about impacting synergy across our silos.” I say, “What on earth are you talking about? Stop saying things like that!”

It can get tense. That said, I have learned a couple of business-speak phrases over the years that I truly enjoy, like this one about the hard choices involved in managing successful projects: “Time. Quality. Money. Pick two.” That phrase is succinct, helpful, and true. I also like this term, one that influences so much of my own work: “scope creep.”

According to the