For those of you who don't know, I recently left my position with a former "big five" consulting company. I was there for six years and got to work for a lot of really cool clients and very smart people who I shall miss!

Upon entry, six years ago, I swore I would never succumb to "consulting speak." I thought I was strong enough to make it. I strove to edit my presentations to use words like "people" or "individuals" instead of "users." I fought off the acronyms. I resisted the jargon, but somewhere along the line the environment finally got the better of me.

My dear friend recently ran an intervention. Ashamed and broken, I immediately checked myself in to a detox program.

I, Leigh Duncan, will now refrain from using the following words for at least six months (and after that with extreme care):

- Implementation
- Configuration
- Operationalize
- Critical path
- Mission-critical
- Cross-functional
- Any Acronym that represents a business or government agency
- Any Acronym representing financials, proposals or forms

I have also been asked to refrain from the following activities:

- Taking a thirty thousand foot view
- Doing a sanity check
- Building a straw man

If you catch me lapsing into old habits, please feel free to call me out.