(Do a Deep Dive is an annoying business term and is just one of the 212 Most Annoying Business Phrases Managers Effuse, Confuse, and Overuse detailed in the hilarious must-have guide for every workplace: The 30,000-Pound Gorilla in the Room. Available right now on Amazon.)

Do a Deep Dive

Embarrassingly, we’ve caught ourselves saying this all too often. Sometimes, we just can’t help it… it just comes out of our mouths before we have a chance to catch ourselves. If it makes you feel any better, we sternly admonish ourselves in our heads when do a deep dive finds its way out.

Unless you’re wearing SCUBA gear, or you’re eleven years old and your annoying uncle just threw a quarter into the deep end of the pool, you’re likely not going to do a deep dive on anything.

You’re going to analyze or inspect something. Heck, sometimes you’re just promising simply to read something when you announce your plans to do a deep dive.

Providing additional color in your language is not necessarily a bad thing for managers; but, overusing this color or allowing the color to get in the way of a simple message is lazy… and annoying.

Instead of telling someone to do a deep dive into a topic to see what they find, simply ask them to analyze it. It means the same thing, but your message is clearer (and you’re much less annoying) using the latter.

You’re welcome.

Replacement phrases: Analyze; Inspect; Read

See also: Drill Down; Tear Down, The

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The 30,000-Pound Gorilla in the Room is available on Amazon