(Game Changer 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.)

Game Changer

By the way, it’s not just game changer, it’s also game changing, and any other iteration of change combined with game that makes for an ear-bleedingly annoying business term.

To be clear, “game anything” is annoying unless you’re speaking about an actual game. In business, those prone to exaggeration love to dub everything as a game changer.

Honestly, though, how many games have ever really been changed? In the history of all games, sports, and similar activities, how often has one been truly changed; genuinely transformed? The dunk in basketball, the forward pass in football, the designated hitter in baseball. Those were game changers.

Today, wearing a shirt designed specifically to be worn untucked has been labeled a game changer. Hint: it’s not; it’s not even an improvement. (Moreover, those of you overpaying for this privilege have been duped.)

In fact, almost nothing crowned as a game changer today does anything to change any game, or business, or style, or… you get it.

Labelling every improvement as a game changer is the worst kind of faux bluster, and annoying to those of us just trying to keep score.

Replacement phrases: Innovation; Change; Improvement

See also: Disruptor

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