Parking Lot Is Not a Verb

The first time I heard the phrase “parking lot” used in a corporate environment, I was sitting in training with a large financial institution. One of my colleagues asked a question, and the trainer didn’t have an immediate answer.

“That’s a good question,” she said. “Let’s parking lot it.”

At the time, I was transitioning from journalism into corporate communications. The reporter in me immediately burst out laughing. Unfortunately, no one else was laughing. I quickly realized I wasn’t in a newsroom anymore.

I also realized something else: organizations develop their own language very quickly. Sometimes that language helps create consistency and shared understanding. Other times, it becomes a layer between people and what they’re actually trying to say.

As I settled into the corporate world, I learned the language quickly. I became what organizations like to call an “early adopter.” I understood the messaging, used the terminology correctly, and communicated within the culture of the organization.

At that stage of my career, I was focused on fitting in and learning the environment. Years later, after working in executive and internal communications across global organizations, I became far more interested in something else: clarity.

Because over time, I noticed a pattern.

The more complex the issue, the more likely people were to hide behind overly polished language, corporate phrasing, and carefully constructed messaging that sounded impressive but left people unsure what actually mattered.

That creates real problems inside organizations.

When communication becomes too abstract, priorities blur. Teams interpret direction differently. Decisions slow down. Employees disengage, because they can’t clearly connect leadership language to their day-to-day work.

In many cases, communication breakdowns happen because people are working so hard to sound strategic, polished, or corporate that the message itself gets lost.

I still see this often when leaders are struggling to communicate something important. They’ll spend enormous amounts of time trying to craft the “right” language, only to end up with messaging that feels vague, overly layered, or disconnected from how people actually speak.

When that happens, I often ask a very simple question:

“What are you trying to say?”

Usually, the answer comes back immediately, and it’s clear, direct, and human.

Clear communication doesn’t mean oversimplifying important issues. It means reducing unnecessary friction between a message and the people receiving it.

The organizations that communicate most effectively are rarely the ones using the most polished language. They’re the ones where employees understand priorities, leaders communicate consistently, and people know what matters and why.

Sometimes the strongest communication strategy is also the simplest:

Say what you mean.

And maybe stop using “parking lot” as a verb.