Here is a rule

Relearn the English Language

When you’re dealing with people in your industry or profession, there are certain buzzwords and jargon that everyone knows and understands, and there’s no problem in using them. This puts you on the same page as everyone else, and it even helps reinforce relationships between industry insiders. After a while, however, everyone gets tired of jargon and buzzwords. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an industry insider or not, there comes a point where you just get tired of it all and want to speak and be spoken to in plain, straightforward language.

In business, you’ve always got to know whom you’re talking to, and then use the right level of industry jargon. Not too much… not too little. When speaking to industry outsiders, make sure you’re not talking over their heads. If you edit your written and spoken communications, you will have a better chance of establishing and maintaining a strong relationship.

Use analogies or plain English translations. People often understand complex messages if they are wrapped in analogies; the more universal the analogy, the better. Relating a concept to a trip to the grocery store, the car dealership, or a lemonade stand may seem simplistic, but these are activities that everyone has experienced.Pay careful attention to nonverbal cues as they will give you clues on what’s difficult to grasp and requires more explanation. If your speech patterns are sprinkled with technical words without any corresponding explanation, chances are your listener’s eyes will eventually glaze over. Adjust the level of industry language that you are using, both to make it easier to understand and to prompt questions when necessary.

Another one for you

They Call It Murphy’s Law for a Reason

If something can go wrong, it will. There’s a reason this axiom is called Murphy’s Law, not Murphy’s Reminder. So plan for the unexpected. Failing to plan realistically-overestimating sales; underestimating costs and time to market; and then failing to plan for the inevitable twists, bumps, and craters along the way-is the primary reason why most business start-ups fail. But even established companies tend to be far too rosy in their plans and forecasts and don’t leave themselves a margin of error. If you’re not willing to ground your plans in reality to make things appear to be better than they are, you’re asking for trouble.

In the real world, projects take longer and cost more than expected for all sorts of reasons. People get sick or quit. Shipments of critical components arrive late due to a natural disaster. A key supplier goes out of business. A last-minute technical glitch-one you or your team never anticipated-stops development dead in its tracks.

Add some wiggle room to your budgets and project timelines. Chances are, you’re going to need it. And if not, you will have pulled off a minor managerial miracle-a project that did even better than planned!

Set up regular meetings to evaluate all aspects of major projects you’re working on, and focus on what new developments have occurred. If you can use these meetings to forecast potential problems and keep them under control, you might be able to break Murphy’s Law more than you’d expect.