Technical jargon: What does "pick up" mean?

"We just need to pick up the stakeholders ..." - that's how the feedback from clients usually sounds today when agencies present strategies, concepts or ideas. Newcomers to the agency side then think to themselves as they walk out of the meeting rooms that the job is done. Unfortunately, however, "picking up" proves to be more complicated than it sounds at first, because in the jargon, "picking up" does not mean what parents among the readers understand by it: Picking up children. From daycare, school or anywhere else. Because children are not (yet) stakeholders, although stakeholders sometimes behave like children. In view of the possible effects of "pick up," even the definition in the Duden seems trivializing: "(especially business language) to approach someone and [in direct address] seek to win them over as an interested party for a product, service or similar."

Pick up instead of decide

In reality, "We just have to pick up the stakeholders" also means that within a project team, everyone wants to be picked up so that they don't walk around insulted or even become a time bomb in the further course of the project that could explode at any time and endanger the goals of the project. But that is only one part that good project managers can usually manage. The other part, where people who are not part of the team have to be picked up, is more difficult. Personal sensitivities and career planning, silo thinking, unwritten laws, informal hierarchies and many other things play a role in deciding whether a project is approved or not. So it's no wonder that everyone has to pick up everyone else before meetings and presentations. We are all familiar with the consequence of this: deadlines pile up in the agendas, where things are discussed bilaterally that actually concern everyone, but cannot be discussed there - without everyone being picked up personally beforehand.In the Outlook, it then looks like the parking lots in front of private schools, where the cars of parents pile up to pick up their children personally, instead of trusting them to make their way home on their own, which would actually be expected of stakeholders.*Benno Maggi is co-founder and CEO of Partner & Partner. He created the section "Vom Fach" in the NZZ FOLIO and was in charge of it for years. He presents and decodes words and terms that can be used either for small talk, being important, getting excited, playing Scrabble or simply for fun.