What does "open-ended" actually mean?
In his column «What Does It Actually Mean…?,» Benno Maggi explains terms from the fields of marketing and communications. This time, he shares his thoughts on the term «open-ended.».
The magical power of communication is best illustrated in the use of individual words. When people in the communications industry meet, it sometimes resembles a Druid meeting, where words like magic formulas are tried out and exchanged. Now, physical encounters have not been possible for quite some time, which allowed a term to gain special currency: "How was the call?", "How was the remote workshop?" - "Open-ended!" At the moment, unfortunately, far too much is open-ended, and some wonder why the word is so high on the list. An attempt at an explanation.
Stand still instead of moving forward
First of all, it represents the current state of mind quite accurately. At the moment, no one knows how all this is going to work out or, more importantly, how it is going to work out. Then the invasion of the word seems to have to do with the changes in communication due to remote working: In times of home offices and conference calls, much more remains open-ended than when meetings could still take place physically. On the one hand, this has to do with the fact that many people are not willing to make decisions without pressure or backing from their superiors. And because supervisors usually rush into the next, even more important video call shortly before the end of the agreed time, they leave perplexed faces in the windows of the video calls instead of employees who are ready to take responsibility and make the next step. On the other hand, these video calls often lack an epilogue at the coffee machine, where service providers or subordinates get together and encourage each other to move forward despite the lack of a decision. And so everything stops - or remains open-ended. But now would be the opportunity to simply deliver results instead of realizing that the performative magic effect of some fashionable terms is apparently quite small.
* Benno Maggi is co-founder and CEO of Partner & Partner. He has been eavesdropping on the industry for over 30 years, discovering words and terms for us that can either be used for small talk, pomposity, excitement, playing Scrabble, or just because.
