Cisco’s chief will terminate a meeting if you use certain acronyms in his presence—he says new hires ‘feel too stupid to ask’ what they mean
Like Jamie Dimon and Jeff Bezos, Cisco’s president Jeetu Patel, has strict rules for meetings: No unclear acronyms—and new hires can stop the meeting
Cisco's president and chief product officer, Jeetu Patel, has strict rules about acronyms in meetings at his company. If Patel hears any acronyms that are not widely known or are Cisco-specific, he will immediately terminate the meeting. He finds these in-house acronyms to be non-inclusive and creates an environment where new hires feel too intimidated to ask for clarification.
Patel estimates that around 5% to 10% attrition rate would result in roughly 9,000 to 27,000 new employees joining Cisco annually, creating a need for a significant increase in workforce knowledge. To address this, Patel gives new hires the power to stop any meeting if the communication is unclear. He believes that leaders must be able to speak in easy-to-understand terms for everyone to comprehend.
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