Written for the leaders, owners and professionals of the 11 million businesses with between $50,000 and $50 million in revenue.

Every office has some internal jargon to speed up communication, but when it goes overboard, employees might have no idea what their colleagues are talking about.

In a recent survey of 1,000 U.S. workers by VoiceNation, the most misunderstood workplace phrases are "boil the ocean" (carrying out an impossible task) with 61% unfamiliarity, "COP" (close of play, aka end of day) with 56%, and "strategic staircase" (breaking down an agenda) with 42%.

Where it gets complicated is when different generations understand different acronyms. Read ahead for tips to ensure nothing gets lost in translation.

Today's Edition...

Workplace acronyms: Are you feeling OOTL?

Lesser-known biases: They make our decisions worse

Wonka: The story of a sweet startup vs. a bitter cartel

FYI: Decoding Workplace Acronyms for Different Generations

(Source: Shutterstock)

Acronyms have woven themselves into the fabric of our daily office conversations, speeding up information exchange. Yet, many of us don't always grasp the meanings behind these lettered shortcuts.

For instance, according to a recent survey by Adobe, 3 in 4 employees are clueless about the meaning of "KPI" (Key Performance Indicator), a crucial term in evaluating performance, and "OOO" (Out of Office), an essential term in setting away messages.

Acronym savvy varies by generation in some interesting ways. As you might expect, Gen Z and millennials are more comfortable with tech jargon, whereas just 9 in 10 baby boomers fumble with "2FA" (two-factor authentication). However, the vast majority of Gen Z respondents struggle with HR terms like "EEO" (Equal Employment Opportunity), "RTW" (Return to Work), and "DEI" (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion).

At some level, everybody is OOTL (Out of the Loop). Nearly half of employees have pretended to know an acronym in the course of their jobs; even a third of tech workers fake knowledge of abbreviated tech terms. Shouldn't acronyms be about fostering clearer communication?

So the next time you encounter an unfamiliar acronym and need to look it up, cut yourself some slack. And if you notice that a coworker is confused by one, help them say "TIL" (Today I Learned) instead of "FML" (IYKYK).

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Lesser-Known Biases That Can Hurt Decision-Making

Dr. Steven Rogelberg is a chancellor's professor at UNC Charlotte, former president of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and author of Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1:1 Meetings.

A host of different biases can have negative effects on our ability to make good decisions. Some, like gender bias, are well known. Here are others that could derail your success:

Self-serving bias is making decisions that benefit you, despite not being optimal for others, the team, or the organization.
Confirmation bias is seeking out views, data, and information that support your opinions rather than challenge them, leading to an incomplete review of key information. (Similarly, overconfidence bias is thinking so highly of your ideas that they grow worse.)
Authority bias is favoring the input of someone with more power, even if their opinion isn't the most informed or relevant to the issue.
Positivity bias is focusing on what is potentially good rather than what is potentially bad, hampering critical review of options.
Anchoring bias is being most influenced by the first idea to come forward.
Availability bias is being most influenced by what's most salient in your memory.

Allaying these biases starts with awareness and self-evaluation to see if we may have been subject to one. Unfortunately, we are often not the best judges of this. Thus, a second strategy is to ask others for feedback on a decision — or bring in a partner — and invite them to be critical.

Finally, recognize that biases emerge more when we're under great time pressure. Manage your workload and calendar to maximize thought given to critical decisions.

Wonka: The Story of a Sweet Startup vs. a Bitter Cartel

(Source: Warner Bros.)

Wonka is a fresh, vibrant, and delectably fun prequel to Roald Dahl's classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It's also a prime example of disruption in action.

When Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) arrives in Europe, he dazzles and uplifts the locals — as in literally making them fly — with his magical chocolates. But before he has a real chance to bring his products to market, three rival competitors known as the Chocolate Cartel push him out of business. Their bribes keep the police chief (Keegan-Michael Key) in their back pocket, providing them with a lockdown on distribution channels.

Like Uber clashing against an outdated but politically connected taxi system, Wonka's innovations and perseverance come out ahead. The Chocolate Cartel gets exposed for misleading customers about the quality of their watered-down chocolates. The lack of true competition had made them complacent and vulnerable to a new and better way of doing things.

When you're looking to disrupt a legacy industry, they might have the advantage, but it helps if your customers burst out in song and dance.

On May 31 in Business History:

1790: The first U.S. copyright laws were established today, protecting books, maps, and charts for only 14 years.

1870: E. J. DeSemdt, a Belgian-American inventor, patented asphalt, which today covers approximately 2.5 million miles of roads in the U.S.

1895: Dr. John Harvey Kellogg applied for a patent on "flaked cereal, and process of making same," marking the start of what would become the largest cereal company in the world.