This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 107.
Are you cutting corners or taking shortcuts?
Why it matters in the business world. Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.
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Hello there, Michelle. How's it going today?
Pretty good. Lindsay, how are you? I'm good.
I'm doing great. I mean, what are we talking about on the episode today?
Well, I have a question. Do you think it's a good idea to cut corners in the business world?
Well, that really depends on how important the task is.
You know, I think it's, we've been talking so much on our team this year about being strategic with time and identifying the most important thing we do.
And there are certain things, if you're not sacrificing quality of the product you're delivering, that I think the word cut corners gets a bad rap, right?
And we've talked about bad rap, but I think there are ways we can strategically decide what to spend our time on.
And we have to do that in the business world.
So kind of, yeah, I think you can get away with cutting corners in some cases.
Yeah. Okay. It's very interesting answer based on what we're going to talk about.
Okay. I'm going to save it then. Okay. So guys, before we get into it, we have a great listener question today.
But before we get to that, we want to remind you, please hit follow wherever you are listening to the Business English podcast.
Lindsay, how many times do we put out podcasts a week?
Three times a week here on Business English.
And if you guys are not subscribed to All Ears English, that is our most famous podcast.
It was recently featured in Apple Podcasts Canada and ranked number one in US language learning category.
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All right. So Lindsay, we have a great listener question.
This is from Jeff Wu. Jeff has been sending in a lot of questions.
We did one of his on Allers English as well.
Jeff is a management consultant in Japan.
So a real professional here. Could you read the question from him?
His questions are all amazing. I feel like every episode I'm going to be like, oh, Jeff Wu, it's Jeff Wu.
Thank you, Jeff, for your questions. But they're really good.
Yeah, we want to bring the quality of this Business English podcast, always pushing it higher.
And Jeff is going to help us do that. Question, here we go.
So Jeff is, again, a management consultant in Japan.
So, you know, maybe working for like a McKinsey or a company like that, that kind of consulting company, right?
Mm-hmm. So I often hear two phrases, cut corners or take shortcuts, where both mean to do less work to make an accomplishment or achieve it in a faster way.
Are they interchangeable? I feel that cut corners can bear negative connotations.
For example, the building fell apart because the original construction company cut corners when building the foundation.
But I think the same thing can be said about the other phrase, take shortcuts.
It's a shame that the company was trying to take shortcuts in building the foundation, which eventually caused the building to fall apart.
I appreciate if you can share some thoughts on the nuances.
Such a good question, Michelle. It is a good question.
I know this is going to be fun. We're going to talk about this, these differences.
I'm excited to get into this before we do.
Guys, we want to remind you this was I don't know, this reminded me for some reason of emojis, because, you know, thinking about like shortcuts of like, I should see I had a way of thinking about it.
It's not totally random. I like it. Yeah, like using you take it as maybe emoji is a shortcut. shortcut in a way.
So in this episode 82 of business English, we did should you use emojis in the American workplace?
So yeah, listen to that one after you finish this one.
Yes, yes. So So Lindsay, what do you think?
So you were talking about cutting corners.
So So what do you think about this? Versus taking shortcuts?
Do you agree with Jeff that like, cutting corners is more negative than taking shortcuts?
Yes. I think the term cutting corners has a more negative reputation or more negative connotation than taking shortcuts, but essentially they could mean the same thing.
And I think sadly, Jeff is referring to an actual thing that happened in Turkey, right?
And that's the reason why there was such a disaster.
And we lost some people we knew as a company, we knew people that passed away in that disaster.
So What I was mentioning before is not referring to building foundations of buildings.
Let's not get this wrong. Or working in the ER, right?
Or anything where the stakes are very, very high.
But it's an interesting conversation. And I think you're right.
Cutting corners is more profoundly negative in the language than taking shortcuts.
But they could be the same thing. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I would agree with that. I think, yeah, they could technically be the same thing, but whenever you hear cutting corners, it just sounds a little bit worse, even if it's not necessarily.
So to me, when you hear cutting corners, I think it sounds a little bit sloppy as compared to taking shortcuts.
I feel like taking shortcuts may be like, what do they say?
Like, work smarter, not harder. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right, right, right. It does have a different feeling.
I guess the phrase cutting corners probably I imagine.
Do you remember when you were a kid in gym?
Did you have to run the mile? Yes. I was just talking about this yesterday with my brother.
Oh God. Traumatizing experience, right? It always was for me because I was never a fast runner and I was always in the back in my big sweat pants, but I was kind of awkward.
We would have been running together. We would have been running together.
It was so terrible. And it was always don't cut corners, right?
Because don't cut, you have to go in a perfect square, a 90 degree angle.
You can't cut, right? Don't cut corners.
So I think that's probably where that comes from is my guess.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, man. I can't believe you brought that up because I was literally talking about that last night and how much I hate it and my brother would have to motivate me the night before to do it.
Well, they really put some pressure on you in American gym classes in the 90s, Michelle.
It was the whole flexibility test and then you were doing the mile run and there was so much hype around it.
Gosh, the mental... challenges of being a kid in the 90s in the u.s that's right that's right yeah so but taking shortcuts you know that may just be a smart thing to do and like you said it kind of depends on the context right so you you know um i think if you can still do quality work i mean i think I think, I don't know, Lindsay, maybe as a manager, you can speak to this.
Like, do you mind if employees take shortcuts, but they still have the same quality?
You probably appreciate it. Oh, yeah. I think it's required, right?
In today's business world, we have to be smart about how we spend time.
So if you can get the same outcome, like same quality, right?
I'm not talking about like just as almost as good or worse quality, same quality, less time.
We value that. I mean, time has to factor in to your work.
There's no way around it. Yeah, I think the key word here is efficient, right?
Yeah, you have to be efficient 100% Mm-hmm.
So I mean can so we were talking about if they can be interchangeable So just examples, you know, the building fell apart.
They cut corners when building the foundation or They took shortcuts.
So here I think they're both Negative, I mean clearly like a tragedy.
Um, I And taking shortcuts and cutting corners, I think here is the same based on the context of the of the examples, like it's the same negative thing.
So in a sense, I think they're interchangeable because of the context saying it's a shame.
But I do think shortcuts in general can be positive or negative, whereas I think as cutting corners is more so negative, like trying to pull a fast one or get by without doing something.
But yeah, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, I think for Jeff here and anyone else that's working in the business world or especially management consulting, right?
We know that management consultants tend to work on a project basis.
They go in and they consult with one company at one time on one project.
So you especially, Jeff, need to look at context.
It's all about the context of the angle of what you're saying.
What exactly are you recommending that this company do?
And you need to decide, is that taking shortcuts or cutting corners?
Because essentially it really doesn't matter what the definition is.
It's all about the context. It's all about the outcome as well, right?
Outcome, yeah. What happens, right? Is your work going to be sloppy?
Are you just working efficiently? It's about saving time, right?
But it also just makes me think of like, Work and timelines and deadlines and how people handle them and the pressure to get things done.
So sometimes, sometimes, unfortunately, if, you know, in certain situations, you might have to cut corners in order to meet a deadline or you might, you know, there's there's lots of things, but you just always want to strive for the same level of as of work.
Yeah, 100%. It really depends on what your work environment is.
And in the end, it's probably it's, you know, if you're having to cut corners, and if you're ending up producing poorer quality, because you don't have enough time, something's wrong with your assignment, something is wrong with the setup of the company, something you're being set up to fail, which is an expression in the business world, they're setting you up to fail.
And that would be a flag where you want to talk to management about what's what's going wrong here.
Right. So you don't want to have to realize, oh, I need to cut corners on everything because, right, that's a side, something's wrong.
So let's give some examples, some additional examples of this.
Could you read the first one? Okay. If you click this button over here, it's a shortcut and you can get right into our company page, onto our company page.
Now that's a good thing, Michelle, right?
Right. That's a good thing. Yes. So, yeah, instead of like clicking.
Yeah, it's just like, yeah, there's always on computers like the shortcuts.
But yeah, like you don't need to click into this and that and that.
You can just click one button. So that's a good positive thing.
Here we go. Here's another one. He cut corners when he didn't add the pictures correctly.
And now the presentation looks terrible.
So this is an example where it could be really bad.
And it's interesting that here you chose cut corners and the result is very bad.
Right. So that tells us that clearly cut corners has a worse reputation, has a worse feeling to it.
Yeah, I think it does. All right. Here's another.
Let's find a shortcut to get this project done more efficiently.
Maybe if we get some extra help, we could speed it up.
OK, that doesn't imply that it's going to be a shame or a disaster.
That's a little bit neutral. It just depends on how you execute.
Right. Exactly how it's done. And one more.
The last guy got fired because he cut corners and forgot to contact our clients.
Yeah. Again, negative. Right. That's clearly negative.
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Exclusions apply. See details online. Okay, Michelle, where are we going next?
All right, Lindsay, do you take any shortcuts with your work?
I'm always looking for shortcuts, Michelle.
Not in a bad way, but I think that in the next phase of our year, we're actually going to start to look at tasks that we can trash, things that we do that we can just stop doing entirely.
Obviously not podcasting. That's what I'm going to say.
But I guarantee you, if you look closely at your work, there are things you could completely eliminate.
You just don't need to do any more. Right.
So, yeah, I I want to I wouldn't say I want to cut corners, but I want to trim my work because I'm at the point where I'm just I'm kind of overwhelmed.
I wake up in the morning and my inbox is just inundated.
We're doing so many different things here, which is great.
It's all positive. But there's only so much of that you can do until you have to start working more efficiently and focus on things.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And guys, we try not to cut corners at all ears English.
We try not to. But I just I also wanted to point out, take a shortcut, guys.
Another use of this could be with directions, right?
A lot of times when you take a shortcut, it's with direction.
So like take a shortcut and go down that street, you'll avoid all the traffic.
So just another way you can use this. I mean, the thing that companies can do from a management perspective is put guardrails around a task so that, you know, employees know what they can and can't do.
Those are the guardrails. But within those guardrails, they can find ways to be more efficient.
Hmm. That's good. Yeah. I think, you know, clear boundaries, clear instructions, things like that can be helpful with something like that.
So yeah, I think, yeah, good point, Lindsay.
Should we do a role play? Yes. Here we go.
So here we are finishing our presentation.
Okay, here we go. All right. Okay, so I figured out a shortcut.
Oh, really? Yeah, just copy and paste the images in over there.
Oh, but that probably won't work completely with the format.
I don't want to cut corners. This is important.
All right. Yeah, you're right. We'll do it the old-fashioned way. peer pressure.
Yeah. Just do this, Lindsay. Come on. We'll get to go home early.
Come on. It'll be great. Yeah. Oh, geez.
We have to make decisions in life all every day, every day.
So you said, Michelle, okay. So I figured out a shortcut.
Okay. So I'm calling it a shortcut. Yeah.
I'm saying, oh, it's just a shortcut. But then you said that won't work with the format.
I don't want to cut corners. So in this way, shortcut, I'm using it as a positive, but you're saying no, basically what I'm calling taking a shortcut is no, that's actually cutting corners.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You're taking it to the more negative direction and calling me out and saying, oh, that's actually not a good thing.
That's going to hurt our performance. Yeah.
Very straightforward. So, I mean, for Jeff and for our listeners, what's the takeaway?
I mean, what, what, you know, these can be interchangeable at times, right, Michelle, but not always. yeah i think it depends on the context i think jeff really got it right when he said that cut corners has a more negative connotation um so but it depends on the context sometimes it's okay to cut corners sometimes it's okay to take shortcuts but the outcome really should be the same and what Lindsay brought up is if you have to constantly cut corners in order to get your work done and then your work suffers that if you realize that that's happening all the time you may want to evaluate what's going on why you know do you need to talk to your manager things like that so lots to think about here we talked about the definitions but so much more goes into this and I and I really love this question Yeah, I think that's especially true, Michelle, when you're starting new projects that a company's never done and they don't know how long something should take.
So they might put an arbitrary deadline on something and then you realize, oh my God, it's not doable.
And so you have to cut corners. So be always being, you know, be in connection and conversation with your management level or your boss around deadlines and that kind of thing.
Good question from Jeff. Guys, if you're in the management consulting world or a similar field, send your questions in.
We can definitely add value here in this world.
Yes. Absolutely. All right, Lindsay, this was fun.
Thank you for that question too, Jeff. And we'll see you on the next episode.
All right, Michelle, take care. Bye. Bye.
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