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The most dangerous word in business

· 3 min read
Andy Hawkes
Andy Hawkes

I am not one to shy away from "colourful" language, and I have been known to utilise the odd four letter word to provide emphasis, punctuation, or even comedic effect.

But if I had to ban one four letter word from business vocabulary entirely, I know exactly what it would be:

Just

It shows up everywhere. It sounds harmless. It's anything but.

“Just” is the linguistic equivalent of sweeping an entire Lego Death Star's worth of complexity under the carpet and hoping nobody trips over it later.

Can you just…​

It may appear as a simple request.

Can you just put that report together?

But what it often signals is disruption.

  • Something wasn’t planned
  • Something wasn’t prioritised
  • Something else is about to get dropped

It also carries a subtle implication:

What you’re currently doing matters less than this.

Sometimes that’s true. Often, it hasn’t been thought through.

“Just” removes the need to acknowledge the trade-off.

That’s a real problem.

We just need to…​

This is where “just” starts doing serious damage.

We just need to re-prioritise and deliver feature X instead of / before feature Y

On paper, that sounds simple.

In reality, it might mean:

  • Reworking an entire pipeline
  • Introducing new dependencies
  • Unpicking previous decisions
  • Writing off days or weeks of work

“Just” compresses all of that into something that feels trivial.

It isn’t.

A better version forces intent into the open:

We consciously need to re-prioritise and deliver feature X instead of / before feature Y

Now we’re acknowledging that:

  • This is a decision
  • There are consequences
  • We are choosing to make that trade-off

The process version​

“Just” is also frequently used to paper over broken systems.

We just need to follow process and not cut corners

That immediately raises a more interesting question:

Why are we cutting corners in the first place?

  • Is the process too heavy?
  • Are timelines unrealistic?
  • Are incentives misaligned?

“Just” skips past all of that and jumps straight to enforcement.

Swap it out:

We need to consciously follow process and not cut corners

It’s a small change, but it shifts the tone from instruction to intent.

The double whammy​

And then there’s this:

Can you just deploy that new service version to production? I know it’s 4pm on a Friday afternoon and it hasn’t been QA passed yet, but it’s just a small change…

Kill. Me. Now.

This is where “just” becomes actively dangerous.

It does three things at once:

  • Minimises risk
  • Overrides process
  • Applies pressure

All while sounding reasonable.

What “just” really means​

In most cases, “just” is doing one of three things:

  • Hiding complexity
  • Avoiding trade-offs
  • Compressing risk

It allows us to move faster in the moment by thinking less about the consequences.

Which is fine—right up until those consequences arrive.

A simple alternative​

You don’t need a perfect replacement word.

You just need to slow the sentence down enough to make the thinking explicit.

Sometimes that’s:

  • “consciously”
  • “deliberately”
  • or just… removing “just” entirely

Because if a request or decision still makes sense without “just”, it probably stands up.

If it doesn’t, that’s useful information.

Final thought​

“Just” is not the problem.

The thinking it replaces is.

“Just” is how complexity sneaks past scrutiny.

In a world where systems are getting more complex and change is happening faster, that’s not something we can afford to outsource to a ****ing four letter word.