Media mavens and human resource professionals seem to collaborate periodically to establish, the cliché of the day. For a while it was “That being said.” Before that, it was touching base, doing a deep dive, cascading, at the end of the day, and the bottom line. Now we all need to “start the conversation.”

Pick any item in the news: racial unrest, trouble in the Middle East, immigration, or public school reform. Everyone wants to “start a conversation” or “join the conversation,” but no one actually changes anything, sets a deadline for accomplishing it, defines the tactics that would make sense, or establishes who’s in charge. All this might explain why Congress has just received its all-time lowest approval ratings.