Sorry, I should have been more specific… Actually it looks like I also dropped a sentence in that one post… To clarify, I used to hear it almost exclusively in social need scenarios, which is where it came from. But 90% of the time I hear it now, it still mostly from HR/health people, but they are using it in non-industry related contexts. I’m hearing the return-to-work specialist say: “Hey, I just reached out to the bowling alley and reserved us a lane.”
In the corporate world, yes, it’s taken on a ridiculous life of it’s own, but with our corporate clients, I still hear it mostly from people who are either in the “soft sciences” or else their degrees of Kevin Bacon are only one or two away from someone in the soft sciences.
For example, the payroll accountant still barks: “Call Donald and tell him to fax me that damn expense report.” But the accounting manager who has taken leadership training, to improve his team-building and motivational skills, so he can foster a culture of inclusiveness in his department will bark: “Reach out to Donald to tell him to fax us the damn expense report”.
Our corporate client base is presently split between finance executives and HR/non-profit organizations. Most of the “reaching out”, “advocating for yourself” abuses comes from the HR types. The senior finance people (and “old boys club” guys) don’t ahve time to mince words.
But maybe this plague hasn’t affected our upper-end clients as quickly as the pandemic is spreading state-side. “Stakeholder buy-in” however, has spread rampantly throughout our entire client base.