Etym.from Old French aligner, later anglicized as align and repurposed in Silicon Valley circa 2014 by a strategy consultant who needed a softer synonym for compliance, see R. Hargrove, 'Terms for Transformation,' 2016.

A rhetorical maneuver that professes shared priorities to postpone substantive decisions and shift accountability into future milestones.

'Can everyone confirm shared priorities by EOD' - Proceedings of the 2019 All-Hands Meeting

Etym.from the navigational phrase 'north star', originally denoting Polaris, adopted into corporate strategy parlance circa 2012 by a boutique consultancy seeking majestic-sounding direction, cited in Strategy Glossary, 2015.

A rhetorical device that converts vague long-term ambition into an indefinite project timeline and absolves present commitments of measurable accountability.

'This will be our guiding light, pending resource allocation and metric definition' - Q3 Board Deck, slide 12

Etym.from literal measures of combustion and fuel consumption in nineteenth-century steam engineering, later appropriated by venture finance discourse in the 1970s, see Harrington 1979.

A reported monthly cash outflow metric used to establish financing runway and to normalize or conceal poor unit economics.

'With current assumptions runway extends to eighteen months,' - Q3 Board Deck, slide 12

Etym.Emerged from 2010s Silicon Valley strategy decks as a compact imperative for execution, popularized in venture memos; see L. Chen, "Momentum Language in Venture Capital", 2017, Pacific Business Review.

A leadership slogan that permits accelerated delivery of visible artifacts while deferring hard trade-offs, rigorous review, and accountability.

'Ship quickly, document later' - All-Hands Notes, April 2019