• to have visibility into – v., to know

In the corporate world, people don’t seem to like admitting that they don’t know something. So if your boss asks you something you don’t know, just tell him or her that you don’t have visibility into the answer, as in:

BOSS: “Why is your report 2 months late?”
YOU: “Sorry, I don’t have visibility into that scheduling issue.”

or here’s another example:

BOSS: “How many dimes does it take to make a dollar?”
YOU: “That’s handled by finance, and unfortunately I don’t have visibility into how they’re dealing with that question. Let me ping my contacts in Finance and I’ll get back to you.”

This lovely little nugget of corporate jargon fits perfectly with corporate culture, because it deflects blame. Why don’t you know the answer? Simple: Someone is blocking your visibility! If only they would get out of your way, you would know everything.

[UPDATE (4/20/2007): In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales used a slight variation of this corporate jargon when he answered a question relating to the firing of various U.S. attorneys. He said: "This was a process that was ongoing that I did not have transparency into."]