actionable is traditionally understood in a legal sense, referring to something that is subject to legal action or recourse. But recently, the more general sense of something that is worthy of action or that enables taking action has become more wide-spread. Actionable intelligence is the most common use, but not the only one. Within the blogging community, there’s been talk of making actionable sense of ideas, implying building a shared vision of facts or ideas until coordinated action can be taken through consensus. Business consultants now advertise their ability to provide actionable metrics for executives.

Is this just a buzzword sense? Will gurus start advocating the use of a daily actionable steps list? Or is this a sense of the word that’s here to stay.

-chmism

Yes, in business, as you mentioned, actionable is the a current buzzword.  It’s a minor irritant because it sounds so much like marketing/management foofoo, but even more so because it seems to have created its own management-speak need and then filled it.

-Tim