A governing body of senior executives assembled to receive highly polished slides, debate minor formatting choices, and dilute all operational accountability.
What they actually mean
"A committee designed to ensure no single individual can be blamed when this goes wrong."
Heard in the wild
"We need to get sign-off from the SteerCo before we can progress to the implementation phase."
The delicate art of lowering a client's hopes to a level where meeting them requires only a fraction of the promised effort.
"I think we just need to manage expectations around what is achievable by Friday."
Translation
"We haven't started, and it will be late."
The practice of forcing two entirely unrelated departments into a meeting room in the vague hope that their proximity will spontaneously generate a profitable idea.
"We need to cross-pollinate the compliance team with our creative designers to see what sparks fly."
Translation
"Neither team has any idea what the other does, but it makes the calendar look busy."
To escalate an issue or piece of information through the corporate ranks, ensuring it is sufficiently diluted by the time it reaches someone with the power to make a decision.
Let's bubble this feedback up to the steering committee to see what they think.
Translation
I want to pretend I am doing something with your complaint without actually having to resolve it.