A collaborative networking request where a colleague is asked to leverage their hard-earned professional capital to facilitate a meeting with a high-value contact.
What they actually mean
Please let me burn one of your personal favours so I can pitch to someone who doesn't want to talk to me.
Heard in the wild
"Could I get a warm introduction to the Head of Operations at Barclays? I'm sure they'd love our slide deck."
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.
The act of asking a colleague to review a piece of work to ensure it does not contain errors so glaringly obvious they could end careers.
"Could you just run your eyes over this deck to sense-check the numbers before we send it to the board?"
Translation
Please tell me I haven't accidentally predicted a four hundred percent loss.