Definition

To approve a project or initiative to proceed, borrowed from traffic signals. The moment before everyone realizes they should have asked more questions.

Example Usage

Leadership just greenlit the blockchain pet rock project, so I guess we're doing this.

Origin

Hollywood film production terminology from the 1940s

Fun Fact

Projects that get greenlit fastest often have the reddest outcomes.

Source: Project approval terminology

Related Terms

Intermediate

blackball

The act of voting against someone's admission to a group or organization, historically done by dropping a black ball into a ballot box. It's the original cancel culture, giving members the power to veto new applicants with total anonymity. Today it's evolved to mean excluding or boycotting someone, usually for reasons ranging from legitimate to pettily vindictive.

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vice-president

A senior executive who serves as second-in-command, ready to step into the top role when needed, or more commonly, someone who runs an important division while collecting an impressive title. In startups, vice-presidents multiply like rabbits; in established corporations, becoming one actually means something. The corporate equivalent of being heir to the throne, except with more spreadsheets.

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decision fatigue

The deteriorating quality of decisions after making too many of them, explaining why CEOs wear the same outfit daily while mid-level managers suffer in silence.

💼 Corporate / Business
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normalizing

In business context, the process of adjusting data or metrics to account for anomalies, seasonality, or one-time events to reveal underlying trends. It's statistical cosmetics that make ugly quarters look presentable to investors.

💼 Corporate / Business
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acquisition

The corporate equivalent of Pokémon collecting, where companies buy other companies and pretend it's about "synergy" rather than eliminating competition. This process involves throwing obscene amounts of money at a target company, followed by months of "integration" that's really just figuring out whose coffee machine to keep. When tech companies do it, add a few zeros and call it "aqui-hiring."

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Win-Win

A negotiation outcome where both sides claim victory, which usually means one side won and the other side is too polite or too confused to realize they lost. The corporate version of a participation trophy.

💼 Corporate / Business

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See “Greenlight” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

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