If you use the words Improvement Week in your office, you need a beating.
If you use the words Improvement Week at your school, youve lost the students.
If you use the words Improvement Week at your tavern, you will be improved but good.
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But Jim Harbaugh uses it for the most old-fashioned of reasons -- he comes from a world in which men talked in slogans, because they think players like that sort of thing.
They dont. Or more to the point, they dont care. They listen because Harbaughs real message is a simpler one:
When my predecessor was here, you didnt win. Now youre winning. Do the math, and trust me.
Its not something you can slap on a shirt, and its not something you can use as a selling point with TV, radio or newspaper schmoes. But thats what were really talking about here.
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If the message from Harbaugh can be distilled, its this: Eight Years Of Slop, Or What I Say.
Thats the real benefit of Jim Harbaugh with the 49ers. He isnt a magician, and he isnt an offensive genius -- at least not yet. His offense is actually fairly safe, smart and smashmouth.
But he has a kicker and a punter, and a defense and a defensive coordinator who all allow the offense to be modest but effective. He hasnt built this team as much as he tinkered with it, and he hasnt reoriented its thinking as much as he has followed two of the worst acts in franchise history.
Frankly, his slogan for the week could have been Buy More Thin Mints, and the players would have hurled fistfuls of cash at Brownies and Girl Scouts.
And if that makes him more opportunist than mastermind, then thats fine. All he has to do now is be different than what preceded him, and he has succeeded at a much faster rate than anyone thought possible.
Yes, even the people who hired him, and yes, even the people who trumpeted his hiring.
But heres the trick -- understanding that six games does not a legacy make. Harbaugh will have to reinvent this team next year, and the year after, and the year after that. This is still not his roster, and Trent Baalke notwithstanding, this team will be cast by Harbaugh in Harbaughs image only with time.
In short, this really isnt Improvement Week at all, but Inventory Week. Its a week for taking stock, stepping back from the adrenalin of weekly football, and determining what the 49ers are, and are not. Theyve beaten a bad team, lost to an uneven team, scraped by a decent team, rallied to beat a good team that started badly, crushed another decent team, and beat a good team at the top of its powers.
And theyve done this in a league in which the lockout actually leveled the field rather than punished the new kids. So part of the 49ers resurgence is about most of us misunderstanding the true effect of no summer work. It made things easier than harder for a new coach with a team ready to listen to anything that wasnt what theyd listened to before.
So Harbaugh can use all the slogans he wants, because he is in many ways an old-fashioned coach, and old-fashioned coaches like slogans.
But the working legend for this team after six weeks is, Not The 49ers You Knew. And on the back of the shirt, Not The 49ers Youll See In 2013.
With a hashtag earlystagesofaworkinprogress.
Ray Ratto is a columnist for CSNBayArea.com.