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Shakespeare: Management GuruBy Jason Cattrell of the New Route Theatre CompanyDateline: 20th January, 2002 Four centuries ago, Shakespeare wrote plays about Kings, Queens and essentially systems of government. Up until I was 35 years old I had only the skimpiest relationship with or knowledge of Shakespeare's works. Like many others, school had taught me how dry and impenetrable such plays as Macbeth or King Lear could be. Four hours of English Literature a week failed to impress any relevance of this centuries-old musical speech to me, a spotty girl-obsessed hormonal teenager. Over the next 20 years I occasionally went to the theatre, more out of social pressure than interest. Over that time, I saw three productions of Macbeth, all with woolly jumpers and modern sets that left me even more confused than I had been at school. (I think that at least one critic agreed with me because he gave one production's mobile curtain best actor award!) However, there came a time when I took a closer look at Shakespeare
and (thanks to the Arden editions' notes turning old English into new
English) I began to notice how nothing much had changed in 400 years.
The plots of Shakespeare's Kingly plays are essentially about how to
'manage' a Kingdom or, King Lear, for instance, is a good lesson in when and how 'not' to devolve power. He attempted to create a shamrock system of management by dividing his Kingdom between his three daughters (also making the mistake of basing his interview technique on who would boost his over inflated ego the most! Ever been to an interview like that?) It may be surprising to learn that all of Shakespeare's Kingly plays
are replete with examples of management structures, office politics
and, more often than not, incest and a pile of bones at the conclusion
(for murder read shafted and for death and banishment read sacked!)
This is usually due to a
In all but one of Shakespeare's plays, Henry V, he gives us
examples of bad management decisions. Running a Kingdom is, after all,
not too distant from running a business, the same rules apply. In fact
many would say that it is exactly the present situation in most countries.
Money equals power and As Jay M Shaftritz noted in his book 'Shakespeare on Management' (Harper Business 1992).
Shafritz has usefully sorted through the works of Shakespeare in order to save us all the trouble of trawling through them for the relevant quotes and management lessons and his books make easy and humorous reading. Well worth a spin. In them he covers everything from mergers and acquisitions to motivational speaking with quotes and direct examples from Shakespeare's works that can help put your life at work into greater perspective (and help you out of the occasional sticky situation with the boss!). This article originally appeared on the website of chartered accountants Chantrey Vellacott DFK. Our thanks to them for allowing us to reproduce it. Articles Indices:
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