Leadership the Shakespeare Way

Using Shakespeare’s Henry V, Carol and Ken Adelman explore concepts of leadership and motivation. Through their organization, Movers and Shakespeares, the Adelmans have earned acclaim for working with corporate, nonprofit, and government groups to understand and build better teams. Their approach is based on insights into human nature, the application of story-telling as a learning modality, and an appreciation for the value of language and words, using interaction and structured role-play as well as examination of the Bard’s own text. Movers and Shakespeares allows participants to not only understand a concept, but to feel it, and ultimately better remember it.

welcome to Shakespeare's history play Henry v a case study in leadership and motivation which we're going to hear about today and we are delighted to be here we normally do this in two days we call that our drive by Shakespeare and today we're calling this our fly by Shakespeare okay so we're excited for this he was the it says this is a true story of a young king 27 years old who wanted to reclaim France now in the 15th century you could we called that invading France he wanted to grow market share expand the business once he got to France though he discovered this had to be more of a merger than an acquisition he had to bring together diverse people diverse languages and train them to be
part of one team and align them to his vision for these two countries that were just united sound familiar well the answer is yes and today we're going to tell you the relevance of Shakespeare's ancient wisdom to your everyday work a day world and in both your businesses and your life but first and I think I can see okay out here I may go like this I want to do a little baseline data here and this will just be with a raising your arm how many of you studied Shakespeare in high school oh good and how many of you studied it in college also good now how many of you use lessons and insights from Shakespeare in your everyday lives that you can apply to help you solve problems or live your lives okay we have one down there now I
gotta tell you this is when I turn to Ken and say can it can only go up from here right it's a little bit like buddy green today when he said you know everybody has such low expectations on the harmonica and I was thinking no I think there's lower expectations either either with with Shakespeare so happy to have you here and thank you for coming back and we're gonna do that today so very simply why Shakespeare three reasons first of all he had the greatest insights into human nature into people and sam rayburn who he was a speaker of a house way back in the 50s and the 60s said if you can't size up somebody in five minutes you don't belong in this profession of politics and we would say that any leader has to be able to size up people in five minutes and sometimes
even less second reason why Shakespeare is he told the greatest stories and we know that we learn best from stories it better than with do's and dont's and powerpoints third and this one is a little harder one for you he had the most beautiful language in the world he was the world's we think the world's greatest poet now I know most of you because of the hands that went up or didn't go up probably struggled a little bit with the language that's normal so our mission with movers and Shakespeare's has been to take this acquired taste break it into bite-sized pieces and give it to you so you can digest his amazing wit and wisdom and that's what we're gonna do today now why we started this was what when Ken and I were first dating and this was much
longer than general Johnson's this was like 47 years ago so this was a long time I discovered that Ken Adelman was one of those nerds in high school that loved Shakespeare okay and I didn't know that and I always loved theater and acting and directing so I he said to me well I want to take you to your first Shakespeare play full Shakespeare play at the Folger theatre here in Washington DC I said yes and I went and I walked out and I said can I'm lucky if I understood 20% of what just happened and so it was then that we started going to more plays and we never read them we always would either get the plot and get the characters or was sometimes watching movie back in the day because Shakespeare never expected you to read
the play he wrote parts for people and he handed out those parts and he expected you to see it acted on a stage and so in that process we began seeing after 5 to 10 years that we were getting more leadership lessons out of Shakespeare than we were in our regular locations in both public service and in the private sector so that was the way we did it and I think there's also another reason and it's the whole way that arts influenced ideas and I love that we have the voices of artists here today with our wonderful piano player in harmonica and we're now bringing you the art of the play and the art of literature to this and Shakespeare had a great way of talking about art and its effect on life he had
a quote that said well this is paraphrasing a tiny bit the arts help you apprehend what cool reason cannot comprehend in other words we know something when we hear it but what the arts do is underlines that so we feel it and it takes the language that we hear in shakes for which goes to our brain but the stories we hear from Shakespeare go to our heart and that's why we started movers and Shakespeare's 1997 and we continued our other lives with it and we've done hundreds of these these seminars usually not this many so this is kind of fun today hundreds of these seven hours over the years so Ken's going to tell you the story today about one of the most famous battles in English history the Battle of Agincourt then he's going to tell you this story
of one of the most famous motivational speeches in history that also comes from this play and then after that in order to be true to the arts we are going to have actors from five of the attendees here at the imagine solutions meeting and they will be in costume these wonderful capes and hats and they are otherwise known as the voluntold actors okay and they will be up here and all I can guarantee you is to this afternoon at the very end of our of our short little session here you will see Shakespeare done like you've never seen it done before so I can guarantee that for you so without any further ado but with much ado I'm going to turn it over to my husband and vice president of movers and shakers Ken Adelman thank you I am vice
president movers in Shakespeare's because there are only two of us in the organization Carol is president and I'm used to this because when we were first married carol was in the Foreign Service and she was stationed in Africa and I was doing my dissertation we went over to zaheer and I think I was the first dependent husband in the Foreign Service and the ambassador's wife didn't know what to do with me so she invited me to the bridge club on Wednesday the flower arranging club on Thursday and the stitch and chat club on Friday people have said over the years wasn't it humiliating being a dependent husband I said it was wonderful to tell you the truth it's been a career goal of mine ever since to return to being a dependent husband but somehow Carroll wouldn't go along with that it's wonderful to be here and imagine solutions I loved when Randy told us
you're going to have understanding North Korea for your April 2nd meeting I just two years ago in my other capacity I gave a speech in Tokyo on understanding North Korea and the head of the Foreign Affairs agency in Japan came up after my speech and said ambassador Adelman for your remarks you deserve much clap I told him that's ok you know and he says no no you deserve much clap and I tried to persuade him that I really didn't want much clap but as Carol said we're gonna tell you in very fly-by manner Henry the fifth this is a true story so even if you don't like Shakespeare a lot of people like military history this
actually happened the Battle of Agincourt was fought on October 25th 1415 it was fought by the British in the middle of France in a little place called Agincourt and the British were really outnumbered they were outnumbered the British at that time Henry who led his troops directly had something like six thousand troops the French had 30,000 or maybe 60,000 the French had armor Henry had none the French had a cavalry Henry had no horses the French had were well rested Henry had marched his guys 17 miles a day through France and the French were being French very well-fed and Henry's guys were eating nuts and berries so it really looked like Henry and his troops
were toast someone said French toast but I wouldn't say that but anyway they were like toast Henry knew that he had to do something very critical he went around the night before the battle on October 24th v 1415 and he listened to his troops in the skies so this was the first example of walk-around management and the next day he gave the greatest motivational speech in history Winston Churchill modeled his World War two speeches on the st. Crispin's Day speech it was used in boats going over to d-day st. Crispin's Day speech and it uses the term crispin and Crispian because they were two brothers whose Saints Day was that day October 25th and the brothers were shoemakers so it showed the little guy
the common guy could become a saint what we're gonna do now is show you the st. Crispin's Day speech and then turn it over to you real quickly put your hand in the air what elements did you see in this speech that makes for a great motivational speaker okay and so ladies and gentlemen one of the great treats of imagine solution the st. Crispin's Day speech of fighting men they have full threescore thousand that's five to one besides they are all fresh now head here but 110 thousand of those men in England that do no work today what's he that wishes so my cousin Westmoreland no my
fair cousin we are marked to die we are enough to do our country loss and if to live the fewer men the greater share of Honor God's will I pray thee wish not one man more rather proclaim it Westmoreland through my host that he which hath no stomach to this fight let him depart his passport shall be made and crowns for convoy put into his purse we would not die in that man's company that fears his fellowship to die with us this day is called the feast of Crispian he but outlives this day and comes safe home will stand at tiptoe when this day is named and rouse him at the name of Crispian he that shall see this day and live old age will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours and say tomorrow is
Saint Crispin's then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars and say these wounds I had on Crispin's day old men forget it all shall be forgot but he'll remember with advantages what feats he did that day mention our names familiar in their mouths as household howdy the King Bedford and Exeter Warnock and told that Salisbury and Gloucester be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd this story shall the good man teach his son and Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by from this day to the ending of the world but we in it shall be remembered we few we happy few we band of brothers for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my
brother be he ne'er so vile this day shall gentle his condition and gentlemen in England now Abed shall think themselves accursed they were not here an old cheap whiles any speaks that thought with us [Music] my sovereign Lord bestow yourself with speed the French are bravely in their battle set and world with all experience March upon us all things are ready if our minds be so foolish the man whose mind is backward now but does not wish more help from England cos God's will my leash would you fight this royal battle [Applause]
okay is that all of you at your Monday morning board meetings profit or not profit is it on okay what we're gonna do here is just yell out and we'll repeat anything you saw on that that what what was Henry doing here what kind of techniques was he using or just yell out and you raise your hand so I can see you and then we'll repeat it and we'll go through a few of these yes that they're us against the world absolutely and it was a total optimism too you know he never mentioned the battle he never mentioned the French it was just sort of we are gonna do this and so go on this side and catch up please there yeah a sense of immortality a mission really and the key to great motivation is to tie one another group together remember that Band of Brothers the
unofficial motto of the Marine Corps we band the brothers hi everybody together and then tie them to the overall mission and Carroll has a wonderful story about mission yeah tell them that you know in this in this time there was a Divine Right of Kings right so he had a direct line to God and so there was we don't bring religion in the workforce that much today but in henry's time he could and there was always reminding people of this battle that it didn't even if if you win you're gonna be back with me at the bar rolling up your sleeves showing your scars if you remember that if you don't you'll be with God and it's the importance of reminding people in whatever endeavor they're doing whether it's for-profit or not-for-profit what that higher purpose is there's a wonderful story to people were cutting stones and a man walked up to the first person and said what are you doing he said I'm cutting stones he walks up to the second person and says what are you
doing and she says I'm part of a team and we're building a cathedral so you want to ask yourself in all of your for-profit non-profit board or practitioner roles which answer would your employees be giving what else yeah please you're lucky to be there he takes the disadvantage that they're outnumbered they're outgunned their horse they're out armored they're out everything and he says we're the lucky ones everybody's going to be jealous of us so he takes that liability and turns it into an asset why are they're gonna be jealous of us because we have this great mission and we're gonna be remembered for this mission and every year on October 25th there is a celebration of the Battle of Agincourt and the tremendous victory that they had one of the great victories in history if you read a book there's a wonderful book that's called the face of
battles by John Keegan and it's about Normandy it's about Waterloo the first chapter is the Battle of Agincourt and about how Henry pulled off this amazing upset okay a hand right over there Oh meaning it's an honor to be there because it's a select few was that was yeah yeah yes wonderful point remember when he says his vice president there says gee I wish we had but one ten-thousandth of all the men a bad in England today of all the guys sleeping if we just had one tenth of them and what did what do you remember what Henry said to him yes he said don't wish one man more otherwise you'll have to share the glory I mean what a line what what a line so
he turns that liability of too few men into an asset which is a very powerful tool in business and one that you have to think about so good okay another point what else you have gave him a choice very good not to buy in yeah and he's and how did he gave him a choice he said look if you don't want to stay at this battle you can leave and we'll give you money and what what else were they gonna give him a passport that's to our knowledge the first time the word passport came into into being or at least into common use so it was that buy-in and of course the Brotherhood that we feel we happy few okay what else anything over here yeah please he was going to be there with them okay he was in the front lines with his guys the French King wasn't even in the back lines he was back in Paris so
he was set a leadership by example good okay well you guys are terrific there's a few moments but this is wonderful and we're glad we wanted to show you this speech because it's so so special a few other points he mentioned his top staff by name he went around and then he at the end of the speech he went back to the biggest doubter and the guy said god we don't even know what's going to happen here I wish we had you know thousand more to help us he goes back and he says to the main doubter do you still want more men and what does the doubter say do you remember you and I alone could fight this royal battle okay we kind of call that the high testosterone moment where the battle he's really pumped up so it's an amazing amazing the thing that Winston Churchill borrowed from this is that when Henry
says people are going to look bad on this and cherish what we did and there's gonna be a feast and remember us and winter Churchill said in May of 1940 that when people look back in the thousand years of the British Empire they're gonna look back right now and say this was our finest hour so it's an amazing amazing speech that Churchill used very very well okay I think it is time for our voluntold actors to ascend to the stage here unless we have lost any of you oh good okay okay let me just know meantime Ken's gonna talk to you about Shakespeare's language yes and our actors are going to come up and get robed let me just tell you that in the Globe Theatre during Shakespeare's day there were two main ways of expressing
your appreciation put it on over for the actors okay you know one was to pound their feet here you can pound your hands let's hear it on the table louder good second and more important they would shout with shout out and have their hands go twice with an Old English phrase that meant hooray hooray which was huzzah huzzah all right let's try that ready 1 2 3 ha ha ha ha I didn't see many hands going up Andrew and I don't see him that's not an official huzzah okay so let's go ready 1 2 3 ha ha ha ha now to tell you the truth that's a nice but kind of mediocre huzzah that's not that's appropriate for a mediocre cast our cast today is not mediocre they're not that good no no
there are superb ok for that superb cast we need superb huzzah huzzah so let's hear it again ready 1 2 3 ha ha ha ha that should be your minimum acceptable huzzah and let me just tell you that very often when we do movers and Shakespeare's for such a distinguished crew at the end of our performance we have a spontaneous standing ovation it's not suggested at all it's spontaneous in part it is because of the tremendous talent that you will see on this stage and in part it is even more overwhelming relief that you will feel not being on this stage so you might be really motivated for a spontaneous standing ovation so ladies and gentlemen we have an amazing cast that is going to be right here we're gonna give each one a huzzah okay first of all camel up at me
right here she is superintendent of the Collier County Schools all our schools when she was in first grade she was the star in a play called little witches let's greet camel ah ha ha ha ha good secondly we have Ronnie in - Ronnie is in charge of the volunteers of imagine solution she was when she was little in The Wizard of Oz I don't know what it is about you gals and witches but she was the Wicked Witch of the West let's hear it huzzah huzzah Jim flack Jim is amazing he is the companion' Order of Canada now I don't know what that means either about - Jim it's a very big deal so for all of us it's a very big deal as well he was in a skit years ago and he was given the hamlet speech suit the words
of the action in the action - the words and he practiced it and he was all ready to roll and then when the play started the director just took his speech from him so God knows how garbled Shakespeare was after that that's Jim let's hear it ha ha ha ha Tom everest is chairman of imagine solutions he was in a Mediterra musical years ago he was in the choir singing everybody said thank you very very much Tom that's just wonderful of you when they handed out the mics Tom noticed that his mic was dead all right and no one said that was by chance tom and let's hear it for tom ha ha ha ha and John you saw King John you saw doing a wonderful job with the medical panel this morning Jon LaPook he
is chief medical correspondent of CBS News he was in a college singing group called the sob z' alright perfect for your later career in correspondence I'll tell you that that's his story ok what we are going to do now is I'm going to tell you briefly about the words of Shakespeare and then you're going to hear the words of Shakespeare from our amazing cast in Shakespeare's time somebody of his class and he was lower-middle-class his father was a tanner who made gloves and hats someone in his class would have a total vocabulary of seven to eight hundred words a graduate from Oxford or Cambridge at that time would have a total camera of 2,000 to 3,000 words John Milton the greatest English poet
one generation after Shakespeare had a vocabulary total vocabulary John Milton seven thousand four hundred words William Shakespeare has a vocabulary of twenty-two thousand words it's just off the charts and if you say to somebody it's not just the number of words it's the way he put the words together that forms the English we use today if you say to someone oh you're just going on a wild goose chase you are quoting Shakespeare if you said to someone it's a bewitching hour you are quoting Shakespeare if you go from Florida West and say westward ho you are quoting Shakespeare ladies and gentlemen here are just a few of the hundred phrases that we have picked up to show that as you go about your daily life you are quoting
Shakespeare hit it so if you cannot understand my argument and you declare it's all Greek to me you are quoting Shakespeare if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning you are quoting Shakespeare if you recall your salad days you are quoting Shakespeare if you act more and sorrow than in anger if your wishes father to a thought if your lost property has vanished into thin air you are quoting Shakespeare if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy if you have played fast and loose if you have been tongue-tied a tower of strength hoodwinked or in a pickle if you've knitted your brown made a virtue
of necessity insisted on fair play slept not one wink or laughed yourself in the stitches if you have had short shrift cold comfort or too much of a good thing if you have ever seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise you as luck would have it ah quoting Shakespeare if you clear out bag and baggage if you think it is high time and that is the long and short of it if you believe the game is up and the truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood if you suspect foul play if you have your teeth set on edge at one fell swoop without rhyme or reason then to give the devil his due if the truth were known
for surely you have a tongue in your head you are quoting Shakespeare even if you bid me good riddance if you wish I was dead as a norm yeah if you think I am an eyesore we do a laughingstock the devil incarnate yeah stony-hearted villain bloody-minded or a blinking idiot then by Jove oh all one to me you are quoting Shakespeare okay all right now we're gonna bow [Applause] standing ovations good okay I can take
it off you're a great eye