Earlier this year, a story in The Huffington Post listed 13 of the many words invented by William Shakespeare – including “gloomy,” “majestic,” and “zany.”
What many don’t know, however, is that he is also responsible for inventing numerous standard business terms. We see just a few of them in this sonnet he composed in 1597:
The task force met and talked from Noon til eight
A win win situation did they seek
But though they each in turn stepped to the plate
Unfound consensus left the outlook bleak
They stayed inside the box, their focus waned,
Agendas hid, the picture big was blurred
Though envelopes were pushed, but little gained;
All ate stale pizza; no one spoke a word.
T’was then fair synergy at last did grip
The task force with an A-Ha! moment grand;
T’was nothing here they cans’t afford to skip
Until next month, so let’s for now disband!
And so did all agree, and emailed thus:
We made good progress – so say all of us.
