Gettysburg

The hallowed ground of the Gettysburg National Military Park becomes our learning laboratory as our esteemed faculty of renowned historians, retired generals and admirals, and cutting-edge leadership professionals guide you through our signature program: A Transformational Journey from Gettysburg.

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Using incidents from the Battle of Gettysburg, we explore leadership concepts including positioning for strategic advantage, engaging our followers, identifying and protecting organizational vulnerabilities, managing a professional disagreement, and building high performing, high character teams. In addition to our signature case studies, we have dozens of other modules that can be added or substituted, allowing us to customize a program to work with individuals at any level and facing any type of leadership or performance challenge.

 

Our Transformational Case Studies

There’s no shortage of leadership lessons to be learned from the Battle of Gettysburg. From executing leadership skills to developing communication strategies, your team will gain proper insight to inspire and organize your people to achieve greatness. Choose from one of these three transformational case studies.

 

The High Ground: John Buford at Gettysburg

This case study uses the Union army’s seizure of the “high ground” at Gettysburg as a metaphor to examine strategic thinking. The major points in this case study are:

  • The importance of trusting and empowering individuals within the organization and encouraging risk-taking, as evidenced by John Buford’s willingness to choose a new battlefield and bring on the fight without orders to do so
  • The value of innovation, as demonstrated by John Buford’s foresight to equip his men with carbines and the subsequent firepower advantage his troopers enjoyed over their Confederate adversaries
  • The importance of execution: John Buford knew both what had to be done and how to accomplish those tasks.

The Left Flank: Leadership and Execution

This case study is based on the story of Joshua Chamberlain, commander of the 20th Maine Infantry. Using Chamberlain’s story, participants identify their “left flank” or organizational vulnerabilities along with leadership and execution fixes for those liabilities. This session addresses:

  • The role of both leadership and execution and the necessity of mastering both
  • The importance of engagement, via the story of Chamberlain’s handling of 120 mutineers—disengaged employees—who ultimately bought back in, and in so doing helped save the very army they previously tried to quit
  • The importance of developing every individual in the organization

Courageous Communication: Lee and Longstreet at Gettysburg

Based on Pickett’s Charge and the saga of James Longstreet, this session uncovers the signs that our successful organization may be in for a reversal in fortunesand illustrates communication strategies to manage a professional disagreement. This session focuses heavily on:

  • The role of both leader and follower to create an atmosphere of “courageous communication” where all opinions and facts are shared in a compelling way to help us avoid “Pickett’s Charge situations”
  • The job of both leader and follower to assume accountability for the direction of the larger organization and help drive results
  • Tactical methods for ensuring that both sides collaborate effectively