Learning Journeys – Field Trips for Executives

Our Learning Journeys, what we call “field trips for executives,  connect people to contexts and ideas that are relevant to their personal and organizational leadership development. These journeys move one’s operating perspective from inside a familiar world – one’s institutional bubble – to an unfamiliar world, one that is outside, surprising, fresh and new. Clients begin to “see anew” as they interact in a new environment. These experiences are designed to access a deeper level of emerging reality through total immersion in new and unfamiliar environments.

 

Our Learning Journeys are facilitated by our Strategic Partner, Dr Jeffrey McCausland. We also draw upon other faculty from diverse backgrounds and experience in academia, the military, and government service.

 

 

 

LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG

 

It wasn’t by accident that the Gettysburg address was so short. The laws of prose writing are as immutable as those of flight, of mathematics, of physics.
–Ernest Hemingway

 

Battles are discrete tactical events.  In order to understand how and why battles are fought as they are, one must understand the larger operational, strategic, and political context in which they occur.  Moreover, essential to understanding leadership decisions is an appreciation of the personalities involved.  Who were the leaders on the field, how and by what means did they come to be in charge of affairs, and to what do we attribute the quality, or lack thereof, of the decisions for which they were responsible?  On the most fundamental level, why did the Soldiers fight?  What was their motivation and can we learn anything from this that might apply to contemporary organizations.

 

The answers to these questions and many others may be found in the historical record, but not exclusively so.  Some answers we will find in the marriage of our own experience and judgment with the history we see come to life on the battlefield.  This seminar provides an overview of the Battle of Gettysburg.  It places the events of July 1863 in a strategic context prior to visiting the field and discussing the leadership lessons that can be drawn from this event – the turning point in the American Civil War and the largest battle ever fought on the North American continent.  It is also the site of perhaps the most remarkable speech in the English language.  This seminar is normally conducted the day prior to any group going to Gettysburg for a full day leadership seminar on the field.

 

Following this overview, all seminar participants will examine the battle—the largest battle ever fought on the North American continent — on the actual field.  We will consider the circumstances that surrounded it, and discuss the lessons on leadership that can be drawn from it and the way those lessons apply to our own organizations and our individual leadership practice.

 

 

 

LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM

 

A battle sometimes decides everything; and sometimes the most trifling thing decides the fate of a battle.
–Napoleon Bonaparte, November 1816

 

Battles are discrete tactical events.  In order to understand how and why battles are fought as they are, one must understand the larger operational, strategic, and political context in which they occur.  Moreover, essential to understanding leadership decisions is an appreciation of the personalities involved.  Who were the leaders on the field, how and by what means did they come to be in charge of affairs, and to what do we attribute the quality, or lack thereof, of the decisions for which they were responsible?  On the most fundamental level, why did the Soldiers fight?  What was their motivation and can we learn anything from this that might apply to contemporary organizations?

 

The answers to these questions and many others may be found in the historical record, but not exclusively so.  Some answers we will find in the marriage of our own experience and judgment with the history we see come to life on the battlefield. This seminar provides an overview of the Battle of Antietam.  This seminar will place the events of September 1862 in a broad strategic context, providing a foundation for a working trip to the battlefield itself.  This seminar is generally conducted the day prior to a full-day leadership seminar at Antietam.

 

Following this overview, all seminar participants will examine the battle—the single bloodiest day in the Civil War— on the actual field.  We will consider the circumstances that surrounded it, and discuss the lessons on leadership that can be drawn from it and the way those lessons apply to our own organizations and our individual leadership practice.

 

 

 

 

LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN

 

There is Jackson standing like a stone wall!  Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer.
– Confederate General Bee, rallying his brigade near Henry House Hill, at the Battle of First Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861.

 

On 21 July 1861 Union and Confederate armies met at the Bull Run creek in the first battle of the American Civil War.  The workshop begins with a strategic overview of the battle that places it in a context for all participants and attempts to explain the events that led to the fateful day of July 21, 1861. Throughout the day participants travel the field following the battle chronologically.  At each stop the historian describes what happened and the role that key leaders played.  The leadership facilitator then use this historical background to conduct a discussion of various leadership principles that are as appropriate today as they were during this historic conflict.  These include such topics as strategic leadership, strategic vision, initiative, innovation, communications in an organization, “managing your boss”, emotional intelligence, etc.  This battle is a particularly interesting to analyze because both armies or “organizations” were not yet fully developed, and their leaders were untested.  We will discuss the lessons on leadership that can be drawn from it and the way those lessons apply to our own organizations and our individual leadership practice.

 

The discussion concludes at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. where the evolution of strategic vision is discussed using Lincoln himself as a backdrop.

 

 

 

 

LEADERSHIP AND TEAMBUILDING ON THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL

 

When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality.
– Joe Paterno

 

Experience the rewards of a day hike on the world-famous Appalachian Trail while building your team leadership skills.  Our lunchtime destination is a scenic overlook which affords a spectacular view of hawks circling on thermal drafts and the Pennsylvania farmlands below.

 

Participants will hike in small groups, experimenting with positional leadership and considering the impact of an unfamiliar and changing environment on leadership, teamwork, and communication.  After lunch at the peak, teams return to the valley and enjoy the luxury of dinner in a private dining room at a nearby country inn.  Team leadership lessons from the experience are explored after dinner.

 

Challenge Level – easy to moderate hiking, approximately 5 miles each way.   The hike to the peak includes a steady but mild uphill grade, with a 1,000 ft elevation gain from the valley to the peak.  No hiking experience is necessary.  It’s not a race to the top – we encourage our participants to enjoy the day!

 

Gear – be prepared for changing weather, and dress accordingly.  Bring a rain jacket.   A small daypack is required to carry your lunch and water.   Light hiking boots or sturdy sneakers will suffice.

 

 

 

7  REVLUTIONS SHAPING THE 21ST CENTURY

 

We will travel to Washington D.C to experience the SEVEN REVOLUTIONS – a project led by the Global Strategy Institute at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS is one of the foremost non-partisan think tanks in the country). This presentation identifies and analyzes the key policy challenges that policymakers, business figures, and other leaders will face out to the year 2025. It is an effort to promote strategic thinking on the long-term trends that too few leaders take the time to consider.

 

In exploring the world of 2025, we have identified seven areas of change we expect to be most “revolutionary”:

 

1. Population
2. Resource management and environmental stewardship
3. Technological innovation and diffusion
4. The development and dissemination of information and knowledge
5. Economic integration
6. The nature and mode of conflict
7. The challenge of governance

 

Each of these seven forces embodies both opportunity and risk in the years ahead. Together, they will transform the way we live and interact with one another. That is why we call them the “Seven Revolutions.”

 

This presentation has been made to the leaders of Fortune 500 companies, Congress and numerous other leadership groups throughout the world.  This presentation can also be combined with any of other Experiential Learning Journeys described earlier.