Overview:  Why the Battle of Gettysburg

The Gettysburg Leadership Training Experience uses the July, 1863 Battle of Gettysburg as a leadership case study to focus on the challenges faced by leaders of large and complex organizations engaged in actions which shaped our nation’s history.  The Battle of Gettysburg is an excellent metaphor from which to discuss and explore leadership principles and characters because it was a:

• Well Documented Battle That Brings The Event to Life -- The Gettysburg battlefield is especially attractive for our purposes because the battle is well-documented and its well-preserved battlefield vividly conveys the drama of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, at the height of his power, fighting to achieve decisive victory for the Confederacy through offensive operations into the enemy territory of Pennsylvania. The larger Union army, abruptly put under the command of General George G. Meade three days previously, had never come close to defeating Lee and was fighting its first battle under Meade’s direction. On both sides, leadership at every level contributed to the outcome.
• Dynamic Battle That Enables Rich Leadership Exploration -- What’s more, Gettysburg is especially useful because each of the three days of battle was markedly different. On the first day, both armies became engaged in what can be called an “encounter battle” – there was no specific plan to engage at the location, and the Confederate army was even under orders to avoid an engagement – and each side fed forces into the fight as they became available. On the second day, General Lee had a plan for attacking the Union flanks simultaneously, but wholly unexpected changes in the Union dispositions forced last-minute changes in Confederate execution. On the third day, General Lee focused his main effort on the Union center, using several supporting efforts to improve the chances for success, but the Union was able to blunt each of these efforts. Leaders at every level adroitly adjusted their tactics to fit unexpected circumstances every day, and this gives us enormous opportunity under differing scenarios to explore that dynamic for learning about leadership.

Leadership Elements Explored and Discussed
This rich and engaging battlefield metaphor provides an ideal setting within which to discuss many leadership dimensions, including:

• A leader’s role in creating conditions for success
• Creating and communicating a clear vision in the midst of uncertainty
• Building and effectively sustaining both leadership teams and teams of leaders
• The role of trust in team cohesion and collective performance
• Making better and faster decisions in a more inclusive manner
• Optimizing the use of technology
• Balancing an operational or tactical focus with strategic awareness and understanding
• Mitigating risks in a fluid situation
• Filtering the critical priorities from a multipliicity of important tasks
• Creating an organizational climate fostering initiative and ownership
• Maintaining mission focus amidst rapidly evolving circumstances
• Stimulating a focus on development and succession readiness
• Using emotional intelligence to improve effectiveness
• Cultivating a sense of compassion and responsibility for others
• The art of selection: putting the right people in the right positions
• Selecting the right team leaders and orchestrating the best composition of teams
• Leading by example and with visibiity
• Maintaing composure and confidence under pressure
• Mastering the challenge of enrollment: linking past, present and future
• Motivating and inspiring commitment

Methodology and Delivery
We typically begin the Gettysburg Leadership Experience with participants arriving in the afternoon of the first day to the Antrim 1844 Country Hotel in nearby and historic Taneytown, MD.  This unique antebellum mansion, which served as an observation post and headquarters to Union army commander George Meade prior to the Battle of Gettysburg, is now a four-star accommodation and provides an elegant setting to begin and house groups for the entire program.

A strategic overview is presented on the first evening, and the next full day and one-half are spent on the battlefield visiting key vantage points using the military “staff ride” approach.  During the Gettysburg Leadership Experience, participants visit such hallowed and important sites as McPherson Ridge, Cemetery Hill, Culp’s Hill, the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, Little Round Top, Big Round Top, and they walk the path of Pickett’s Charge.  Each spot and experience provides a poignant framework for discussing various leadership skills, traits and decision-making. 

Each day is concluded with an After-Action Review (AAR), which converts insights from the experience of the leadership in the battle into nascent strategies for greater effectiveness in the business environment. 

The Benefits
Through our exploration of the battle, participants of the Gettysburg Leadership Training Experience will take away a number of benefits.  Rich in character-based leadership, this leadership lesson from history provides participants further insights into:

• The role of the leaders in shaping the future
• Building and sustaining teams
• Managing processes
• Nurturing learning
• Maintaining order through chaos
• Effectively communicating and understanding intent, setting clear direction and expectations, and achieving organizational alignment

Additional benefits include:

• Greater Team Cohesion -- In addition to gaining these benefits and experiencing new perspectives on leadership, group participants will also derive a greater esprit de corps.  When intact teams participate together and share a common experience, the result is highly impactful and can contribute greatly to achieving organizational alignment.
• Cost-Effective Classroom Programs -- In addition to our onsite battlefield leadership experiential programs, we also offer one- and two-day experiential classroom programs for the Battle of Gettysburg.  Presented in a framework consistent to the delivery of our battlefield programs, the classroom format can be a cost-effective way to introduce or extend leadership training programs to a larger group of leaders and managers, and can be conducted on-site at a client’s location of their choosing.  
• Tailored Customization -- An important benefit to participants and organizations alike is when we customize the content of a program and/or place emphasis on a leadership aspect that has been deemed critical to the participating organization.  By gathering information from pre-session interviews or teleconferences with program sponsors and/or HR leaders, we can focus in on specific events, characters and dynamics of the battle and its leaders to make the program highly relevant and situational to all participants and the needs of that organization.  Additionally, our battlefield programs can be modified to use and integrate a company’s respective core competencies and leadership models. Further, program agendas can be adjusted to meet specific time constraints and desires of the participant companies. 

Who Should Attend
The character-based leadership training principles presented through The Gettysburg Leadership Training Experience can be tailored to meet the needs of the highest level senior leaders to the less-experienced yet rising leaders within an organization.  The Gettysburg Leadership program offers universal leadership themes upon which any leader will find beneficial to his or her career growth and/or organizational aspirations.

Additional
The Gettysburg battle was a large, complex operation that brought to bear the full spectrum of tactical capabilities in both armies, stretching leaders to their utmost limits. In a vivid way it spatially illustrates the intricate and complicated nature of the challenge of orchestrating different units and resources under separate commands for the combined benefit of entire armies. It depicts unmistakably the critical importance of an efficient and integrated supply chain to organizational functionality. Unlike many large operations, it was clearly focused in space and time, giving us an ideal framework for study. The documentation is extensive, the objectives are clear, and the sites necessary for in-depth analysis are easily accessible. Few of the notable battlefields from history satisfy these criteria so well.

The simple drama of the battlefield is the greatest pure source of both insight and inspiration. The efforts by a smaller Confederate army to defeat a Union force occupying strong positions will inevitably evoke questions and powerful emotion. The self-sacrifice of soldiers in both armies inspires admiration. As we try to transcend obstacles in our daily work, the battlefield lessons put our problems in perspective and offer valuable clues as to how we can improve our contemporary effectiveness as leaders and members of leadership teams.

Recommended reading prior to the session is Michael Shaara’s, The Killer Angels, and the Turner Entertainment movie, Gettysburg, is closely scripted following Shaara’s book if you prefer watching a story to reading it.