Battlefield Leadership offers four categories of experiential leadership development programs: classroom-based, battlefield-based, continuing support, and custom-designed. General descriptions follow, and please see our individual tabs for each program category for more information.

Classroom-based Programs

Our classroom programs are based on historic battles or events and are modularly designed so that programs of varying lengths and depth can be delivered based on meeting objectives and needs. A minimal program length is four hours, and the normal program length is eight hours, and this can be expanded in two hour increments depending on the number of case studies and breadth of coverage desired or required to address the leadership lessons deemed relevant.

Currently, we offer classroom versions of the Gettysburg Leadership Experience and the Normandy Leadership Experience, and have been doing so since 2006.

We are in the process of developing classroom programs on Vietnam (The Forest of Screaming Souls – Battle of the Ia Drang Valley) and World War II (Beyond Band of Brothers – Leadership Lessons of Easy Company).

Battlefield-based Programs

These sessions vary from 2 to 4 days in length and use great battles from military history as intensive case studies as a basis for examining and learning about contemporary business leadership practices. Programs are conducted on location, on the actual terrain of the historic battles, and feature lodging and meeting venues which are as period-authentic as possible.

At present, we offer the Gettysburg Leadership Experience, based on the events of July 1-July 3, 1863, and the Normandy Leadership Experience, focused on the D-Day action involving Allied Forces.

In development currently, are programs based on the Battle of Antietam in Maryland and The Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia from the American Civil War, as well as our Second-Stage programs: Gettysburg II, focused on different events and leadership cases and lessons than our Gettysburg Leadership Experience; and Normandy II, which emphasizes the combined efforts of six different countries’ forces in the July and August 1944 initiatives supporting the Allied sweep down the Cotentin Peninsula and the German escape from Normandy through the Falaise Pocket.

Anticipated programs for future development are: Vietnam – I Corps, Central Highlands to the DMZ; Band of Brothers – Bocage to The Bulge; and Waterloo.

Continuing Support Programs

Our continuing support or continuity programs are fully custom-developed for a particular client to address specific dimensions of leadership as follow-up leader or team development activity, and for intact teams which have shared in either the Gettysburg Leadership Experience or the Normandy Leadership Experience on the battlefield.

Sometimes a continuity program will emphasize certain leadership competencies or practices from existing company leadership models and will draw from historical leadership examples as experiential cases. Also, these programs will often be designed to focus on certain leadership themes or traits which client companies have identified as key targets for future development based on their battlefield experiences and current challenges.

Other continuity initiatives have included our Classroom Programs as one element of a broader leadership or organizational development effort. In these situations, senior leaders who have participated in Battlefield Programs have wanted to cascade the leadership culture from the battlefield (its experience, examples, language and lessons) to successive levels of leaders within their organizations for whom the battlefield-based experience would not constitute a cost-effective delivery mode.

In all cases, these programs have included at least two or three specific follow-up sessions, which are typically scheduled at intervals following the initial battlefield experience over a period of six months to two years.

Custom-Designed

Upon request, we have also developed custom programs of a unique nature to address specific company needs and leadership development objectives. The programs typically range from a half-day to two days in duration, and they can draw from various battles or figures from military history, as well as from historic events or national leaders whose actions in times of crisis have shaped the history of the world.

Cases and events are combined to illustrate certain principles of leadership in practice, through the experience of others, and to help participants understand experientially what constitutes effectiveness or ineffectiveness in situations paralleling contemporary business leadership challenges or dynamics.

These programs will involve various elements ranging from pre-reading or pre-viewing video to case studies, video clips, group discussions, lecturettes, facilitated reflection, and individual and group exercises to support the learning process.

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