The Battlefield Leadership Staff Ride

The “Battlefield Leadership Staff Ride” is usually designed for the Senior Managers of your organization where the participants will experience rich and engaging battlefield context on the actual grounds of a battle while reflecting on significant events that the participants’ organization wants to examine for training and educational purposes. Participants’ experiences and reflections will play off each other to enhance not only a greater understanding of the historical event but also to stimulate active exchange of information, reflective thought, public reflection and dialogue, and collective analysis of the event under study. In the course of exploring how past leaders dealt with the challenges thrust upon them and achieved success or failure, the group discovers timeless lessons about leadership. These conclusions and leadership lessons are then applied to present and future business leadership practices specifically to your organization.

The “Battlefield Leadership Staff Ride” follows the original three phases of the staff ride methodology with the added bonus of introducing civilian leadership parallels to complete the picture for the business leader of tomorrow. Our facilitators will guide you and your team through all these phases.

 

The three phases of any successful staff ride are:

Preliminary Study Phase: Participants study the battle or campaign in detail with guidance from the staff ride facilitator and by self-study.

Field Study Phase: The facilitator sets the stage at each stand, orienting the participants to key terrain, and then guide the participants through their discussion of the actions at each stand, finishing with some overall discussion and analyses.

Integration Phase: This phase is key to any properly conducted staff ride. The battle or campaign teaches timeless lessons about leadership and the human dimension during battle. The facilitator examines the experiences of the individual participants and firmly links the insights of the past to the corporate model of today. By filtering the staff ride experience through your own experiences, every participant will gain different insights which they can share with the group.