Are there modern-day business lessons to be learned from events that occurred 150 years ago? Northern Virginia keepers of history say yes, and they invite groups to experience Battlefields to Business, a customized program that applies to modern-day business challenges. Participants visit historic sites then do interactive exercises back at their meeting site to solve 21st century business problems.
The program is also a good way to incorporate the Civil War Sesquicentennial for business groups that meet in Northern Virginia.
Developed by Gary Hernbroth, chief motivating office for California-based Training for Winners, and Scott Walker of Hallowed Ground Tours in Fredericksburg, the program challenges participants to explore the role of leadership, communication, planning, execution, supply, teamwork and crisis management.
Most importantly, according to Hernbroth, it gets people out of the traditional meeting sites.
"We recently took a group to the Chancellorsville battlefield, where we told them what happened there—how Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded by his own men," Hernbroth says. "This occurred because of a lack of communication, and the incident produced a loss of leadership--parallels to the kinds of things that happen today in business. We take stories like these and tie them into an organization’s structure to implement client objectives."
Aside from battlefields, lessons can also be gleaned from many other historical sites, something Virginia has in spades.
"Roads of history lead us back to today, and we can find the roads in many places," Hernbroth says.
For information about how Battlefields to Business can be used for groups from six to about 125 to implement business objectives, contact Victoria Matthews, conference sales and services coordinator at Fredericksburg Area Tourism (vamatthews@fredericksburgva.gov).
