Lessons of Teamwork From the Battle of Gettysburg

When did it happen? • July 1 through July 3, 1863

What was at stake? • The continued existence of the United States as a nation • The lives of thousands of people

Who was involved? • 160,000 Americans, 68,000 of them in team leader positions • Two separate Government Organizations (The Union and Confederate Armies)

What was their mission? • Destroy the other army (a win-lose situation for each organization)

What were they like? • Almost identical in training, processes, organizational, equipment, and technology • 98% of personnel had less than 2 years of job experience

What led to success or failure – Teamwork!

Teamwork and the Battle of Gettysburg

In July, 1863, 160,000 Americans engaged in the most horrible battle ever fought in our nations history. 90,000 fought for the North’s Army of the Potomac. 70,000 fought for the South’s Army of Northern Virginia. The outcome of that battle set the course of America’s history. Each of these large organizations was divided into smaller units, consisting of:

• 3 to 7 CORP of 10,000 to 22,000 soldiers • 9 to 19 DIVISIONS of 4,500 to 7,000 soldiers • 37 to 53 BRIGADES averaging 1,600 soldiers • 272 to 374 REGIMENTS averaging 350 soldiers • 2,720 to 3,740 COMPANIES averaging 35 soldiers

Each army, therefore, was a team of teams. Success in battle depended upon two things. The first of these was the quality of performance within the team itself. The second was the quality of the cooperation and interaction between and among teams. Between 1861 and 1863, the number of Americans serving in the army grew from 15,000 to 1,500,000. 98% of the soldiers had been in the army for less than two years. Many of the leaders of the various-sized teams were also lacking in experience. This program is a study of teamwork at Gettysburg, at different levels of the organization. It looks at senior leadership teams, front-line combat teams, and teams that fall in between. Participants in the program will see how the quality of teamwork contributed to the success or failure of the organization.

Learning Objectives What will you learn in this program? You will come away with a better appreciation that:

• There are many different types and styles of teams, and the way teams operate is driven by many factors.

• Selection of the most appropriate team type and style can help you to accomplish your mission more effectively.

• Team leaders must adapt their management approach to the personality of the team, the mission of the organization, and the role of the team within the organization.

• Team members must adapt themselves to the type and style of the team, and to its leadership

• The overall success of an organization is determined by the performance of its teams, both within the teams themselves, and by the cooperation of teams at various levels of the organization.

Learning Method

This program uses a combination of lecture, individual exercises, group exercises, and teamwork activities, including:

• A discussion of various types of teams, their natures, their styles, and their challenges.

• Case study exercises and group discussion, based upon true incidents from history, which illustrate the problems faced by a number of different teams.

• Small group discussions to identify the challenges of teamwork within your organization.

• A visit to the Battlefield of Gettysburg, and a narrated tour by Licensed Battlefield Guide John Baniszewski, which focuses on the role of teamwork in the battle, and illustrates how effective teamwork (or the lack of it) changed the course of American history.

Pricing

Pricing is affected by the number of participants, the location of the program, the extent to which the material is customized for your specific needs, and the amount of assistance provided for logistics. The basic fee includes the speaker fee and tour guide service, plus an electronic version of the course material. It does not include logistics costs. For the convenience of federal government agencies, the program is available below the credit card purchase threshold established in Part 13 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation FAR). Please contact Mr. Baniszewski, who will assist you in developing a program that meets your needs and fits your budget. He can be reached at 410-842-3692. His email address is John@HistoryAndLeadership.com, and his web site is at www.HistoryAndLeadership.com.

The Instructor – John Baniszewski "Tell me and I may forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand." – Chinese Proverb Every organization has a history. Every organization can draw upon that history to deal with the challenges it faces today. The hard-won lessons of an organization’s past can be of enormous value to its leaders and project managers. PMAL was started by John Baniszewski after his retirement from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Mr. Baniszewski has a passion for history, as well as a unique ability to study the lessons of the past and apply them to the situations that we face every day. Mr. Baniszewski combines these traits with his extensive NASA experience to create and deliver training programs that are interesting, innovative, and useful. In his 33-year career, he served as a Deputy Project Manager of Resources and Financial Manager for a number of NASA space flight projects. His responsibilities included project management, cost estimating, budget development and execution, proposal development, and formulation planning. He also has extensive experience in procurement, having served as a Procurement Manager and Contracting Officer for hundreds of contracts, worth more than $6B. Mr. Baniszewski also has extensive experience in developing and teaching training programs in Project Management, Procurement, and Leadership Development. He teaches courses for NASA’s Academy of Program, Project, and Engineering Leadership (APPEL), and was a faculty member of Goddard Space Flight Center’s Project Management Knowledge Works. These organizations are responsible for training NASA’s project management workforce. Mr. Baniszewski also conducts leadership training programs based on the lessons of Gettysburg and Antietam. He is a Licensed Battlefield Guide at the Gettysburg National Military Park. He has led over two thousand people on more than 400 tours of the battlefield. “The instructor was excellent. It was an informative, useful, & interesting session. I am so glad I had the opportunity to attend this session. The course materials were well-integrated, well-written, & engaging. Great job! Thanks.” “John made some dry history very exciting – what a storyteller he is!”

Pictures From Past Programs

Mr. Baniszewski addresses a group near the location of the infamous “Pickett’s Charge”, during which the failure of the Southern Army’s senior leadership team to achieve unified action contributed to one of the greatest disasters in American history.

In this photo, Mr. Baniszewski talks about leadership style with a group of people from NASA. He emphasizes how team leadership style must take into account many factors, such as external constraints and individual personalities, and how some senior leaders at Gettysburg failed to do so.

Mr. Baniszewski makes extensive use of hands-on, participative activities to help attendees better understand the challenges faced by team leaders during the chaos of battle. Here he trains three attendees how to work as a Civil War rifle team, emphasizing the need to work together as a unit and implement decisions quickly.

Mr. Baniszewski makes extensive use of graphics and props to help attendees better understand the battle. Here he refers to an organization chart that shows the senior leadership team of the Northern Army at Gettysburg, and discusses the interaction of its team members.