"If You Want A New Idea, Read An Old Book"
The
Corporate Staff Ride evolved from the training tools originally conceived by Prussian General Count Helmuth von Moltke (1800-1891), genius of the 19th century German General Staff. The first Staff Rides were conducted at sites chosen for their potential in considering hypothetical operations against potential enemies. The very near success of the opening offensive of World War I - the subject of numerous staff rides in the years before 1914 - is just one sobering example of just how important the staff ride can be.
Staff rides were promoted in America by
Colonel Arthur L. Wagner (1853-1905), a prominent author, teacher, and one of the “fathers” of modern military intelligence. His critique of the Army’s educational system was confirmed by his observations in both Cuba and Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War which revealed weaknesses in preparation among the American officer corps.
Among other suggested remedies, he believed that these deficiencies could be addressed by the systematic and practically-oriented study of military history, especially the use of the staff ride at a Civil War battlefield.
US Army Command and General Staff School
In July 1906 Major Eben Swift, the assistant commander of the Staff College (forerunner of today's Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, took twelve student officers on a two-week tour of the Civil War battlefields between Chattanooga and Atlanta. For the next several decades, the staff ride played an important role in the Leavenworth curriculum and gradually spread to other Army educational institutions.
During the World War II period and afterwards, the staff ride gradually lost sponsorship and virtually disappeared from the military cirriculum. In the late sixties and early seventies, at the height of the Vietnam War, the Army restored the battlefield staff ride as an advanced leadership training tool. Since then, the Army War College, Command and General Staff College,
United States Military Academy at West Point, and
Center of Military History have all contributed to the creative utilization of this training technique at every level of command, from ROTC cadets to the top ranks of the Defense Department.
The impact of the battlefield staff ride on its participants, and its inherent flexibility, have led to significant acceptance among the officer corps. Today wherever American soldiers are stationed, on any given day they walk and ride the battlefields of the past, learning lessons of leadership.
US Army Center of Military History
By analyzing past examples of decision-making under crisis, concrete lessons emerge applicable to other spheres - including business and other enterprise-related activity - where such lessons can be applied for success. One result of the staff ride is the realization that the continuing study of military history - especially through the CORPORATE STAFF RIDE experience - is not merely intellectually engaging, or the pleasant pursuit of “history buffs”, but can be an on-going, professionally rewarding, career-development tool.
