What are the benefits of using battlefields as management development tools?
In many respects battles provide a finite, short-term, concentrated illustration of many challenges facing organisations today. Dealing with fast-moving, chaotic events which require clear thinking and decision making, coping with ambiguity and stress, setting strong direction and leadership, motivating and inspiring, are common to the boardroom and the battlefield. Battlefields provide a living laboratory where large and complex organisations seek to assert their will in the most demanding of circumstances. As armies strive for supremacy, they employ many of the processes that private organisations use as they fight for commercial advantage. Taking executives and senior managers out of the boardroom gives them the opportunity to reflect on their activities in the light of different experiences, to stand back from the daily pressures of work and to take a detached view which enables them to see things from a new perspective. Fresh ideas on meeting the challenges and opportunities relev
