We are standing among a group of twenty-five or so business executives on a windy, chilly ridgeline in south central Pennsylvania, facing west. To our right is a road, the Chambersburg Pike. Behind us about a mile is another higher ridge-Seminary Ridge and on top of that a building with a cupola. In front and directly behind is a gently rolling field and across the field in front is woodland that extends around to our left. We imagine that it is an early morning, July 1, 1863. We also imagine that we see the dust rising from a line of soldiers in gray uniforms coming up the road.
“You are Brigadier General John Buford,” says our group leader. “You are in command of a scouting element of the Army of the Potomac. You have 2,000 cavalry and two small artillery batteries. Your orders are to find the location of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia of 75,000 men that invaded Pennsylvania about a week ago. Now you’ve found them. Behind the ridge is a crossroads town named Gettysburg. Ten miles to the south, I Corps with 20,000 Union troops are marching north under Major General John Reynolds. That’s a good half-day march or more. There are 80,000 additional Union troops coming in from other directions, within a day’s march. In front of you are the leading elements of A. P. Hill’s corps from North Carolina under General Henry Heth. You and your cavalry are the only Union forces between the rebels and the high ground behind you. Take a look around at the terrain, what do you see? What are your choices? What are your assets and liabilities? What would you do? How do you know your choice will succeed?”
The members of the group look around, sensing the urgency that John Buford must have felt, and they begin to answer. Soon, the discussion becomes lively, with different options being weighed and debated. The facilitator turns the questioning into a dialogue about finding and recognizing opportunities in the corporate world. Each member of the group talks about how opportunities and risk are evaluated in his or her work unit or corporation and how the leader is sometimes the first the individual to see an opening for doing something new or different. The facilitator sums up the discussion by threading together the comments and refers back to Buford’s decision to hold off the Confederates until Reynolds’ divisions came up. “He was a leader who knew how to calculate a risk; he knew holding the ground was worth it.” Heads nod and reflect on the concept of calculated risk. The group breaks up briefly as different members wander across the ground, deep in thought. Then, the group gathers and heads to the next stop on their way around the battlefield at Gettysburg where another incident and another leader’s actions will be analyzed and discussed.