Don't just read it, live it!

Abstract

PurposeThis paper is based on actual teaching experience and aims to demonstrate the value of using historic role models, events, visits, and story telling to help students retain leadership concepts.Design/methodology/approachExamples from leadership programs based on Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Clara Barton, and Fredrick Douglass, illustrate how powerful stories and site visits drive home key concepts and ensure the message stays with the audience over time.FindingsColorful stories not only make learning interesting, they drive home key concepts in a way that is easy to grasp and twice as likely to be retained. Programs based on historic role models gain added poignancy by being held in historic sites, near museums, battlefields, and historic homes. Add a visit by a reenactor, and participants find themselves drawn into the case study emotionally, as they “re‐live” historic events and discover the relevance to the contemporary workplace and its challenges. These tools of “active learning” demonstrate how individuals who experience a lesson have greater understanding of the material presented, longer‐term recall, and greater problem‐solving skills than is the norm with traditional, passive learning.Practical implicationsWhile some organizations balk at the cost of “field trips” for training, others recognize the long‐term benefits of engaging participants in active (vs passive) learning. Teaching through historical analogy should be encouraged for its longer‐term lesson retention.Originality/valueAt a time when organizations are increasing the use of “distance learning” or computer‐based training, it is important to evaluate the use of off‐site programs in terms of learning retention – particularly in the field of leadership development, an area of critical need in many organizations.