What Don Vandergriff is qualified to discuss
Don, a retired Army major, is the only person in the country who illustrates how to apply the principles of the late Colonel John R. Boyd to leader development and personnel management.
He has published two books: Path to Victory: America’s Army and the Revolution in Human Affairs and Raising the Bar: Creating and Nurturing Adaptability to Deal with the Changing Face of War. He is finishing a third book, Army of the Republic: Manning the Legions and Finding and Preparing Future Centurions for Praeger to be released in the fall of 2008. In addition, he edited Spirit, Blood and Treasure: The American Cost of Battle in the 21st Century. He also writes regularly for the web site, Defense and the National Interest.
With that background, he can discuss the following broad areas:
- The future of conflict/fourth generation warfare — the role of military force in contrast to “stability operations”; the future of conventional forces (Don has delivered this briefing at several universities and think tanks as well as panels at the U.S. Army War College and Staff Colleges).
- Building and supporting adaptability — leader development and personnel management (Don is a consultant on innovative approaches to leader development to clients such as the US Army, Marine Corps and Navy SEALs, the British and French armies, Norwegian Naval Academy, academic institutions and businesses).
- Use of military history to develop leadership (Don teaches a course at Georgetown University using the battle of Gettysburg as a metaphor to develop leadership).
- Organizational effectiveness — how to develop and sustain organizations that build and nurture adaptability — how to establish a “learning organization” (Don’s books address culture).
Sometimes even self starters need a boot in the butt, and you have me re-fired up. The class you presented was awesome!
~Fred Leland, Director
Law Enforcement & Security Consulting, Inc.
