Develop a Strong, Elite, Winning Organization With Top Gun Teamwork

The United States Air Force trains the best pilots in the world at the elite Fighter Weapons School in Las Vegas, Nevada. The US Navy and Marine Corps do the same at their Fighter Weapons School in Fallon, Nevada, in a program famously known as “Top Gun.” The Fighter Weapons School patch worn by all graduates signifies their elite status as the best fighter pilots in the military.

The two Fighter Weapons Schools develop strong leaders who learn to lead teams where each individual understands their role, remains accountable for every action they take, and trusts the actions of their peers. Success depends on unity, cohesion, and unwavering commitment to performance. This elite training is now accessible to organizations and businesses who want to achieve maximum performance. The training is now available to those who want to become the “Top Guns” in their business domains.

Former Top Gun and elite fighter pilot instructors lead and facilitate the Top Gun Teamwork program. The program uses the fundamental principles taken from fighter aviation to help organizations and businesses strengthen, inspire, and transform their teams. Discover how Top Gun Teamwork transforms the leadership skills of leaders at all levels, empowering them to build powerful, unified, and successful organizations.

Who We Help

Top Gun Teamwork benefits small businesses, large businesses, non-profits, associations, and, crucially, YOUR business. Top Gun Teamwork builds stronger, happier, motivated teams that function towards a goal of success to propel your organization forward.

Mission Complete:

Companies and Organizations that Lead to Succeed

How We Help

Top Gun Teamwork offers leadership training and team-building instruction for large and small organizations and businesses. Through the application of high-performance team principles taught at America’s elite Fighter Weapons Schools, clients learn to strengthen their teams by building trust, embracing real accountability, and learning to set up to win in the midst of non-stop disruption.

Real Results: Top Gun Teamwork Transforms Your Organization

According to Tannenbaum and Cerasoli, individuals and teams that regularly debrief see a 20-25% performance boost. We teach how to debrief, but we also do so much more. We teach:

How to adopt a Tactical Mission orientation to work. This drives higher engagement. And at a time when global engagement is at 23% (Gallup), this is really important.
How to tactically plan. This drives higher engagement, as well as performance. At a time when 18% of the global workforce is “loud quitting” (Gallup), which means to take actions that harm the organization, a tactical plan is crucial for success. It’s also key to offsetting the stunningly low levels of trust people have in their leadership.
How to build and maintain Psychological Safety, which drives innovation and building teams where trust is high. Reference the above, and we see how critical this is.
How to facilitate inspirational communication to drive buy-in and desire.
How to set clear expectations. This is critical at a time when less than 50% of on-site workers know what’s expected of them (Gallup).

Meet the Elite Top Gun Instructors

Robert “Cujo” Teschner

Founder and CEO

Robert “Cujo” Teschner (please call him Cujo) is a successful entrepreneur, a multiple-award-winning speaker and writer, and a sought-after consultant. Cujo has spoken to more than 450 groups of leaders over the past five years. Five things you should know about Cujo:

He’s an entrepreneur, first and foremost, who deeply appreciates
the role small business plays in our economy.
He’s the current Vistage Speaker of the Year (#1 out of around 900 speakers), and his expanding team of fighter pilot instructors teach through Vistage, in government, and in industry to help organizations win by building teams that harness high-performance team principles.
Cujo is a classically trained violin and piano player who also loves the bass guitar.
He’s authored or co-authored three national bestselling books.
He’s working hard now so that he can teach his children to fly what will eventually be the family P-51 “Mustang.”

Luke “PSYCH” Layman

Chief Strategy Officer

Luke “PSYCH” Layman is a decorated fighter pilot, serial entrepreneur, investor, and executive coach. He is the host of the top-rated Shift Work Podcast and author of the Best Seller “Building Resilience: How To Move Past Fear Into Real Toughness as a Team.”

He has founded and led multiple 7 and 8 figure businesses as well as leading the highest performing organizations in the United States Air Force. Amongst his many accolades, he is the recipient of a Combat Action Medal and Single Mission Air Medal for combat operations flown in the A-10 Warthog.

Mr. Layman is the recipient of multiple business awards and is a three-time winner of the Inc 5000 award for the fastest growing privately held businesses in America. Luke is a widely regarded expert in the applications of brain science, high performance, and business strategy.

Robert “Shark” Garland

DOD Business Unit Lead

Robert “Shark” Garland is a combat veteran fighter pilot of the United States Air Force. He was an F-15 Eagle instructor at the prestigious Air Force Weapons School (the Air Force’s “Top Gun” program) and one of the first test pilots for the F-22 Raptor. He concluded his career as CEO of the Weapons School, retiring from active duty service as a full Colonel.

Shark holds several Master’s degrees and is an inventor. He holds a U.S. patent in aviation design for an airplane cockpit. Mr. Garland calls the Texas Hill Country home where he and his family operate a ranch when not at Texas A&M football games.

Shark is a best-selling author, a keynote speaker, and instructor at VMax Group, a St. Louis-based leadership and teamwork training firm. His team helps organizations like ours achieve consistent success, even in the midst of disruption.

Brian “Stickit” Emme

Deputy DOD Business Unit Lead

Mr. Brian “Stickit” Emme is a national best-selling author, decorated graduate of every level of Navy training, and combat veteran of two wars. He served as an Instructor at one of the U.S. Navy’s Fleet Replacement Squadrons – the “Gladiators.” It was there that he honed his craft of teaching accountable leadership to the top practitioners in the world. Mr. Emme was privileged to command Strike Fighter Squadron FOURTEEN “Tophatters,” responsible for over 300 people and 12 F/A-18E jets.

Mr. Emme continued his career as the “Air Boss” of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS CARL VINSON where he was responsible for the safe and efficient flight operations of 78 aircraft and all launch and recovery equipment, enabling all-weather, day or night flight operations in support of national tasking.

He retired from the U.S. Navy at the rank of Captain and has over 25 years of hands-on leadership experience in High-Reliability Organization and brings all of that experience with him wherever he speaks, teaches, and coaches.

He co-authored and published “Building Resilience: How to Move Past Fear into Real Toughness as a Team” as a means of sharing with others what he learned in service.

Mr. Emme has a special way of connecting with his audiences, blending high-impact stories of fighter aviation and personal humility to achieve the intended outcome. In addition, his faith, family and a story of getting struck by lightning in a thunderstorm serves as the launch pad for talks about humility, growth, motivation, and constant improvement.

Logan “8 BLOC” Ridley

Online Courseware Lead

Logan “8 BLOC” Ridley is a combat fighter pilot with multiple deployments across the globe. He has conducted combat operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, the Arabian Sea, and the Arabian Gulf while also deploying throughout the Western Pacific, reassuring partners and allies of the United States’ commitment to peace and deterrence of adversaries.

Throughout his time in the Navy flying the F/A-18 E C Super Hornet and Hornet aircraft, as well as the E-2C Hawkeye, he has discovered that the tools that make high-performing military organizations successful are cross-applicable to civilian organizations. Specifically, the debrief, centered on organizational objectives and enabled by effective planning, is a tool that is culturally unique to fighter aviation. Every mission, every flight, and every pilot, including Admirals, are expected to be debriefed on their performance.

Despite 8 BLOC’s former profession of arms, his calm and patient approach has earned him several compliments and makes him an effective teacher. Maintaining high expectations and standards while also meeting each student where they are, ensures
that concepts taught are delivered.

8 BLOC’s own entrepreneurial pursuit of business ownership in the Jacksonville, FL, area has given him a sense of professional empathy which allows him to make creative suggestions to overcome the daily challenges business leaders bring him. His MBA
from Indiana University also ensures that suggestions are informed by a strong academic and practical foundation.

When not coaching on Top Gun Teamwork or conducting Vistage sessions, 8 BLOC spends many weekends smoking meat on his Big Green Egg. Currently, beef dino ribs are his favorite!

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