What culture are you creating today…
that others will experience tomorrow?
Culture Matters.
Our Choices ripple into the Future.
You are INVITED…
to Journey beyond the familiar.
Discover new horizons. Experience history.
Challenge your thinking. Create your future.
A Journey Like No Other.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, leaders faced uncertainty, pressure, and division—much as we do today. They had people, purpose, and the courage to lead forward. Their experiences remind us that circumstances change. The human dynamics of leadership endure.
The past becomes powerful when it helps us see the present more clearly. The Colonial Institute Experience invites us to discover timeless principles that transform the way we think and serve today. Through history, conversation, and reflection, we gain new insights, challenge familiar thinking, and explore possibilities for the future.
At the heart of this Voyage are people. People with dreams. People with challenges. People who want to make a difference. Through Four Journeys, we explore the courage to CREATE, the wisdom to FOCUS, and the ability to GROW—turning lessons from history into choices that positively impact others.
A Voyage begins when people gather to learn, reflect, and create a better future together. Discover what the Colonial Institute Experience could create for your organization.
Every Voyage begins with an opportunity to see new horizons-and the courage to leave the familiar shore behind.
Discover the stories of people whose choices changed the course of history
The Colonial Institute Experience brings people together to challenge familiar thinking, discover timeless principles, and explore the beliefs and values that shape behaviors.
Through the Four Journeys, new perspectives become meaningful conversations—and conversations open possibilities for the culture people create together.
The Voyager’s Journey
One Extraordinary Experience.
JOURNEY 1
Discover New Horizons
Expand Thinking. Create Possibilities.
Challenge familiar ways of thinking and discover how language, perspective, and possibility influence the choices we make. Explore new ways to see opportunities, overcome breakdowns and create a better view of the future.
JOURNEY 2
History is Our Teacher
Experience History. Apply Wisdom.
Experience the decisions, challenges, and achievements of those who helped shape America. Discover timeless principles through their accomplishments and contradictions, and consider how those lessons apply to the decisions we face today.
JOURNEY 3
Outcomes By Design
Align Beliefs. Elevate Culture.
Explore how beliefs shape behaviors, behaviors produce outcomes, and outcomes create culture. Apply the CREATE, FOCUS, GROW framework to align people around purpose. Turn new thinking into meaningful action.
JOURNEY 4
Onward
Behaviors Shape Tomorrow.
Every conversation, decision, and behavior create ripples that extend beyond today. Consider the culture your choices are creating and make commitments that positively impact others and shape the future.
From Current View to Better View
We all see the world through different filters shaped by our experiences, beliefs, and perspectives.
When we recognize those filters, become more conscious of our language, and explore different points of view, we achieve breakthroughs in thinking and collaboration.
Expand your thinking and create new possibilities that inspire a better future.
Step into History.
Discover the people, decisions, and defining moments that shaped America
Participants move beyond simply reading about history. Through private historical experiences, guided conversation, and reflection, they explore the choices, achievements, challenges, and contradictions of those who came before us.
These encounters invite participants to consider questions that remain relevant today: What principles guided the decisions of the past? How did individual choices influence others? What can those experiences teach us about the beliefs, behaviors, and culture we create in our own time?
Williamsburg, Virginia provides a setting where historical perspective opens the door to new thinking.
Our signature Colonial Institute Experience takes place in Williamsburg, Virginia, where history provides an extraordinary setting for discovery, reflection, and new perspectives. Hosted at Kingsmill Resort, the Experience brings people together discover timeless principles that inspire how we think. lead and serve today.
Rather than a traditional conference or classroom program, the multi-day Voyage combines discovery, history, reflection, conversation and application. Every participant brings unique experiences, perspectives, and questions to the Voyage. Those perspectives enrich the conversations and create opportunities to learn from history and from one another.
The objective is to discover what its timeless principles can mean for the choices we make today, and the culture others will experience tomorrow.
The Signature Experience
The Framework for moving from possibility to action:
Your Voyage begins before you arrive.
Some discoveries come from history. Others come from within us and the people we meet along the way.
The Voyager's Guide is your personal companion through the Four Journeys—a place to capture new insights, reflections, and possibilities.
More than a keepsake, it helps you carry those discoveries into everyday conversations, decisions, and relationships.
The Voyage may end… the discoveries continue.
The Experience comes to you.
The Principles Travel.
The Colonial Institute Experience extends beyond Williamsburg - bringing fresh perspectives, meaningful conversations, and practical insights directly to your organization.
From focused executive sessions and team experiences to keynote presentations, each Voyage is designed around your people, priorities, and desired outcomes.
Meet Steve…
Four Decades of Experience.
One Enduring Lesson.
Steven D. Shatrich
Founder & Executive Guide
The Colonial Institute I CFG Leadership Group
Executive Profile
We Are ALL in the People Business
Steve Shatrich has spent more than four decades working with people—building businesses, guiding teams, and helping others succeed. His career began in commercial banking in 1981 with the Firestone Bank. He was an executive leader with Bank One, PNC, and Huntington Bank, where he most recently served as President of Commercial Bank Markets for Huntington Asset Finance. Across different organizations, markets, and mergers, one lesson has remained constant: people shape the experience of a business. Steve believes the best results begin with serving colleagues and clients, thinking forward about new possibilities and advancing good by bringing out the best in people to build a better future together.
The Colonial Institute
Steve founded the Colonial Institute to bring people together around lessons from history that still matter today. Through an experience rooted in Williamsburg, Virginia or anywhere organizations desire, participants explore how choices, conversations, and behaviors influence others—and consider what they will carry forward. The Colonial Institute invites a simple question: “What culture are you creating today…that others will experience tomorrow?”
A Personal Approach
Steve sees leadership as service. Whether working with a new colleague, an executive team, or an entire organization, he starts with people. He is known for practical ideas, engaging conversations, and helping teams move from their current view to a better view. His work through CFG Leadership Group includes team experiences, sales design, cultural integration, and executive mentoring. The Colonial Institute builds on that experience with a new opportunity to help discover timeless principles from the past to transform how we think and serve today and into the future.
Professional Acknowledgements
“Steve Shatrich is a man of integrity, vision and down to earth commonsense, a rare combination in business. I had the pleasure of working with Steve as he led a major sale process redesign with me and my team for a major National Bank. His knowledge of his industry, selling and partnering made him a tremendous asset to my team. His proven ability to think strategically, work collaboratively, and drive sales results makes him an ideal business parter.”
Chairman and CEO- CRD Inc.
Winner-Inc. 500
“Steve came highly recommended to us with a track record as a dynamic presenter and facilitator of culture progression. He thoroughly and efficiently assessed our situation and created a program for us to self-define team values, behaviors, and culture. He also did this in a way that engaged every member of our team with 100% ground-up participation. Months after the conclusion of his program, my team members, even some previously less engaged, are still using some of Steve’s turns of phrase and are modeling the discussed behaviors/values. This experience has been a lasting catalyst of positive growth. To say that Steve under promised and overdelivered would truly be an understatement.”
President, Ohio Hospital Medical Staff
The Next Voyage Could Be Yours.
Discover what the Colonial Institute Experience could create for your organization.
© 2026 Colonial Institute | A registered trade name of CFG Associates, Inc. | All rights reserved. Colonial Institute is an independently operated educational and professional development organization and a registered trade name of CFG Associates, Inc., an Ohio corporation that has elected Subchapter S tax treatment. Colonial Institute is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Colonial Williamsburg, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, or any other Colonial America organization.