Frontier Dispatches

The Frontier Project portfolio is home to an array of ventures that share a common mandate: deliver growth to clients in a way that benefits shareholders, employees and society. We play in the fields of Corporate Learning, Event Design, Multimedia...

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We’ve moved!

Hi friends! We're very excited to announce that we’ve rebooted our website, and the blog will now live there. Please see all the digital goodness happening over at The Frontier Project. (We will eventually shut down this page, but you can always follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, too!)

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We’re hiring!

**THIS OPENING IS NOW CLOSED.**

Are you an ideas-person capable of putting those ideas into action? Are you a listener and a learner? A leader and a collaborator? Are you a believer in the power of human potential?

If you answered “yes” (or better yet “YES!”) to those questions - and if you have 7 -10 years of client-facing and/or corporate experience, we want to talk to you about being our next Lead Consultant.

Find the full job description here, along with details on how to apply.

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JOB OPENING: Director of Photography

**THIS OPENING IS NOW CLOSED.**

We’re looking for a full time Director of Photography. 

You should apply if:

You believe a picture can say a thousand words. 

You’re savvy with lighting, and you have strong opinions about things like color saturation (and desaturation).

You think like an editor. 

You enjoy the balance of pre production, shooting, and post-production.

You love to teach others about your craft. 

You are comfortable with giving and receiving honest and straightforward feedback

You can manage production details with the best of them.

Your budgets, timelines, and shoot schedules are on point.

Full Job Description and application instructions.

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SLOW DOWN TO LEARN FAST.

As content developer for Frontier Academy, Lauren DeLuca pours her unique mix of acumen, experience, and inspiration into creating and refining content for Academy’s expanding professional development business.

“Slow down to go fast.” 

You’ve probably heard this saying before. It’s a lament of leaders everywhere who see their teams forging ahead on projects, making mistakes, and wasting effort on rework because they failed to pause at the outset and think through a strategy, potential pitfalls, or impact on other people.  

Sometimes, it seems to makes sense to hit pause on a project, for instance, to allow time for everyone involved to get on the same page (the idea being it is ultimately faster in the long run). But when has it ever been a good idea to intentionally slow down your brain when everything around us tells us to speed it up?

After all, time is one of our most precious assets, and the global economy insists we make the most of it and thrives on helping us do so. From habit tracking apps like Productive to high-tech smart gyms, we’re hell bent on hacking our way to better versions of ourselves faster. With all the data, research, and information we have, why not use it to do that self-improvement quickly and efficiently too, right?

Unfortunately, loading up on data on top of our daily emails, news alerts, and the plethora of information we consume each day can be too much for your brain to make sense of, resulting in a condition called information blindness. Information blindness is defined as the inability to take advantage of data as it becomes more plentiful.

Martin Eppler, a professor at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, explains it like this. “The quality of people’s decisions generally gets better as they receive more relevant information. But then their brain reaches a breaking point where the data becomes too much. They start ignoring options or making bad choices or stop interacting with the information completely.” In my own experience, this happens when I encounter a lengthy menu at a restaurant and I’m paralyzed by the options. So I start to try to narrow them: “What are you having? Want to split something? What do you recommend? Have I had red meat lately?” After all that, I usually end up deciding based on the sides.

But information blindness can occur in much more important areas of our lives as well. In his latest book, Smarter, Faster, Better Charles Duhigg cites a 2004 Columbia University study of 800,000 employees across hundreds of companies who were offered opportunities to enroll in 401(k) plans - generally considered a no-brainer benefit. At firms where workers were offered information on two options, 75% enrolled. Employees told researchers that signing up seemed obvious. They looked at the two brochures and picked one that seemed most sensible to them. At other companies, even as the number of plan options increased (up to twenty-five different plans), sign ups remained high (72%). But when employees received information on more than thirty plans something shifted.

The amount of information that people were receiving became so overwhelming that workers stopped making good choices - or making a choice at all. At thirty-nine plans only 65% signed up and at sixty plans, participation dropped to 53%. The researchers concluded that when information became too plentiful people put the brochures in a drawer and never looked at them again[1].

As it turns out, in order to truly apply all of the new information we encounter – to gain from it – we have to create disfluency in our brains. This happens when you force yourself to do something with the information you encounter rather than just passively consume it. For example, Duhigg’s book cites the following examples you could use to create disfluency:

If you use a new word in a sentence, you’ll remember it longer. If you write down a sentence with the word, you’ll start using it in conversations.

In a controlled study with all constraints being equal, students who forced themselves to use a more cumbersome note-taking method — who forced disfluency into how they processed information — learned more. 

It is not enough for your bathroom scale to send daily updates to an app on your phone. If you want to lose weight, force yourself to plot those measurements on graph paper and you’ll be more likely to choose a salad over a hamburger at lunch.

If you read a book filled with new ideas, force yourself to put it down and explain the concepts to someone sitting next to you and you’ll be more likely to apply them in your life[2].

These examples highlight what great instructional design has always done, and they’re why we intentionally create disfluency in our workshops by getting our participants to engage with a new concept using worksheets, small group discussion, and large group activities and debriefs. When you’re forced to take the new idea you’ve just learned and consider it for your own business issue on a worksheet, you break up your mental pathways in new ways and actually begin to comprehend and retain the information on your own terms (not ours).

The added bonus here: writing is more disfluent than typing because it requires more labor and captures fewer verbatim phrases[3]. When you share your thoughts with a partner, you’ve got to articulate and process verbally what you’ve just internalized, and that cements it further in your brain. Finally, when everyone shares as a group, you have the benefit of hearing how everyone else processed the information and that can spark new insights for you. We know the more we can get your brain to wrestle with and practice the new skills you’ve encountered on your own business issue, the greater the chance you’ll apply the tools back at your workplace. But beyond that, we know that if we can teach you to practice these habits in your own life, you’ll learn more, be more productive, and avoid the information blindness that so many fall victim to in a world of noise.

[1, 2, 3]  Smarter, Faster, Better, by Charles Duhigg. p. 244

Image: Wharton

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We won a “Best Places To Work” award. So what’s in it for you?

Ryan Mauter ventures into the wilderness to explore how taking time off work makes us better at our jobs and better at serving our clients.

The Frontier Project’s recent recognition on Outside Magazine’s Best Places to Work List got me thinking: if I were a prospective client of ours I’d be asking myself something like “what’s in it for me?” 

It’s a fair question.

Landing a coveted spot on a superlative list has a lot of upside in the business world. It’s a third-party recognition that companies can take with an “aw shucks” smile, basking in the recognition of a well-known publication. It also spares businesses named to a “top ten,” “best of,” and “most likely to” from gloating about how great they are, at the risk of projecting arrogance. There’s so much upside, like attracting candidates and helping with brand differentiation.

And, well, there’s a lot of emphasis on perks. Not so much on ability to make good on the promise of product or service. Take a scroll down the list, through all the free beer, unlimited PTO, go-kart racing, and mediation lounges, and you could end up picturing a big party you’re helping to pay for.

“What’s in it for you?” Here’s an answer. For a company like ours, investments in ourselves are an important investment in our clients and partners, and the people they serve too.

One perk we enjoy here at The Frontier Project, and the one that raises the most eyebrows, is unlimited vacation. On the outside it sounds too good to be true, or at the very least bad for business. But this perk is treated as a responsibility - you still have to carry your weight and fulfill project and client obligations before heading for the hills.

Here’s what that means for the clients I work with directly. It means that I have the ability to disconnect from my day-to-day, often to learn something new or challenge myself with a new experience during that seemingly superfluous time off. It’s anything but. As part of that time, inevitably, I do a lot of reflecting on what’s happening with the people inside of the companies we partner with. I chose to go off the grid and I also chose to mentally work on their problems and initiatives. I’m looking for new ideas, solutions, lessons learned. I’m doing the thing all the research tells us we need to do for fostering innovation, creativity, and growth. I think about the way our own business is operating and my own practice as a consultant and facilitator.

With a traditional allotment of two weeks for vacation, after tending to family events, unpredictable emergencies, short-term commitments, and travel time between holidays and other occasions, there’d be little time left for, well, me. In this past year, this scenario would have played out and left my bank of days empty by end of summer.

Instead, I was able to paddle out into the Boundary Waters wilderness of Minnesota this past September for a 10-day canoe expedition. I voyaged with two other fellas, navigating two canoes loaded with gear and food across a 50-mile route that passed over and through lakes, rivers, creeks, beaver dams, and some hefty portages.

Frontier Academy Facilitator Ryan Mauter used his unlimited vacation time to go on a 10-day canoe excursion in Minnesota where he was free to think about “big ideas” for our clients and our company - and to take the occasional selfie.

Sure, this is a vacation. It’s also anything but. On an expedition like this, there’s time here and there for what you may think of—the book under the tree, a warm fire. It’s also a ton of work.

It’s packing, unpacking, then repacking several huge packs, several times a day. It’s cooking, cleaning, hiking with those heavy packs, pulling layers on and off, sleeping and eating on the ground, hanging bear bags, treating water, building tarp shelters, conferring maps, anticipating and re-anticipating weather, monitoring bug bites, fixing broken camp chairs, being exhausted at dark, waking up early, and ingesting way too much textured vegetable protein. It’s working out different opinions and negotiating who cleans dishes and who rolls up the soaking wet tent. It’s more days of rain than sun. It’s being totally removed in big, wild terrain, and needing to plan and then do dozens of things differently as navigation of terrain and weather and the team’s needs requires. It’s being careful not to roll an ankle. It’s paddling next to the ghost-like presence of risk.

It’s the friggin’ best. And I’m really grateful.

I come out of the woods with new ideas. Most always, I’ve come face-to-face with a real life risk (that happened on this trip, for sure, but that’s another story). These encounters reset my perspective. It’s easier to let go of the small stuff and refocus.

Literally, a day after returning from my latest trip, I walked out in front of an 80-person group to lead a session about decision making and delegation within large organizations. Two days later, I’m kicking off storytelling workshops back-to-back with a new client. I felt fresh, I had new ideas, I’d reset my focus and refilled my personal tank. I’d talked with people in a tiny town that makes or breaks on tourism, hearing the perspective of a small business owner about what it means to run a recreation-based business in the midst of external pressures to dramatically alter the natural world he depends on.

I’ve got more ideas to pull from, and another touch point with the world, which makes me more creative when responding to questions. It gives me metaphors and stories that I’ve mentally sketched on long, quiet paddles across the water. With no cell phone. It means that full tank was ready to burn at the start of what has been a tremendously full Q4.

And I’ll tell you, people share with me, all the time, that they don’t feel creative. That they don’t have time for ideas. And these people are working in businesses that need them. Burnout is real, disengagement is real, and this takes not only a toll on the bottom line, but on the thing I care most about, and that’s people. Breakthroughs don’t happen at your desk.  

Last note: I trust the science on much of this because I’ve felt it. Physiologically, the natural world is a potent human elixir. Here’s a suggested read: The Nature Fix, by Florence Williams. My brain is my most important asset, as it is for so many of us in the working world these days, and specifically the structures in my brain that support creativity, problem solving, analytical functions, and emotional intelligence. All of which are nourished by my time in the backcountry.

Colleagues currently, and in my past, too, almost always use the more-than-status-quo time off to invest in themselves. Traveling to another part of the world, competing in a triathlon, volunteering, or immersing themselves in a cultural or professional learning experience. Taking that sabbatical and dedicating it to family.  These things keep them whole and they return to work committed. Other perks, like maternity leave policies and additional supporting elements for a new parent, support another aspect of people on the homefront. Bundle all this together, and you move the needle on quality of product and service—period.

Our society acknowledges that we can’t do good work if we’re exhausted, worried about our newborn, or disconnected from the things that personally drive us. My hope is that any company on a “best of” list is one customers and clients find to be “best of” for them, too, because they are taking action on these fronts.

Here’s the deal. We help our clients develop their people and support them through massive changes pushing through big organizations. Smart perks are one of several parts in the mix that help make a place a great place to work, and our teams need to use them. They allow us to grow, increase our engagement, and keep us healthy. We need to be. We must be present to do good work. If we aren’t, we can’t deliver. And that list—“best ability to deliver on promises”—is the one we all want to be on.

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Conscientious Consumerism

When it comes to purchasing goods, most of us look at cost and quality to determine whether a product will go home with us. What most of us don’t think about is that every purchase we make has a positive or negative impact in the world. Our purchases unwillingly can support inequality, child labor, unfair pay, destruction of the environment, and unsafe working conditions. Or our purchases can empower, educate, equalize, change lives, and do good.

When I learned about fair trade, the practice of paying fair wages to producers in developing countries, in 2008, it immediately made so much sense to me that I couldn’t fathom how the traditional way of producing and selling goods was the status quo. True, we’re all biologically drawn to the titillating experience of purchasing bargains—you can thank the science-proven burst of feel-good dopamine for that emotional high. But if you step back and think about the individuals who made that purchase possible—how they could be underpaid, overworked, underage, working in dirty or dangerous factories … the high disappears pretty fast.

I think we, as consumers, have an increasing responsibility to purchase thoughtfully and to minimize the harm caused to people and our planet. I’m not saying it’s easy. You have to change your shopping habits, valuing impact more than deals, quantity, and trends—no small feat in a world where Amazon Prime reigns supreme. Not only that, corporations are increasingly latching onto causes to add a philanthropic angle to their marketing push, which can make it difficult to determine when you’re aiding real people and when you’re being hoodwinked.

But there are people striving to make conscious consumerism an easier path. I first encountered fair trade at Ten Thousand Villages, which has been providing fair compensation to artisans across the world for more than 70 years. They do all the research and vetting so you don’t have to. Everlane, an online clothing retailer, advocates “radical transparency,” showcasing the factories where its products are made, as well as explaining its true costs so you can understand exactly what you’re paying for. And then there are the local ethical retail warriors like me, who are opening up small shops across the country so you can touch and feel and experience proven products before you buy them.

You can make a small difference, one thoughtful purchase at a time. Here are a few steps to get you started.

Figure out what issues matter to you It’s easy to be paralyzed by the overwhelming goodness that exists in the world. Rather than trying to support everything, find the causes that move your heart and look for brands that support those.

Go for quality, not quantity It’s much more satisfying to buy one well-made item that will last you for years, rather than five cheap ones that will fall apart after their first wash.

Sign up for emails Yep, I said sign up for emails! Get on the lists of the ethical brands you would love to purchase and wait for their sales.

SUSTAINABLE SHOPPING MADE EASY

These digital tools take the guess work out of making good decisions.

Nudge for Change

Get alerts when you’re walking into a business whose policies don’t align with issues you care about. Businesses are ranked using data from a variety of sources, including Glassdoor (worker’s rights and treatment), GLAAD (LGBT issues) and the EPA (the environment).

HowGood

Funnels data from 350 sources into a searchable database of more than 200,000 food products, allowing you to buy groceries based on how safe, healthy, socially responsible, and environmentally sustainable they are.

Aspiration

Financial startup Aspiration automates background checks on brands you buy, generating two scores for companies: The “People” score gauges how well companies treat their employees and communities, and the “Planet” score assesses companies’ sustainability and eco-friendly practices. The company updates your own personalized AIM score every time you swipe, showing the positive (or negative) impact of where you shop.

RUPA SINGH is the owner of Love This, a mobile boutique inspiring consumers to make ethical shopping choices, a zero-waste mom to two little girls, an organizational wife to an altruistic architect, and 100 percent committed to encouraging thoughtful consumption.

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Gratitude. It’s Powerful.

Sarah Tydings explains her favorite Thanksgiving tradition (hint: it’s not the pecan pie).

Every Thanksgiving, my family, like many others, takes time to go around the table and say what we are thankful l for. It’s the moment I most look forward to each year (even more than the first bit of my aunt’s famous pecan pie). The feeling of contentment and gratitude that moment creates makes the whole hectic trip up the highway worth it. Turns out that’s not a feeling I have to wait for once a year. Studies have shown that taking just one moment each day to think about what we are grateful for reduces stress and anxiety, boosts feelings of happiness and satisfaction, and gives us a greater sense of purpose in life. All that good stuff is further increased if we take a moment to write down what we are grateful for in a journal, and it’s even further increased when we take the time to actually say "thank you" to the people we're grateful for. At Frontier we often challenge our workshop participants to give this a try for one month (just long enough to build a lasting habit).

Break that down mathematically: 1 minute to think about what you're thankful for + 1 minute to write it down + 1 minute to text the person you're grateful to a quick "thank you” x 31 days in a month _______________________ = 93 minutes each month.

I don’t know about you, but I definitely spend more time each month doing a lot of other things that don't result in so many amazing benefits (here's looking at you, Facebook).

Taking time to acknowledge what you’re grateful for is a small commitment with a big payoff. And even though "Thank You" is one of the first phrases we’re taught as children, we often forget to say it as adults. With that in mind, I asked teammates at Frontier what they are grateful in their work lives. Here’s what folks had to say:

For the ability to work—both internally and externally—with people that continuously push me to be better than I am today.

For the chance to work every day in a beautiful office in a great neighborhood.

For the opportunity to work with the smartest team I’ve ever been a part of. 

For the friendships I’ve forged with my teammates.

For the chance to experiment in my work, and try out new and creative solutions to problems.

For a great work/life balance (unlimited vacation time!)

For the chance to work at a business that cares about doing good in the local community.

Beer on Friday afternoons. 

That’s a pretty good list.

What are you grateful for? Write it down. Share it. Let us know how it goes.

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You Should Like Your Workplace

We’ve been listed as one of Outside Magazine’s 100 Best Places to Work for the fourth year in a row! The list recognizes organizations that create great workplaces for their employees, respect the environment, and promote a healthy work-life balance. We are honored and thrilled to be named among the nation’s best.

The perks of being part of the Frontier team are numerous—flexible parental leave, paid volunteer days, and a pet-friendly office, just to name a few. It all adds up to a great place to work, and that’s not by chance. We know that employees do their best work when they are fully energized and engaged. Like one of our team says, “most of our employees are doing creative work. As such, it’s essential that they get out and do what they need to do in order to recharge.”  If that means canoeing through the Boundary Waters of Minnesota for 15 days (like Ryan) or taking time to train and compete in the Xterra Off-Road World Championship Triathlon in Hawaii (like Kevin) we support it wholeheartedly.    

Check out Outside’s full list of the Best Places to Work here. If you want to build an environment where employees enjoy coming to work every day, let us know.  We can help.

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Brain Food

Are we living in the golden age of the visionary entrepreneur? No, says Wired’s Scott Rosenberg. Instead, the “cult” that once glorified Silicon Valley founders is in its final days. But why? And what does that mean for startups?

Are you a supertaster? Scientists now can group people as either non-tasters, tasters, or supertasters. These factors can explain how you feel about what you eat. (Spoiler alert: supertasters usually don’t appreciate food more than others—often they dislike many more foods.)

Artificial intelligence is working its way into every part of our lives. Its newest use: frustrating email spammers. NetSafe, an online safety non-profit in New Zealand, has created a new service called Re:scam—forward fraudulent emails to the AI, and it will convincingly and eternally run the scammer through a series of complex verbal circles.

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How Do We Recruit Great Talent to RVA?

We know that a company's people are its greatest asset. We also know that, like people, companies grow and evolve by learning. Right now, we're really interested in learning more about how our friends in the Richmond region recruit and keep amazing talent in RVA. So what do we do when want to learn from our friends? Invite them over to our Studio for conversation, questions, ideation ... and some refreshments, of course! Here's what we're looking to do: rally a group of HR and Recruitment professionals to share challenges, ideas, pain points, and success stories around talking up RVA to prospective job candidates. We think there's a better way to showcase all that our awesome city has to offer—to help companies craft information and experiences that make HR and Recruiting jobs a bit easier, and candidate and new hire experiences even more amazing. Would you like to join us? 

If so, email [email protected] to share your interest!

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New Podcast: From Good to Grit

It’s mash-up time! The Frontier Academy team discusses Angela Duckworth’s Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, and Sydney Finklestein’s latest best-seller Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent. The first aims to breakdown the science of success, while the second examines how bosses can push their people to new levels of achievement. Join our conversation to hear how being gritty and growing grit on your team is an essential part of becoming a superboss. 

Listen and subscribe here.

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Parental Leave Shouldn’t Be Stressful

Sarah Elizabeth reflects on her experience with Frontier’s parental leave policy.

This morning I got to witness my baby boy’s first laugh—an actual belly-tightening, full-mouthed guffaw. It was glorious. The joy that filled this working mama was immediately followed by gratitude for the opportunity to experience that milestone firsthand, with his chubby 3-month old little body nestled in my arms.

He is our second child. When our firstborn hit that same milestone, I only got to see it from afar on my cell phone’s tiny screen, in a video texted to me by our caregiver.

I am not aiming to sound jaded or ungrateful regarding my first maternity leave. I was lucky enough to have received a relatively generous amount of time off with my firstborn, all of which was at least partly compensated. In the United States, this is the exception, not the rule.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 16 percent of new moms take only one to four weeks away from work after the birth of a child—and an entire third take no formal time off at all, returning to the job almost immediately. I recognize how fortunate I was compared with many other working moms in our country.

But even with comparatively generous time and compensation, that transition back to work after my first child was difficult. I was riddled with alternating feelings of guilt—that I wasn’t being a good enough mother and alternatively that I wasn’t being a good enough employee. The logistical nuts and bolts of the short-term disability policy weren’t clear and I spent several days stressfully fretting over my compensation. And once I returned to the office, it felt as though my team expected me to return exactly as I had been, to pick up right where I had left off on the day my water broke.    

All working parents know this tale—the difficult balancing act of becoming a parent and then transitioning back into the working world. Each employee’s journey into parenthood is different, but there’s one common thread across all these experiences: a monumental transformation. For each new parent, life is inexorably and irrevocably altered (mostly for the better, although say fare-thee-well to a full night’s sleep). What I’d like to suggest is that all companies—no matter the specifics of each different maternity policy—can do one small thing to ease the transition for their new parents: Be flexible.

I returned to work at Frontier a full four weeks earlier than with my firstborn. But it was a diametrically different experience than my first maternity leave because of our company’s collective flexibility. While I was certainly held accountable for my responsibilities and duties, I was also pleasantly surprised that my team exhibited an understanding of my needs and limitations when it came to assignments, travel, and new projects. There was genuine interest in my well-being as both a new mom and Frontier employee.

My supervisor and HR manager sought clear and frequent communication ahead of my leave to set expectations and a tentative timeline for return. These lines of communications and regular check-ins continued once I returned. My original return plan consisted of five half-days in the office each week. I quickly realized that I didn’t have enough time in a single day to make meaningful headway on any project. I relayed this feeling to my manager and we adjusted my weekly schedule to consist of two full days and one half-day in the office.

Part of my role as a Facilitator for Frontier Academy is to be in front of a room for eight hours a day, here in our Studio and at client sites all over the world. To make sure that facet of my work isn’t prohibitive to breastfeeding, Frontier has a beautifully-appointed Mother’s Room to nurse or pump in private, and our team is proactive with all our clients about tips and suggestions for on-site pumping. Frontier also has a specific on-staff position—the Parents Liaison—to help new mothers and fathers navigate this crazy journey.

Beyond the generous nature of our parental leave policy (and I should note here that the same amount of paid leave is extended to ALL new parents—mothers, fathers, adoptive and surrogate parents), the overarching message underpinning the plan spoke abundant volumes to me as a Frontier employee. To me, it said:

“You are a whole person with a life outside our office walls, and as a company we genuinely care about that external experience. We want you to be able to experience and process fully life’s biggest milestones. We want to be a support to you in times of joy, tumult, and transition. We do not want to be an additional source of stress.”

While such a mindset might seem like wishy-washy softness vulnerable to employee exploitation, this genuine care is in fact returned to the company in spades. With the freedom to address changes in your home life, you can come to work unencumbered, fully engaged, and with a sharper focus on the task at hand. Think back to that third of new moms who take essentially no postpartum leave; those women return to their jobs physically and mentally exhausted, coping with the demands of both a newborn and a boss. That doesn’t sound like a prescription for engaged, productive work. In the same way that research has shown money becomes a non-issue for employees when they feel adequately compensated from the get-go, so too did worry about my children melt away when I felt I had adequate time to spend with them as we became a new family of four.

The mental bridge between maternity leave and returning to work is a challenging one to cross. Organizations can ease this transition—to the advantage of both company and employee alike—by employing a holistic, empathetic approach that emphasizes flexibility as a focus of their parental leave policy.

If you’re ready to start a conversation about how we can help you build empathy and flexibility into your team’s HR policies, here’s what you need to know now:

> Your Guide // Sarah Elizabeth, Frontier Academy Facilitator  > Contact // [email protected]

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Sustainability Challenge: Ditching Disposable Bags

Lauren shares the success of our team’s latest sustainability challenge.

The Frontier Project just completed a team-wide sustainability challenge: foregoing disposable bags (both paper and plastic) any time we shopped and opting instead for reusable bags (or no bag at all). For the last six weeks, we kept track of our progress by adding a “leaf” to our Reusable Bag Challenge tree for each disposable bag saved.

The grand total? 343 bags that won’t end up in landfills or oceans! It’s a very promising start—if we keep this up all year, it will amount to nearly 3,000 bags saved, a total of about 45 pounds, and the fuel equivalent of about 250 miles of driving. That’s quite an impact for something that requires little effort, investment, or lifestyle change!

Switching over to reusables is a habit that most of us are still working to develop and maintain, but it’s definitely within reach. This small shift can make a huge positive impact, and it’s so rewarding and empowering to do the little things we can individually to help protect our environment.

Here are a few eye-opening facts that break down just how beneficial reusable bags are for the environment*

The average reusable bag has a lifespan equal to that of more than 700 disposable plastic bags.

The average American goes through six shopping bags per week. With a population of roughly 300 million, that means 1.8 billion bags are used and discarded in America every week. Yikes!

It takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce the plastic bags that the U.S. uses every year.

An estimated one million birds, 100,000 turtles, and countless other sea animals die each year from ingesting discarded plastic.

The U.S. cuts down 14 million trees a year to supply the raw material to make paper shopping bags.

It takes 13% more energy to make a single paper bag than to make two plastic bags.

Paper bags aren’t necessarily a better choice for the environment. They create more than twice as much atmospheric waste as plastic bags.

*Source: reusethisbag.com

Before beginning this challenge, if I forgot to bring my reusable bags to the store I assuaged my guilt by using paper bags rather than plastic. I felt like they were a relatively harmless choice since they’re recyclable—it never really dawned on me just how many resources go into producing them or the impact of the toxins used to make them. But the statistics are sobering. Now, after being diligent for 6 weeks, I’ve developed the new habit of always bringing my trusty reusable bags along for the ride on shopping trips.

Frontier even provided our team with small reusable produce bags—the kind you use to hold individual produce items while shopping—which saved a LOT of little plastic bags from carrying apples and lettuce for approximately 20 minutes before being discarded and heading for the landfill. These netted cotton bags are washable, sustainable, and a fun talking point with fellow shoppers. Plus, now my kitchen trash doesn’t nearly fill up after a shopping trip.

Here’s what a few fellow teammates had to say about their experiences with the challenge:

Kevin: “For me, it highlighted how easy it was to make a small change in my daily routine as long as I was being mindful about it. In fact, using the bags was the easy part. The harder part was making the behavioral shift to always grab reusable bags when going shopping. I can't even count how many reusable bags I have stashed away and didn't routinely use until I made a concerted effort to be mindful about it. That made all the difference in the world, and now it's become second nature to grab a few bags out of the closet before we head to the grocery store. Having the extra reminder of the tree helped too. It's funny how something so simple as getting to put green dots on a tree made me think of grabbing the bags before I left the house.”

Brigid: “During this past month's sustainability challenge, I was able to finally make a habit of using reusable bags. I got into the groove of putting them on a hook near the door when I was done and that made all the difference. It also dawned on me that I should be bringing these bags to more places than just the grocery store. Target, CVS, Home Depot? These were all fair game, and I wouldn't have realized that without the incentive of this challenge. I also loved the visual impact of the tree and how that made me feel connected and supported by my teammates. Overall, A++!”

Ryann: “I learned that I almost always remember my bags once I'm already inside the store, which is frustrating. And also that I can carry a lot in my purse if I need to. I loved this challenge because it made bags so much more top of mind than usual and it helped me hold myself accountable to going back out to the car to grab my reusables even when it was annoying and inefficient.”

Katie: “This simple challenge of putting green dots on a tree led me to learn so much more about my family’s reliance on plastic bags. Where we landed: I didn’t use plastic bags all month! We bought some compostable puppy pick up bags– and though they aren’t ideal– are smaller and we are hopeful they do decompose. My husband used the reusable bags as often as he could, but if we needed a plastic bag or two he did grab one. All in all we reduced, definitely reused, and we did as much as we could to refuse the offering of plastic bags– which is all around us.”

Katherine: “The challenge was a great motivator to cut down on bags at the farmer’s market, where the delightfully accommodating vendors are always offering to bag up produce in plastic bags. I was able to save quite a few bags -- and add a nice number of leaves to our tree -- by refusing each of their offers. It felt good to come home from the market with only fresh produce tucked snugly into my cloth bags. Without the challenge, I may have gotten a little lazy about that.”

It’s inspiring to see how our bag challenge’s final numbers show our progress. We’re dedicated to making sure this reusable bag habit is the new normal—and to extending our efforts even farther with a new sustainability challenge in the fall (stay tuned for that announcement!). We urge you to challenge yourself to develop new green habits with us! Mother Earth (and all her creatures) will thank you.

[frontierdispatches]

Be A Neighbor

Ryan Mauter reflects on the difficult issues of racial inequality, hate, and personal responsibility to answer the question: What can one person do in the face of so many problems?

It was the voice of my 12th grade English teacher, Mr. Crowley, that I heard driving home from work a few days ago. “Writers write,” he would say, “and writers write to be read.” My younger and more idealistic self looked into the crystal ball of my future, at that time, and saw what the life of a writer could look like: romantic, important, prolific.

Today, as I add my voice to the blistering porcupine of a conversation that has ballooned around race and equity since white nationalists arrived in Charlottesville on August 12th, I realize that the scintilla-sized amount of my own written words published to this world sits at such a tiny word count for one reason: fear.

The act of commenting on the topic of race or equity (and it’s not lost on me that I am a white male, with all the privilege that confers), has become—for me—just short of insurmountably taboo. It’s as if there’s a preventative force that’s grown within me, that often holds me back from walking the path my younger self looked at with a sense of calling. And that’s because the exponentially available, searchable, and amplifiable amount of information now networked across the globe seems ready, at moment’s notice, to diminish anyone or what they have to say.

It’s an inner voice saying “not you.” Because, as Mr. Crowley also explained to us, “writers write what they know.” Who am I, privileged as I am, to comment on racism? Who’s out there ready to tell me I’ve got something all wrong? What’s another digital communique going to do?

To add to all this, those of us who live in Richmond face a local set of protests regarding the place of confederate monuments in our city—protests that most residents have treated cautiously, but that ultimately came without the violence manifested in Charlottesville. These protests remind all of us of unresolved questions and tensions around how we confront our history, our future, and the role race must play in that journey. Often I ask: where to begin?

I’ve grappled with all these questions, and plenty of others, and here’s a readily available observation guiding me now: there are millions of people across the planet, many of them here in the U.S., that would welcome and dream of a day when the only thing between themselves and taking any action would be a little bit of fear. Instead, it is not only fear that holds them back (though that may be part of it) but poverty or war or systemic racism or injustice in its many forms.

So I have no excuses for my fear. Please, Ryan, get over it and get on with it.

As I drove home that day and Mr. Crowley’s voice popped into my head, I found myself curtailing what I thought would be deeper reflection and further research into what I wanted to say about all this—about the unacceptability of hate and the white supremacists in Charlottesville. Instead, I began to think more about something my friend and coworker Mila Thomas said to me.

I had walked her into talking about race and politics and their place at work. Somewhere along the line I mentioned that I’d called both George Mason’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution and Harvard Law School’s Program On Negotiation to ask what tools or resources they have for helping people to talk about these issues—the difficult issues that walk with us everyday, but that so many of us don’t know what (exactly) to do with. Politics and race at work? Yikes. Initially, I thought I’d package that up to share with you here in this article.

But I don’t need any of that to move from reflection to action, which is what Mila so gracefully reminded me.

Because somewhere in our conversation, Mila, visibly a little frustrated, paused for a moment and said, “you know, I don’t think we need any more research or tools for this thing. Just be a neighbor.”

She explained to me that “be a neighbor” is something she has derived from her faith. It looks like white-couple friends of hers moving into the Jackson Ward neighborhood of Richmond and taking in a next door neighbor’s black son. To have him live alongside their family, including three children of their own. It’s this couple choosing to live in a predominantly black neighborhood that continues to struggle in overcoming a long history of discrimination. They could live elsewhere, but they couldn’t be the neighbors they want to be if they did.

It looks like talking to people that are different than you with respect at the grocery store register, working on empathy for anyone you have a hard time relating to, and supporting organizations that matter to you with your time and or your money. It looks like concerning yourself first with the wellbeing of people on the planet today before you concern yourself about what exactly you will get back from that.

For Mila, it’s changing her perspective about a family that’s moving into the unit above her—a single mom with three kids in a two bedroom apartment—from one of grievance, because chances are there will be some additional noise around her home, into a perspective in which she can invite them down for dinner and even spend time with the kids.

“Be a neighbor.” It’s hit home for me.

It has helped me to jump my one miniscule and taboo hurdle. A blog post is the least of what I can and will do. It’s also helped ground me and remind me that the issue isn’t that I’m not already being a neighbor in some fashion, but that I am dissatisfied with what’s happening and need to do more. Taking that to heart is important—there’s a host of things I’ve done, and you’ve likely done, to help create a better world, but it’s too easy to focus on the fact that they simply aren’t enough.

It’s hard—really hard—and incremental work. It’s inefficient and messy and another thing on the to do list that’s already packed full. About a month ago, the issue of racism had headline attention because of the event in Charlottesville—but what have I done? What have you done? Is all of this yesterday’s news?

What do you do?

You be a neighbor.

How do you be a neighbor?

You go and be a neighbor.

I arrive home, park the car, and instead of retreating with a head full of tired thoughts from the work day, talk to my (literal) neighbor about her bat problem. I talk to another neighbor about the stress he’s feeling with a newborn and a house project. We leave those conversations with a little more of the sense that we’re all in it together.

And it’s about what I don’t do, too.

What I work to not do is let judgement of myself and whether or not my actions—past and present—are as good or as meaningful as what others are doing get in my way. Because, again, if only getting over a little self-judgement was the one thing facing the mom of that little boy instead of the full plate of challenges that surround her right now. If only the parents on the long list of young people arrested or violently assaulted could have the luxury of committing effort to issues with their “free” time. It’s their full time, on the daily—and not by choice.

My choice? I can do the next thing that’s in front of me. I can type out these words.

I am a neighbor by now providing regular financial support to the Equal Justice Initiative that advances another strategy which mobilizes the tools of narrative, legal action, and advocacy. EJI talks honestly about our history and shines a light on the false stories that need correction, on a day-to-day basis, in court rooms and living rooms. I recognize that the complexity of issues involved is massive and the solutions elusive, but I can still take action, no matter how small it may seem.

I am a neighbor by confronting the fact that I’ve not had much luck aligning my schedule to volunteer more with an organization in town that I care about called Blue Sky Fund, so I open up a new door by connecting with the Peter Paul Development Center.

I am a neighbor by writing this so that maybe, if you personally relate to anything I’ve had to say, it will help you take your next step, whatever that may be, in your effort to create a world where peace and equality and love are the connective tissue at home and across the globe.

And I am a neighbor by starting this conversation with more and more people around me every day. I don’t wait for the perfect question or moment; I jump right in.

I’d like to avoid a patronizing tone, so I won’t lay out instructions for what you should do, because I don’t know. For me, it means ceasing to look for a guide on the internet or just commiserating with like-minded people that “the world is just so crazy—what do we do?” It means doing the next thing, whatever it is, instead of getting caught up in the what-if’s. My what-ifs are the tiniest of paper tigers when compared to the road that the friends and families of the 4,000 African Americans lynched between 1877 to 1950 have walked, and will walk, alongside the friends and families now of Heather Heyer too.

I am encouraged that as I continue to speak with others openly about the problems of our world, and continue to educate myself on issues like racial inequality in the U.S., the number of good people that believe in equality far overwhelms those that don’t. I see that there’s more momentum that can be made. I remind myself that while I feel encouraged, there are still scores and scores of people experiencing something awful right here and now, today, and that’s why I have to keep all of this top of mind, top of heart.

Forgive yourself for not doing enough and do, right now, what’s next. I guess I am giving direction after all, at the risk of sounding patronizing. Big changes start with little changes. Take the first step. Do the next thing. What does the next thing look like for you?

Be a neighbor.

> Your Guide // Ryan, Facilitator for Frontier Academy   > Contact // [email protected]

[frontierdispatches]

Putting Pen to Paper with Scout Books

Experience Producer Elise Canup talks about the power of writing, and shows off Frontier’s new Academy notebooks produced by Scout Books.

If you’ve ever participated in one of our workshops, you know how much we value putting pen to paper. Whether it’s jotting down thoughts in a notebook or working through complex problems using one of our custom-designed worksheets—our workshops take advantage of the power of writing. That’s not by chance. 

Recent neuroscience suggests that slowing down and writing (rather than typing) fires up the brain, improving long term memory retention and increasing our ability to generate ideas. Scientists think that’s not only because we’re less distracted by notifications flying across the screen, but because writing by hand requires a deeper level of neurological processing. (You can read more about that research here and here.)

Since writing allows us to better comprehend and remember our thoughts, we feel it’s important to support those brain functions with the right tools. That’s why we are picky about our workshop materials. Our worksheets are created in-house by our content writers and designers, and we print everything on eco-friendly, recycled paper.

To print our new Frontier Academy notebooks, we’ve teamed up with Scout Books. Based out of Portland, Oregon, Scout Books crafts high quality custom notebooks right here in the USA using 100% recycled paper and Earth-friendly, vegetable-based inks.  Their shop even runs on renewable energy. (You can read more about Scout Books here.)

Don’t they look great?

Click here to find a Frontier Academy workshop that will engage your team with the power of the written word. 

[frontierdispatches]

New Podcast: The View From 40,000 Feet

This week, we continue our coverage of Charles’ Duhigg’s Smarter Faster Better—coming to you straight from the cockpit. Host Ryan Mauter chats with pilot Katina Malliarakis about her experience flying Boeing 777s across the world. Up in the air, human error has consequences, so understanding the varied demands of flight can help us better understand human performance. And even when things go wrong, the black box doesn’t hold all the answers; the learned wisdom of the people who execute flight plans is crucial for improving aviation industry performance and safety. 

Listen and subscribe here.

[frontierdispatches]

Who’s in Control?

Frontier Academy Partner Katie discusses why it’s important to be diligent about how your create and maintain your habits.

There’s a daily battle for control of all my decisions—and yours. We are all split in two, between our logical, planning functions, and the part of ourselves that unthinkingly falls back on habit. The shockingly beautiful thing about my work is that because it's rooted in habits, psychology, and behavioral economics, I can identify and better understand this battle—and help others do the same.

 I've been with Frontier for just over 5 years now. In that time, I've learned more about habits, psychology, and behavioral economics than I could have ever imagined possible as a BBA graduate from a liberal arts school located in the small town of Harrisonburg, Virginia (Go Dukes!).

I’ve learned that the logical part of my brain makes me think I am in control, while the habitual part of my brain loves to take control. Just when I think I’m mastering a new skill or process, my brain reminds me that we—meaning those two forces—live in the same body.

Last Tuesday, I was rushing out the door to drive to the airport. All the while, I was also on a conference call with my colleagues. I was doing what most of us consider multi-tasking, something I know I really can't do based on neuroscience, but something I attempt daily. Travel is a big part of my role at Frontier Academy, and so driving to the airport is a routine as driving to my house these days. Being on a call at the same time seemed like no big deal. Right?

As I arrived at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, I pulled up my airline app on my phone to check my gate. “Delta: DAL—Gate 1,” read the screen. It didn’t make sense to me, because I knew Delta always flew out of Gate E. But hey, I had to focus on the conference call, so something must have just been wrong on the app. I shrugged to myself and pulled into the Gate E parking lot.

As I walked to security, still on the conference call, I allowed myself a brief moment of self-congratulations: "See Katie, you can do all these things at once. You are awesome and efficient!"

Still on my call, I smiled and waved apologetically at the security guard as I handed him my ID and placed my iPhone on the scanner. That's when everything changed.

The scanner turned red.

I tried again. The scanner turned red again.

Completely confused, I looked at the guard, who announced loudly. "Ma'am you are at the wrong airport." I hung up on my colleagues and gasped "I'm sorry—what?"

There’s a first time for everything, and that day was my first time flying out of Dallas Love Field, 9 miles away from the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, where I still stood dumbfounded in front of the security guard.

I rushed to my car and made it to Love Field in time to board my flight. I could only laugh at myself.

Habits are powerful. They can be extremely useful in the right situations, and frustrating in others. My mishap was avoidable, but understandable.

Learning new ways of doing things is hard. It's useful and challenging all at the same time. So know that, and embrace that reality. As you challenge yourself and your team to drive new behaviors, habits, and skills, keep in mind how difficult this process is while still diligently pressing forward to form new and better habits.

My airport fiasco was a great reminder: I am nothing more than a collection of habits. I must be mindful of and attentive to how I create and maintain them. When push comes to shove—when the two parts of my brain battle for control—my habits are in control more than I care to admit.

If you’re ready to harness the power of habit for your team, here’s what you need to know:

> Your Guide // Katie, Partner for Frontier Academy

> Contact // [email protected]