Frontier Academy’s content writer, Lauren, spells out a case for empathetic listening, then takes on real feedback we’ve gotten from our workshop participants.
No matter how you feel about this past election season, to me, the greatest overarching takeaway was that we seem to have lost an air of humility in our politics and in our journalism. In the place of character, we have celebrity. In the place of curiosity, we have certainty.
It seems to me we should be doing a better job of appreciating people as people on both sides of the aisle and everywhere in between. But to do that, to change the tone and dynamic of our country’s leadership and media on a national level, we first need to model what we want to see. We need to get more comfortable with asking uncomfortable questions, and then we need to listen. Really listen.
As a leadership and professional development company, we talk about empathetic listening a lot in our workshops, and we practice it too. It’s so foundational to building any sort of trust, and trust is the only way you can affect true change, do great work, engage employees, and create loyal customers.
Listening is also the only way you get better.
Our content is based on tons of research but also our personal experiences, observations, and your feedback. So we thought it’d be fun to show you how your feedback has helped us improve (and given us a few laughs). How we don’t take it for granted. How we hope it builds your faith and trust in us to continue as your partners moving forward. My point is, we hear you and appreciate you. We’re listening.
Below are real comments from workshop participants over the last year and the subsequent actions we’ve taken as a result. Because we know we’re also humanly imperfect and could always do better.
Q: What would make this course more effective?
A: More beer!
Frontier: Who doesn’t want a beer after a long day of class?! While we can’t pass you a brew on a break, you can always keep in touch with us after a workshop and set up time to grab a drink and talk more about what’s going on in your world. Ardent, Three Notch’d, The Veil, Isley, Blue Bee, Hardywood… they’re practically in our backyard, and we love to support local. This comment has me thinking of a new Happy Hour series, “Get a Beer with Frontier.”
A: Less sitting. My ass needs some (customer) service.
Frontier: Well, we don’t do massages, but as we truly love our standing desks, we can understand your desire to stand more throughout the day. This comment has me thinking about ways we can incorporate our standing bar tables into the workshop space to offer participants the option to move about throughout the day.
A: Less worksheets.
Frontier: We hear this feedback a LOT. But hear us out: We give you all that paper for a reason. Writing helps you retain and focus on ideas and information, so when you leave you can’t possibly say you didn’t learn something. It also gives you a reference for later on. Because, you know, we want you to use these things again. But this does have me thinking that for some of our less complex activities, we could skip the extra paper and just let you use the notebooks we give you instead.
A: More Michael Jackson.
Frontier: As one who prides herself on a good mix tape, you have my word that we will revisit our break time tunes to include some more MJ… and other genres to shake it up a bit. Hip-hop? The 90s? Bieber? Why not. (Don’t worry, no Neil Diamond.)
If you’ve got some more feedback you’d like to add to this mix, we’re here to listen. Always. Just drop us a line.
> Your Sounding Board // Lauren, Content Developer for Frontier Academy
> Contact // [email protected]
