THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” 

— Ida B. Wells

At Frontline, we talk a lot about “learning out loud.” For us, that means being excellent partners to our clients and, when appropriate, sharing what we’re learning with the broader field. Check out some of our commentary, research, and analysis on equity, philanthropy, and more.

• Our Founder, Marcus Littles, recently penned a Love Letter to Black Women in DEI. Check out the letter here and this IG reel.
• Our ethos runs counter to the consulting sector’s culture, norms, and standards, such as valuing production over people. If the consulting sector wants to be useful, and even liberatory, we must invent new ways of working. Melissa DeShields, Frontline’s CEO, offered three ways we are experimenting with pushing the sector to dismantle barriers, be unconventional and lead courageously.
• Frontline Co-Founder Micah Gilmer spoke with Russ Finkelstein in a Washington Post feature about his leadership journey.
  • “I often focus on asking good questions that demonstrate that I am listening and that I understand my knowledge gaps. As I have evolved as a leader, I am less focused on proving that I am smart and more focused on demonstrating empathy, care, and my desire to understand.”’
• For all organizations, growth comes with opportunities and challenges, which are sometimes two sides of the same coin. How do you ride momentum while remaining strategic? How do you seize new possibilities while ensuring that your team doesn’t burn out? Melissa DeShields and Consulting Lead, Aisha Alexander-Young, shared some of our collective reflections about what it takes to build a truly liberatory consulting practice.
• We revamped and relaunched our podcast, now named “Helping Change.” Listen to our first episode of Season 2, featuring Frontline Consultants Hafizah Omar, Jouapag Lee, and Claire Downing in conversation about Frontline’s emergent approach to Learning and evaluation and what we’ve learned from innovators in the field
• Pathways to Progress is a new series highlighting some of the dope work we’re supporting our clients to build toward. In our first feature, we explored how RUNWAY drives capital to heal, repair, and connect Black businesses and communities.
• The world looked quite different when we first launched our equity footprint model of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in 2019. After a global pandemic and a subsequent national racial reckoning, the demand for expertise on equity has skyrocketed. We reflected on what has changed and how we’re digging deeper with clients who are ready to center equity and justice in everything they do, from strategic planning to collaboration and convening, to learning and evaluation, and program design.

LET’S GET FREE

“Community is the coming together of a group of individuals who have learned how to communicate honestly with each other, whose relationships go deeper than their masks of composure, and who have developed some significant commitment to ‘rejoice together, mourn together,’ and to ‘delight in each other, and make other’s conditions our own.’”

-bell hooks

Thank you for working with us to redefine what it takes to build a great consulting company. We look forward to learning and growing with you in the years to come. For now, though, we’re signing off as our team takes time to rest and restore. Our office will be closed from December 18, 2023- January 1, 2024. See you in 2024.

Below are some ways to keep in touch:

• Work with us! We’d love to help your organization realize its fullest potential.
• Subscribe to our e-newsletter.