There’s No Future Without Conflict
Navigating the Human Element
In Greek mythology, Daedalus (DED-uh-lus) was known as a renowned craftsman and inventor. Fast forward to 2017 and Daedalus lends his name to the first spaceship that could take humans to Mars. With a crew of six, ten wizard-class engines, and nine million pounds of thrust, the science behind our journey to Mars is plausible. It’s plausible for humans to land on Mars and for the technology to work flawlessly. The pilgrimage that covers 33.9 million miles is within reach. It can be done.
What can’t be predicted when the science is precise? Easy.
Humans.
Science has paved the way for this journey hardly conceivable to generations before our own. What’s fascinating is the amount of hard work necessary to cultivate a team of people that are right for the job. Every person on the team matters. One unplanned moment could cause an impulsive decision and damage the entire mission to Mars.
“There is no future without conflict.”
These words were recently introduced to our team by our dear friend, Travis Mason. About once a quarter we invite outside experts to share their latest thoughts and experiences with our team. With an open invitation to share anything on his mind, Travis expounded on ideas like:
- The future depends on conflict.
- Humility is the greatest weapon in conflict.
- Creating a better world depends on resolving conflict well.
Conflict can make or break teams. It can make or break organizations. It can make or break missions.
Every person on our team plays a specific role in supporting our mission. It is the same for you and your team. And with every new team member comes a new opportunity: A new viewpoint, a new skillset, and certainly new opinions. And when we openly encourage new opinions, we also invite conflict. The important thing in all of this, as Travis alluded to, is reframing our perspective to better understand and react to conflict. Instead of viewing conflict as a necessary evil, we reframe conflict as an opportunity to chisel, refine, and sculpt our understanding of a problem at hand.
We’re not traveling to Mars, but we’re traveling somewhere together. Trekking a vast and beautiful digital world. Against all odds, we’re in this together. Conflict is bound to happen, but as we resolve it well…we’re bound to discover a better world.
“Whiteboarding a Better World” by MailChimp
More than 15 million people and businesses around the world use MailChimp. Their features and integrations allow you to send marketing emails, automated messages, and targeted campaigns. We were honored when their team asked to write a story about our work.
Featured Projects
Since 2007, Last Mile Health has partnered with the government of Liberia to train, equip, employ and support community health workers. These community health workers are nominated by local leaders, and trained, with support from nurses, to diagnose and treat a wide range of medical problems. Last night, at the annual TED Conference, Last Mile Health’s CEO, Raj Panjabi, announced the Community Health Academy, a global platform to train, empower, and connect community health workers in every corner of the world.
In February, more than 5,000 Chick-fil-A Operators, staff, spouses, and guests gathered in Dallas, Texas to look ahead to what is NEXT for Chick-fil-A in 2017. Alongside Chick-fil-A and our friends at Brand Apart, our team had the honor of designing and developing the app that served as a central information hub for attendees.
A new future of learning is emerging — one that celebrates the wonder, creativity, and endless imagination in every child. Education Reimagined seeks to discover champions for learner-centered education, connect them to one another, and create the space for exploration, collaboration, and innovation. All of us are shaped by the education we’ve received. Take a few minutes to learn more about Education Reimagined’s work by visiting their website.
She Is Able exists to create transformative outdoor experiences that help marginalized women find healing, well-being, and hope. They envision a world where each woman knows and understands her value as an individual. They believe that all women, in spite of their past or current circumstances, possess the qualities to be adventurous and brave, leaders and encouragers.
ScoutLands is a fellowship founded on the relentless pursuit of fine sporting heritage. Join them in this grand sporting tradition and embrace the allure of its unique sporting lifestyle. Their goal for ScoutLands is simple: Create authentic and memorable experiences, to be shared with family and friends, old and new. Learn more about ScoutLands by visiting their website.
The Camp House serves as a city commons where people work, meet, and collaborate around food, drink, and social events. It also known as Whiteboard’s second office. We were honored to build the website for one of our favorite places in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Company Highlights
Whiteboard Featured By MailChimp
Seriously, if you haven’t read the MailChimp article about our work click here.
Traveled to London
Ross Hagan, Stephen Van Gorp, and Alex Nichols traveled to London to spend a week with our friends at Tearfund, an organization working tirelessly to help communities around the world escape the very worst effects of poverty and disaster.
Traveled to Haiti
Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti is on a mission to raise a healthy generation of Haitian children, who can in turn, raise Haiti from poverty. Mia Baker, Kody Dahl, and Ross Hagan just arrived back from Haiti after working on an upcoming campaign. The picture below was taken by Mia.
Lauren Cutrell Featured in Tuts+
Lauren was featured in Tuts+, a leading online community that teaches creative and technical skills to millions worldwide. Lauren continues to be asked for her expertise in agile methodology. Read her article here.
See you at Squares in Grapevine, Texas & Q in Nashville, Tennessee
Jonathan and Lauren are speaking on a panel at Squares Conference, a three-day design and development conference bringing together designers and makers from around the globe. Taylor is on a Technology panel at Q, a conference for faith and industry leaders to thoughtfully navigate today’s culture.
The Master of One Podcast @ Creative South
A featured podcast event at Creative South ’17. The Master of One podcast interviewed over 30 high-level creatives from organizations like Vox, Adobe, Johnny Cupcakes, Disney and more. If you didn’t know…our own Patrick Hill is one of the co-founders and hosts of Master of One. Check it out here.
Jonathan Cutrell’s Developer Tea Reaches 6 Million Downloads
Jonathan’s podcast, Developer Tea, continues to be a leading authority for developers around the world. If you haven’t listened to an episode yet, start here.
Taylor’s New Title, Dad.
And this biggest celebration goes to Taylor Jones and his family. Introducing Berkley René Jones who came into the world on 3/27/17 at 8:01pm, 8 lb 9.7 oz, 21.5 inches long. She’s beautiful.
Local Involvement
Purposity Launch Party
We were honored to host Purposity Chattanooga’s launch party alongside a community who has truly taken hold of this platform. Learn more about Purposity here and if you haven’t read up on the current features of this platform, click here.
8 Companies to Watch in 2017
CityScope Magazine featured Whiteboard as one of 8 Companies to Watch in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
CreativeMornings Chattanooga
It’s been a blast sponsoring our CreativeMornings chapter. Yes — we love the coffee, donuts, and speakers. But we love the community who rallies together on the last Friday of every month even more. Kody is also a great host.
An Introduction to Whiteboard
We recently created a new video that expounds on our philosophy and what we do day in and day out.
