Finding a Lesson in Every Day

April 14, 2019

Author: Meghan Stewart

Here at Ingenuity, we’re big fans of learning by doing. It’s that all-hands-on-deck, start-up mentality that helps us succeed. We believe that every project is another chance to learn, whether that’s a new skill or an insight from a success or misstep.

You’ll find that mentality in our values. We preach the importance of exercising our brains, so when it’s time to decode the complex and create something impactful, measurable and memorable, we’re ready. Accountability is also key, if we’re honest with each other and ourselves, we’ll all be better because of it.

We ask questions every day, like how can we find better solutions, or how can we be more efficient. This agile culture helps us better serve our clients and create amazing things. During or after major projects we look back at the experience and evaluate ourselves in a brutally honest way.

It’s a Starfish, a kind of candid chat, where we talk openly about what we can:

keep doing
start doing
stop doing
do more of
do less of

It’s an airing of grievances and a pat on the back, all at once. A Starfish strengthens our abilities to have difficult conversations about our successes and failures, both individually and as a team, and to take accountability for them. That way when we have a familiar project or challenge come across our desks, we can look back at the Starfish and put our learnings into action.

We’ve also Starfished (if that wasn’t already a word, it is now) with clients, recapping our experiences and findings in order to build trust and grow efficiencies within our relationships. In fact, after last year’s eBay Leaders Conference we had a collaborative post mortem, and those learnings are being put into action for Leaders 2019 as we speak. Best conference ever, coming soon.

We’re adept at being adaptive and we’re fearless in the face of failure. Because at the end of the day, all of our experiences make us better. Better creatives, better strategists and better partners. And if that ever stops happening, we’ll learn from it and keep moving.