“We set BIG growth targets for last year, and we knew we couldn’t deliver them alone. We needed the team to think bigger,” says Claire Lamb, director of Skout.

“And we’d noticed that younger team members hate failure, and won’t take a risk if they think they’re going to fail. It got me thinking that we needed to find a way for them to experience failure – but in a safe environment.”

But while introducing the concept of growth mindset was one thing, getting the team to implement this was an entirely different ball game.

“They really needed to do something quite practical,” Claire explains. “The thing with growth mindsets is, you have to fail. That’s the whole point. You don’t grow or learn unless you fuck it up in some way.”

Claire set about launching a ‘growth challenge week’, where each team member had to choose one task that absolutely terrified them. This could be anything: a difficult call with a client, chasing outstanding invoices, or cold calling a new business prospect.

They had a week to complete their tasks, being able to ask as many questions as they wanted – but they had to do it themselves. If everyone succeeded, they got a Friday afternoon off.

By taking a more practical approach, it’s helped Claire with:

• Getting the team to think differently.
• Challenging them to face their fears.
• Making them realise it’s okay to make mistakes – and to learn from them.

“I’ve worked in agencies before, and the fear of failure is overwhelming,” says Claire. “People just don’t like to make mistakes and will do everything they possibly can not to make a mistake – which basically means playing safe.”

“The thing is, you don’t do your best work when you play safe. Some of the most creative stuff is done when barriers are taken out of the way. Sometimes you need to stop overthinking and just do it.”

Join us as we discuss with Claire the importance of going beyond theory and knowledge, and how Skout’s practical approach has improved things for both her team AND her clients’ happiness.