That is a question I posed to the team as our two-day Studiothink retreat was coming to an end. We had covered a lot of material during facilitated programming on communication styles and preferences, inherent character traits, values, vision, metrics and goals, and everyone was feeling good, though exhausted.
As a company, we place high value on strategy, creativity and client communication — doing what we say we’ll do. Reflectively, effective time management is an important objective/area of continual improvement for us.
With an understanding of the value of personal growth, family balance and happiness as it relates to professional success — in combination with some research I’d been doing on strategies for developing a motivated and accountable team — I designed what we’re calling our Summer 2015 One More Day Initiative.
Our OMD Initiative provides the opportunity for a four-day work week and asks the question: “What would you do with one more day, dedicated to areas of personal, family and community that would allow you to be integral to a continually better and growing work team and a really cool organizational culture?”
We’d stay connected to the initiative and each other by having an OMD wall in our office where team members share pictures or representations of their OMD.
With summer officially beginning a week after our retreat, the team was excited but anxious about the ability to manage workflow, deadlines, email, etc.
We’re a couple of months in now, and here are some observations:
- We protect each other’s OMD whenever possible. One of our values is “I’ve got your back.” This initiative is really allowing people to live it.
- The work is getting done. Somehow, people are actually doing more in four days than had been getting done in five.
- There’s an overarching “attitude of gratitude.” People are grateful to be able to spend time with family or on personal commitments — and I as CEO appreciate being able to provide an “employee benefit” meaningful to individuals and affordable to a small business.
- We’re a small team of 15 people and so being together as a full team only three days a week can have its downside. We have to make sure we intentionally focus on communication and collaboration.
- The OMD has highlighted a continued need for strong processes and systems throughout the business.
When we began the OMD in June, we decided the positives and negatives would be discussed and that we would analyze specific data including workflow, timelines and deadlines, and client and employee satisfaction to determine if we will continue our four-day workweek when summer cooled to fall. Something tells me, the team will have a little extra time to enjoy all the amazing things happening in Cleveland over the coming months.
Christine Lobas is the CEO/founder of Studiothink.
