Barry Glassman of Glassman Wealth Services pays for every employee to spend one day each quarter out of the office thinking up ideas to benefit the company in what's called a Thinking Day. Could such a practice benefit your office?
At GWS, Thinking Days had a restorative effect on team members and, curiously, were largely spent watching speeches at Ted.com. To crank things up even further, Glassman devoted a half-day each quarter for an all-staff meeting in which each employee presents a Ted.com video that resounded with them personally. It's this last strategy that's been most effective for the business, as Glassman writes in Forbes:
So what are some of the overall positive returns we've seen at GWS since we've implemented Thinking Day? Here are a few examples:
1. Improved Team integration: What better way for a team to become more connected than by seeing what others care about and share from their Thinking Day? 2. Greater Exposure: We've all seen and shared more keynote speeches than we ever could have been exposed to at any one conference. 3. Happy Employees: Giving people the time and permission to express their creativity and curiosity can yield an incredible payoff in terms of improved morale.
Taking employees out of the office for a day and a half each quarter might feel counterproductive to boosting efficiency, but it may provide just the right balance of downtime needed to preserve productivity and useful ideas to benefit the business.
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