Speaker 1: If you're a leader, you need time to think, like
Speaker 1: just think, because it's all too easy to miss the
Speaker 1: forest for the trees. The day to day work in
Speaker 1: any organization is relentless. As soon as one problem is solved,
Speaker 1: two more take its place. Thinking quick, being adaptable, and
Speaker 1: staying calm at all critical parts of being a leader.
Speaker 1: But sometimes you need to take a step back. Level's
Speaker 1: co founder and CEO, Sam caucas believes a leader needs
Speaker 1: to really take a step back, sometimes even for a
Speaker 1: whole week. So every quarter Sam goes remote and escapes
Speaker 1: for a think week. So what exactly happens on a
Speaker 1: think week and how does Sam structure it? And for Sam,
Speaker 1: what's been the payoff. My name is doctor Amantha Imba,
Speaker 1: and I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral
Speaker 1: science consultancy Inventium. And this is how I work a
Speaker 1: show about how to help you do your best work.
Speaker 1: On today's my Favorite Tip episode where you go back
Speaker 1: to an interview from the past and I pick out
Speaker 1: my favorite tip from the interview. In today's show, I
Speaker 1: speak with Sam about his quarterly think week.
Speaker 2: It's something that I highly recommend to anyone in a
Speaker 2: strategic role. Every quarter, I take a week I would
Speaker 2: say off grid, but not necessarily without access to internet
Speaker 2: or whatnot. I actually really like having access to internet
Speaker 2: for me. I will often spend a lot of that
Speaker 2: time reading and reflecting and writing. I do a lot
Speaker 2: of writing. I'll often come out of one of these
Speaker 2: think weeks with fifty to one hundred page is of
Speaker 2: writing on company strategy or personal reflections or writing of
Speaker 2: content pieces. I find writing to be a really, a
Speaker 2: really satisfying activity, and so it is usually during these
Speaker 2: think weeks that I come up with some of my
Speaker 2: best ideas because it's I don't take any meetings, I
Speaker 2: don't take any calls. I really just focus as much
Speaker 2: as I can on the big picture. So a lot
Speaker 2: of my best ideas have come from taking time away
Speaker 2: from the day to day, when you can think more
Speaker 2: holistically about your company and what the goals are, and
Speaker 2: what the trajectory is, and what the hiring plan is.
Speaker 2: I find that if I'm in the day to day,
Speaker 2: it's really easy to miss the forest for the trees.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I usually take I usually do it somewhere
Speaker 2: that's slightly remote, be it Joshua Tree or Yosemite, but
Speaker 2: so relatively accessible, and.
Speaker 1: Like, how do you structure the wake? Are the questions
Speaker 1: or tasks or things that you bring into guide you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. One of the consequences of keeping such a
Speaker 2: rigorous calendar is I actually I have my next think
Speaker 2: week planned, and I already have all of the days
Speaker 2: blocked off for the things that I'll be working on
Speaker 2: those weeks. As ideas come up and I realize that
Speaker 2: I am not going to have time to rethink the
Speaker 2: primary business model of the company, I'll jump ahead to
Speaker 2: my next think week in my calendar and block off
Speaker 2: a whole day to just think about business model. Or
Speaker 2: if it's for something completely unrelated, something like a personal
Speaker 2: thing that I want to reflect on, I can block
Speaker 2: off a wholiday for that. So I would say that
Speaker 2: it's they're usually mostly structured in advance of even getting there.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed hearing about Sam's Thinkweek, and maybe
Speaker 1: you're thinking about starting your own thinkweek, and if you are,
Speaker 1: after some more things to think about. Every fortnight I
Speaker 1: write in the newsletter call three cool things, and that's
Speaker 1: exactly what it covers, three cool things that I have
Speaker 1: learned about. It might be you gadgets or software, interesting research,
Speaker 1: or maybe a thought provoking article. So if you would
Speaker 1: like to get more stuff from me, you can sign
Speaker 1: up at howiwork dot co. Howiwork dot co. There's also
Speaker 1: a link in the show notes if you would like
Speaker 1: some more thought provoking things from myself. How I Work
Speaker 1: is produced by Inventium with production support from dead Set Studios,
Speaker 1: and thank you to Martin Nimber who does the audio
Speaker 1: mix for every episode and makes everything sound awesome. See
Speaker 1: you next time.