Tim Huelskamp is cofounder and CEO of the news and knowledge platform 1440. The entire company holds a dedicated week each quarter where they cancel most meetings and take time to think about ways to improve the business. This story has been edited for length and clarity.
We did our first “Thinking Week” in December 2023. People need vacations to recharge, but the company sometimes needs a vacation, too.
It’s like the company is just getting into the monotony of meeting scheduled, meeting scheduled, do this, do this. It’s really good to press the reset button.
So, in 2023, I brought it to the team and said, “Why don’t we give everyone time to test this new Thinking Week? If it doesn’t work, awesome. But if it does, we’ll continue it.” Obviously, we have to continue to serve our customers, but internal meetings were canceled, and all non-essential, outward-facing meetings were canceled, as well.
Everyone really loved the time. It added a ton of value. There’s been an example every time that has really floored me.
The first Thinking Week, we actually had time to step back and say, “The way our advertisements work, are they structured the right way?” The idea came from our VP of sales, who had the time to think freely and explore other advertisers, and not just look at our own industry data, but actually go research.
She basically came up with the idea, and then we executed on it when she returned. It drove a 39% increase in engagement for these ads. If you annualize that, it essentially paid for all of our salaries for the year.
Go on a hike or a nature walk
With Thinking Week, once you do it, you realize how valuable it is. Our new employees are often a little bit confused about how they’re supposed to be spending their time.
Related stories
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Some people are like, “Wait, I literally don’t do anything for a week? How does that make any sense?” But once they go through it, they get it, and they come back and they’re like, “I had this awesome breakthrough, or I caught up with all this work, or I studied AI and growth, and now I’m going to work on some new projects.”
I tell people that the best way to do it is to go on a hike or a nature walk and not take your phone with you. There’s something about when your body is moving, your blood is flowing better, and your mind gets to explore.
We usually do them at the end of quarters. Some people, because they know they have that time, push something off and say, “I know I’m going to have 10 hours to think about that. So I’ll do that in Q3 Thinking Week.”
I don’t know if every Thinking Week has a “Here’s a 100% ROI initiative.” But all the time, there are these new little gifts we get from it.
One of the first Thinking Weeks, I spent time on, “What are some really cool, outside-the-box ideas if we say we want to have the best benefits in the world?” We came up with the concept of body scans for our employees and their significant others.
I was thinking about how our families are a part of this journey with us. So how do we help your family? We did a new benefit where, on their birthday, every child of a 1440 employee gets $500 toward a 529 account. That was one of my Thinking Week projects.
Can I prove that those two investments led to ROI? I don’t think I can show you an exact number, but I’m very confident that the value from having a near 100%-retained workforce means we’re going to get that back in the future.
We think in quarters
The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that the leadership has to walk the walk. So if you promote it, but then they don’t see the leadership doing it, it doesn’t work. So, I’ve tried to make sure that every Thinking Week, I practice what I preach.
After Thinking Week, we have a Monday call with the whole team, and we encourage people to share how they spent their time. Then there’s some momentum that happens.
Just through experimentation, it feels like the quarterly cadence is about right. We have a long-term vision, but we think about executing in quarters. This mirrors the schedule and velocity we have for products. It allows you to say, “Hey, we went into Q3 thinking this, what did we learn? What are we going to think about in Q4?” It gives you that time to actually do that work.
The idea for this is from other really smart people who came before us, like Henry David Thoreau. All these folks were always like, “Hey man, just go take a walk in the woods.” Something about being around nature makes you maybe think differently.
Thinking Week shows a couple of things. It proves to people that we built a company that can take a break every quarter and the thing won’t go off the rails. Second, it promotes mental health, resting, and being your best.
As I say to the team: If you hire brilliant people but don’t let them use their minds, what does that say? With anything people-related, what I’ve learned since starting this company is, if you treat your employees like royalty, it’s not only great for your people, it’s great for your bottom line.
Do you have a story to share about your workplace culture? Contact this reporter at [email protected].
