Driving Efficiency and making the most of your time in a four- day workweek with David Whitesock of Commonly Well

Imagine a workplace where the four-day workweek is the norm. Would it lead to increased productivity and better work-life balance? In our latest episode, we sit down with David, a pioneer in designing healthier and more efficient workplaces, to discuss his recent introduction of a four-day workweek at his firm, Commonly Well. He enlightens us with the rationale and science behind this strategic decision, aiming to enhance productivity by maximizing focus and curbing time wastage. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
you, you, you.

(01:19):
Welcome to hatching creativity.
This isn't just anotherbehavioral health podcast.
This is the place where thoughtleaders converge to talk about
real life challenges,breakthroughs and pivotal aha
moments.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
So David and I have been talking about maximizing
our sales teams and our teamsefficiency and efficacy in our
work.
And, david, one of the thingsthat you had mentioned to me
recently was you've been workingon implementing a four-day work

(01:56):
week at your organizationcommonly well.
Can you tell me a little bitabout how that works and what
you've put together?

Speaker 3 (02:04):
You know, if we're going to be in the healthcare
field and there is going to bedata and science and research
coming out about how to be well,how to create more sustainable
workplaces that are fun to be atand that produce the best
productivity output, we shouldapply that stuff right and in

(02:28):
the last couple of well, three,four, maybe five years, there's
been a growing move to reallytry to understand output and
well-being in the workplace andMicrosoft and a few others kind
of led the way around this ideaof the four-day work week not
necessarily working less and notnecessarily working harder in
shorter times, but puttingpeople in a position to maximize

(02:53):
their focus and eliminating thewaste of time and so that's the
way we've been thinking about.
it is gosh, how many days do wejust sit?
And maybe we have some likestanding weekly meetings on a
Friday just to catch up when we?
We could probably just put thatinto an email or something

(03:15):
where we don't really need tomeet.
What if I just gave you thathour back?
So that's the way we're lookingat it.
We're sort of looking at ourtime spent in activity and
realizing we really only needfour strong days, or four and a
half strong days, of committedfocus to get the same, if not
more, output.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
And then you're rebuilding and recovering for
the next week is also reallyimportant too, to allow you to
recover and do this week afterweek.
I had an interview not thatlong ago.
I love the idea and I'm gonnatell you where my mind goes with
this Cause I had an interviewwith a gentleman by the name of

(03:55):
Lee Povey not that long ago andmy conversation with Lee was
around corporate culture and oneof the topics that we talked
about was that the leadershipand management needs to follow
the same guidelines that theyexpect of their people.
So when you talk to meoriginally about having a four

(04:19):
day work week, my first instinctis that's amazing, because then
I have another day where I'mnot being pulled in a bunch of
directions for other people andI could get more done on that
fifth day.
And it hits me the conversationwith Lee, which is a lot of

(04:39):
times we do things like that forour staff where we say take a
four day work week, or I wantyou gone by four o'clock so you
have time with your family, oryou have unlimited paid time off
or anything like that right, weoffer that to our staff, but
then we work seven days a week,a hundred something hours full

(05:02):
throttle, to the point ofburnout, and we don't do the
same things that we're askingour clients to do or our staff
to do or whatever it may be what?
Not only does it set a badexample, but it makes people
feel self-conscious about takingthat other day, and it

(05:23):
definitely affects the culture,and it's just something to
consider.
How long have you been doingthis four day week?
Is this something you justrecently started?

Speaker 3 (05:33):
Well, we're like it's not a mandate, we put it out as
a suggestion and we're justgonna see how people play with
it.
We're a few months in whereI've suggested it and I'm
noticing that calendars are kindof changing and shifting a
little bit To your point.
Though what I've noticed aboutmyself is how much exhaust not

(05:57):
exhaustion, but exhaust in mytime is throughout the course of
my day.
So, as a, for instance, wescheduled an hour to talk today.
That's fine, Most things.
My default meeting is 25minutes.
If I can get it to 10 or 15 ona phone call, I will, Because

(06:18):
now I've got more time to doother things and plus, in a
shorter period of time youcreate a bit of a constraint
that makes you be a bit moreprecise.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
You find that those new meetings are a lot longer
than they should be becausethey're face to face and you
could probably get a lot moredone in a shorter amount of time
by doing a phone call.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Yes, imagine if we were in the office together and
I was just walking down thehallway and I ran into you and
there was something I needed totalk to you about.
You needed to talk to me aboutfive minutes.
Yeah, max.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
He doesn't schedule a meeting about it.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
We'd never schedule a meeting about it.
And so I'm one of those peoplewhere I have really struggled.
Since starting my businessbecause that coincided with
COVID and moving out to New Yorkand working from this room that
you see here I used to be in anoffice.
I used to love to go to theoffice because I could engage

(07:18):
with somebody in three, fourminutes, get feedback from them,
because I was the leaderneeding the information to build
and design the stuff.
I needed, that sort ofspontaneous, surprise
interaction with you.
You had no idea I was going toask you a question from left
field, and the only way I canget that spontaneity is in those

(07:39):
moments in the office, and soI'm a huge proponent of physical
workspace.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
This is great.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
I, you know we can do more because you know we're
remote and it's nice that I cansort of kind of work from
wherever, but we do miss out ona few things.
There's a speed and a pace anda movement, and then also, which
is fast but also slow whenyou're in office, but yeah, I
think Zoom and Teams and allthese things.
Man, it's just, it just dragsus out.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
David, this is great.
I really appreciate thisfeedback and I love the ideas.
I really hope you peoplelistening are getting some good
ideas out of this too.
Can you share a littleinformation with us on Commonly
Well and the recovery capitalindex and what you do?

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yeah, so Commonly Well is a recovery intelligence
firm.
We're a data analytics companyand an advisory firm, so we help
behavioral health companiesfigure out their data practices,
their outcomes models and wehelp redesign that for them,
capture that data, bring it backinto useful information so they

(08:45):
can be better at what they do.
The recovery capital index wassort of our lead proprietary
assessment that captures socialdeterminant recovery capital
data and then we're able to takethat combined with other
clinical data and sort of sortof bring that picture of a
person's total health andwell-being, you know, together
for organizations.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Excellent, david.
Thank you so much for coming ontoday.
This has been great and I lookforward to bringing you out
again very soon.
Yeah, thanks, mike.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
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