3 Ways You Can Help Your Team Achieve Flow
Have you ever been so immersed in your work that hours pass before you realize it? Have you ever felt like you’re getting a ton done and working “in the zone” at your peak ability? If so, you’ve experienced the state of flow, an important contributor to workplace happiness.
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced “MEE-high cheek-SENT-mee-high”) coined the term “flow” after becoming fascinated with artists who could lose themselves in work.
He describes those experiencing flow as feeling “strong, alert, in effortless control, unself-conscious, and at the peak of their abilities.” The state happens often for those who do creative work, but can happen for anybody.
Experiencing Flow
Flow can occur with any work that absorbs your full attention. For me, designing or writing software can lead to a feeling of flow. I can feel my mind racing and hours can fly by in an instant. It’s in this state that I know I reach peak productivity.
Csikszentmihalyi identifies several factors linked to flow:
- Clear, challenging, and attainable goals
- Intense concentration and focus
- An activity that is rewarding in and of itself
- Feelings of serenity and losing one’s self
- Losing track of time
- Immediate feedback
- Being aware of one’s ability to succeed at the task, despite the challenge
- Feeling control over the outcome
- Losing track of physical needs
- Complete focus on the activity at hand
Encouraging Flow
High concentration, working at the peak of abilities, being productive — these all sound like traits we should encourage at work! But how can we encourage them? The 10 factors don’t all have to be present to achieve flow; having just a few is enough. They can provide some hints about what we can do as managers to encourage flow.
1. Set clear and attainable goals and give frequent feedback about progress on those goals.
All managers should set goals and provide feedback anyway. But these activities are especially important if we want workers to experience flow. People can’t reach peak performance if they don’t know what’s expected of them. That’s why it’s so important to make company and team goals explicit. Define an overarching purpose and stay in frequent contact about its related goals. That way everyone knows how things are going and you stay alert to any potential problems on the horizon. Shoot for every member of your team to know what they’re working toward, why it’s important, and how they’ll succeed.
2. Give your team control over outcomes and encourage rewarding, achievable tasks.
Feeling in control over outcomes and able to succeed are signs of a good match between a task and the worker. That’s great, but keep in the loop on how your people feel. Do they need anything from you to be successful? If so, provide it. (Check out my post on Servant Leadership for more on this.) Putting people in jobs at which they can be successful and that they enjoy seems simple and obvious. Yet it’s common for people to waste talent in jobs they’re overqualified for or uninterested in. Why squander such precious resources?
3. Create an environment with few distractions.
Flow is all about intense concentration and focus. That’s why interruptions are the enemy of flow. It can take 20 minutes or more to recover deep concentration after an interruption! And, unfortunately, it seems our modern offices are tailor-made to discourage flow. Open floor plans, high-traffic work areas, and a culture of continuous emails/chat bubbles/phone calls all destroy productivity.
You probably can’t just redesign your office space, but there’s still plenty you can do. For instance, try to set aside some quiet areas for your staff to work when they need to concentrate. Also, be aware of the interruptions many managers create. Send your team email rather than calling or stopping by, and don’t build a culture that expects instant responses. Think twice about scheduling meetings with everybody on your team. Then read Jason Fried’s thoughts on meetings and think a third time about scheduling one. If unavoidable, ask your team when they’re usually most absorbed and schedule short meetings outside those times.
Flow-Friendly!
If you follow these steps, you’ll be well on your way toward creating a flow-friendly workplace. Experiencing flow on a regular basis helps foster positive emotions and a sense of fulfillment. These are all precursors to leading a happy life. They can also lead to happiness at work, which results in committed, engaged, and productive employees.
