by Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Leadership Solutions, Inc.®

“Flow: The mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement and enjoyment in the process of the activity.” Named by Hungarian-American psychologist Mihály Csikszentmihályi in 1975.

    What a wonderful concept to think about when building momentum, not only for individuals but for teams and organizations, too! Flow describes that full state of engagement and activity that produces optimum performance by an individual, team or organization (I-T-O) without having to struggle along. It’s more than likely you have experienced this phenomenon personally and had that heady feeling of satisfaction when it’s all over. Think about when you’ve been engrossed in something that is of particular interest to you: time goes by fast and you sense a job well done when completed.

Flow defines a moment of full, undistracted commitment, when your I-T-O can literally go-with-the-flow. This is what Enlightened Leaders (ELs) aspire to when orchestrating their organization to fully deliver on its promises. It’s also that moment when leadership and management are balanced sufficiently to reinforce each other rather than battling over which is more important: that is, pursuing a real opportunity rather than trying to assert control over your situation.

Let’s consider what may need to exist for an activity to achieve flow. The following conditions are most likely to be apparent to make this happen:

» Place focus on a really important task or commitment

  » Allow for an undistracted work environment; that is, minimal “noise”

  » Ensure your individual, team or organization (I-T-O) is really eager to deliver

  » Create a positive leadership environment with solid camaraderie

  » Ascertain that your I-T-O has sufficient resources and time available

  » Clarify that your I-T-O has sufficient know-how to complete its task or project

It becomes pretty clear that all these factors would have to simultaneously exist to provide flow. If one or more is missing, it’s unlikely optimum flow will occur.

This writer has experienced flow on many occasions not only for himself, as when he is writing an article like this, but also when he’s been with a particular team or organization. It’s an exciting experience for all concerned: achieved when people are properly primed to tackle a particular mission or task. For you to accomplish the same, you need to think about each item in turn, such as:

» Place focus on a really important task or commitment – No doubt you’ll appreciate this is a highly important starting point. ELs start out by building a positive rapport with all those concerned in order to get them fully focused on what needs to be accomplished – their particular purpose. This not something that can be achieved with the wink-of-an-eye. You really need to spend some quality time with designated participants to think about: “What is the issue that needs to be addressed? What are the advantages of pursuing this particular task or project? What is the best outcome we will be aiming for?” The answers to such questions need to be pretty substantive and solid, to allow participants time for really exploring and listing their thoughts. Hence properly and emotionally prepare them for what’s at hand.

 » Allow for an undistracted work environment; that is, minimal “noise”– If you have a number of team or organizational conflicts or concerns gnawing away at participants, they’ll be unable to fully concentrate on their assignment at hand. Do they feel they are being listened to? Is there poor morale within your organization? Do your people feel adequately rewarded for their efforts? Do they respect you as their leader? Do they sense a significant lack of resources? If any of these issues or others exists to a fair degree, you will have somewhat of an uphill battle to generate flow with your I-T-O.

» Ensure your individual, team or organization is really eager to deliver – Unless an I-T-O considers the task or project important enough – as a way of unifying  their resolve – they are unlikely to step-up to  the moment. The timing may not be right to gain their full attention. Maybe they haven’t had the opportunity to brace themselves for full commitment. You know how you have procrastinated about a particular project until the right emotional moment arrives: your I-T-Os are just the same.

» Create a positive leadership environment with solid camaraderie – Participants have to respect your leadership to pull this off. Do they trust you? Do they believe you have them focused on the right issue or project? Do they believe you will give them the “space” to take on what’s required? Do they like and value each other enough to make a good faith effort? Is their rapport likely to be enough to withstand setbacks related to their task or project?

» Ascertain that your I-T-O has sufficient resources and time available – It’s important that you verify their readiness to proceed with the resources available. “Do you – I-T-O – feel you have all you reasonably need, in terms of resources, to take care of this project or initiative?” “If you don’t, let’s figure out how we can make these available?” Also, you need to clarify and negotiate with them as to a reasonable time period to take care of the situation. If they sense too much unreasonable time pressure, it will detract from the possibility of flow. Of course the right emergency can often help flow, although don’t over-play that one.

» Clarify that your I-T-O has sufficient know-how to complete its task or project – You will need to encourage them to ascertain they have the required knowledge levels to complete the project or task. This could even be a flow-task within itself; in the form of preparatory discovery sessions – see earlier chapters – to help solidify participant mindset. Getting an I-T-O in a state of flow and then realize they don’t have the required expertise is a recipe for a big let-down. After such an experience, you will find it an uphill battle to re-motivate them for another project or initiative without a great deal of explanation.

So now you have a pretty good picture of what it takes to generate and take advantage of momentum flow. Once you’ve made it work successfully, you’ll find participants eager to do it all over again, because it’s a very rewarding feeling either personally, as a team, or as an organization. The more you can make this occur, the greater will be the level of your organization or team’s engagement, productivity and overall success. We can all make this happen, if we set our minds to it. Like everything else: one success will lead to another, until your I-T-O is really “buzzing” and “flowing.”

To learn more about creating flow, talk with: