You've probably already experienced certain times when you are hyper-focused, effortlessly productive, and deeply immersed in your work. Time melts away, and your skills develop in harmony with the increasing challenges you face. This is the “flow state”, often known as "being in the zone."
Achieving a state of flow has tremendous benefits for both individuals and organisations
- Boosted Performance: Flow unlocks peak productivity, leading to faster problem-solving, creative breakthroughs, and innovative solutions.
- Enhanced Engagement: Employees who experience flow are more intrinsically motivated, energized, and dedicated to their work. This translates to higher retention and a more positive company culture.
- Wellbeing and Resilience: Flow counteracts stress and burnout by promoting a sense of control, mastery, and enjoyment. This fosters a healthier and more resilient workforce.
Finding flow is not just a work imperative it's a life skill. Most of us spend about 40% of our waking lives for around 40 years at work, if we don't find engagement at work, we've got little chance of an overall fulfilled life.
Luckily achieving flow at work is not some mystical state that we accidentally stumble into, it's something that we can cultivate. We can organise our working lives to make it more likely we will experience flow more often.
The science of flow: finding your "Zone"
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the "father of flow," identified four key elements that contribute to achieving this state:
- Matching Skills to Challenges: When your skills are slightly stretched by the task at hand, you enter a zone of optimal challenge, creating intense focus and engagement.
- Clear Goals and Feedback: Knowing what you're aiming for and receiving regular feedback keeps you on track and fuels motivation.
- Focused Attention: Minimising distractions and interruptions is crucial for maintaining the flow state.
- Sense of Control: Feeling empowered in your work fosters ownership and engagement.
Interestingly, although it's fashionable to be cynical about work, with constant press reports about quiet quitting, burnout and stress, people are much more likely to report being in a flow state while working than during leisure. The exception is high level sports which are almost perfectly designed to create flow by boosting challenge, requiring high levels of skill, having clear rules and giving immediate feedback on the scoreboard
Unlocking flow in your organization
While some jobs naturally lend themselves to flow more readily, (entrepreneurs and managers, for example, report experiencing flow more often than frontline employees) fostering this state within your organisation requires intentional action on both individual and organisational levels.
For Individuals:
- Practice Job Crafting: Analyse your tasks and identify ways to increase the challenge level, eliminate or automate tedious routines (AI should help here), and leverage your strengths.
- Seek Meaning: Align your work with your personal values, strengths, and purpose. Consider volunteering for side projects that spark your passion.
- Mindset Matters: Approach challenges as opportunities for growth and learning. Reframe difficulties as opportunities, not just obstacles to endure.
If we get stuck in a place where our challenges are not enough to stretch our skills, or where our skills are not developing because our challenges are too easy, then we become bored.
What is the balance for you right now?
- Where specifically do you feel that the challenges you face exceed your skills to deal with them?
- Where specifically do you feel that the skills you already have exceed the challenges you normally face?
Here is a straightforward way to improve the probability of you achieving flow depending on your answers above
- For the areas where you feel that the challenges you face exceed your skills to deal with them - build your skills
- For the areas where you feel that the skills you already have exceed the challenges you normally face - seek out bigger challenges
It may seem almost too simple, but what we are initiating a growth spiral of taking on new challenges and developing new skills.
If you are a leader, these make great coaching questions in a development conversation.
For Organisations:
- Empowerment Culture: Encourage autonomy and ownership over tasks. Give employees the freedom to shape their work within your broader goals.
- Clear Feedback: Set clear expectations and provide regular feedback to keep people focused and motivated.
- Minimise Distractions: Create a work environment that promotes concentration, such as designated quiet spaces and flexible work arrangements. People who work from home report lower levels of people interruptions but higher levels of technology interruptions, so learning to turn off alerts is part of this.
The 2023 Gallup global engagement survey paints a stark picture: only 10% of UK workers report being engaged, and Csikszentmihalyi identified the importance of finding flow in creating engagement.
There is vast untapped potential for flow in our organisations. By equipping individuals with the tools to find their "zone" and fostering enabling organisational cultures, we can unlock a wave of creativity, productivity, and well-being.
Remember, achieving flow is not a one-time event, but a continuous journey of self-discovery and intentional creation. We've been working with progressive organisations to help their people uncover their purpose, values and strengths and connect these to the work they do.
Engagement is not something we can do to others, but we can create organisations where people can engage themselves. It's not only a leadership challenge it's an individual imperative to improve the quality of our lives. Seek flow and improve your own experience of work and life.
Kevan Hall is CEO of Global Integration and author of Find Your Purpose: Redesign your life and career.
