The Flow Factor: Transforming Work into a Source of Satisfaction and Innovation
Why is it so important to get your employees to put engagement at the heart of what they do? Engagement occurs when your employees allocate a high level of cognitive resources towards a particular task or situation which they find especially motivating and rewarding.?
When you are engaged, it means that the brain can get into flow. Employees can achieve a state of flow when they are using their best skills to the best of their abilities to work on a challenging task. When they are being stretched beyond their ability or when the task is too easy for them, then achieving a state of flow will be more difficult.?
This heightened state of engagement can occur at an individual level or at a social level when people are working together in teams. In both instances, fact, the characteristics of flow are the same: their actions feel automatic and effortless; they lose self-awareness; they have a strong sense of self-control and purpose; they have a distorted sense of time, and, critically, the process of working on the task becomes rewarding in itself, as opposed to just feeling rewarded by the outcome of the task.
Creating Flow
Flow is the holy grail of productivity. It is that state of mind where your employees become totally immersed in what they are working on, where they don’t notice the passage of time and where they forget about their current worries. It can happen at an individual and team level, improving employee creativity, satisfaction and motivation. Flow is best created when there is the right balance of challenge-to-competence, when your employees are free of unwanted distractions and where they have clear goals. At a team level, it works broadly the same way and capitalises on the power of social contagion - where your employees can “catch” the emotional and motivational states of others - and is facilitated by interdependence, good working relationships and shared beliefs.?
Questions To Ask Yourself:
Employee engagement is at its best when their attentional systems and emotional systems are on board. When they are hooked in, but this can’t happen properly if the brain is being bombarded by unnecessary distractions or side stories which keep pulling the brain in other directions. Making sure you give your employees the space and time to focus their engagement, away from any moment-to-moment unwanted distractions, can help to create the right context and culture for engagement.?
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Co-owner and Head of Employment at Tan Ward
9 个月Absolutely spot on Amy Brann! Employees are often an employer’s greatest asset. Investing time learning on how best to engage employees is a good commercial strategy.
Director Leadership Development @ Beacon | People Development, Talent Strategy
9 个月Looking forward to reading this edition of BrainUP!
Organizational Alchemist & Catalyst for Operational Excellence: Turning Team Dynamics into Pure Gold | Sales & Business Trainer @ UEC Business Consulting
9 个月Love this! Can't wait to dive into the insights.
2023 HR Most Influential Thinker. Helping Leaders, Managers & HR to Unlock People Potential through Neuro & Behavioural Science, Author of 3 published, translated books, Keynote Speaker, Programme Designer, Consultant
9 个月As someone deeply immersed in unlocking people's potential through neuroscience, I've witnessed the transformative power of flow in the workplace. Achieving flow isn't just beneficial; it's essential for turning work into a source of true satisfaction and innovation. This state of deep immersion and optimal engagement highlights the perfect balance between challenge and skill, where tasks become not just manageable but enjoyable. Creating the right environment for flow involves clarity in goals, minimizing distractions, and fostering a supportive culture. It's about enabling individuals and teams to use their best skills effectively, making the work process rewarding in itself. Let's continue to cultivate these environments, recognizing the critical role engagement plays in both individual fulfillment and organizational success. ?? #Engagement #Flow #Productivity
Senior Consultant and Executive Coach, Applied Neuroscience Specialist (PGCNL), RCC (RCS), EMCC and ICF Member
9 个月"When you are engaged, it means that the brain can get into flow. Employees can achieve a state of flow when they are using their best skills to the best of their abilities to work on a challenging task." "Making sure you give your employees the space and time to focus their engagement, away from any moment-to-moment unwanted distractions, can help to create the right context and culture for engagement." It seems pretty easy and it's the sole indication of how to achieve the state of flow in the text presented. The state of flow is much rarer and needs to meet more conditions on individual and social levels than the article indicates. Fortunately, engagement does not equal or require flow. In the end, the state of flow is not necessarily our ultimate goal in the workplace. To support employee engagement by focusing on individual intrinsic motivators is easier to achieve by focused development of company/team culture.