The river flows the best in the centre! Imagine your employees all working in the flow? Employees aligned, energised and action orientated? Doers not Moers!
We look for talent that demonstrates being “ in the flow”. We look for people who demonstrate risk-taking, creativity, health, well-being, are agile and progressive thinkers, rather than looking only for industry experience and key competencies. Forget about age, race or gender and focus on people in the flow!
“Did you know that employees “ in the flow “ are five times more productive?”
– Steven Kotler, The art of the Impossible
Have you noticed that when you are in the flow, time stops and creativity flows?
There are many words that describe ” flow” : Uninterrupted attention, total absorption, sense of self vanishes, time dilates and all aspects of performance exceed, allowing for every idea to flow.
Musicians call it “ being in the pocket” When we feel our best we perform our best. Every action leads to high-speed creative decision making. Flow is fundamental to well being, and people with the most well being, have the most flow in their life. In sports and the arts, flow is a state of the heart. You are “in sync”.
The Science of flow began in the late 1880s
Flow is definable – and it is measurable. When we are “in the flow “ anxiety reduces, our sense of self disappears and memory of the past and future drops, (leading to less depression and anxiety) when your sense of self disappears, self-sabotage goes, risk-taking goes up, creativity goes up, a huge boost of positive neural transmitters occurs. This deadens pain and impacts cognitive processes such as motivation and creativity.
The brain can take novel information, and bring it into an idea, from past ideas, to make a new action, pattern recognition goes up, risk-taking goes up. Flow speeds up learning. Learning rates grow – flow can cut mastery in half. The state of flow dispels old theories that you need to do 10,000 hours to master a skill. Flow follows focus: Allows us to stay in the now and deliver with speed and ease.
What are ways to create flow and build high performance in the workplace?
People need to feel safe and supported and that their ideas will be heard. Encourage all ideas and contributions from employees, partner them with an internal mentor and ideally an external mentor. Gallup Surveys show that employees are 83% more engaged if they feel someone in their company has their back and external mentors can give unbiased support and inspiration, with no agendas.
So allow employees to share their ideas in brainstorming sessions, don’t cut down any idea, allow the flow. Don’t say no —- institutionalise”a yes culture”, embracing any idea… at Amazon … if you say no to an idea you have to create a paper to explain why it won’t work. Sometimes ideas are “hairbrained”, but allow them to be heard and guide direction to what will be the best solution for all.
Imagine your workplace where employees were always in the flow?
So think about how you will build a “ workplace in the flow”, think about how you will recruit for the New Financial Year, Finding doers not Moers!
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