8 tips for creating flow in the workplace

Happy employees and better performance

As an employer, you can create a culture where you enable your employees to get into a flow while working. It leads to better performance and high(er) employee and customer satisfaction.

However, the engagement must also come from the employee himself; it is a process of action-reaction. Innovative organisations such as Zappos and Virgin know how to integrate the principles of flow very well into their working environment and have at least two things in common: the employees are happy and the business runs like a charm.

Positive energy and satisfaction

If you are often in a flow you feel happier, according to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - the creator of the name and the theory surrounding it. So a healthy activity, that whole flow thing and definitely worth delving into. A few characteristics of this mental state:

• You have a clear goal in mind and are focused.

• You lose your self-consciousness and sense of time; you are completely absorbed in the activity.

• You have a sense of control and feel confident about the outcome to be achieved.

• You are intrinsically motivated and enjoy performing the activity.

• The activities are challenging: not too easy and not too difficult.

Eight tips for flow in the workplace

So as an employer, you are in the fortunate position of being able to help your employees create (more) happiness and fulfilment. And as an employee, you can ensure that the club performs better in all areas. A win-win situation.

At Concept7, we try as much as possible to create a culture in which this can come about. We learn every day and have listed our eight tips from our own experience.

• 1. Work from your core values. We have formulated them in our DNA. Talk about them, share them, discuss them, adapt them, live by them and look for a DNA match between employee and company.

• 2. Give people space to make mistakes and the confidence to manage things themselves. Trust gives security, the feeling of being right. It makes us a lot calmer.

• 3. Don't pay people for the time they sit in their seats; flow can arise at the craziest times and is not necessarily tied to time factor. Determine the desired end result together, evaluate in between and have confidence in the process towards the result.

• 4. Provide challenging work. Set a challenging but realistic goal (together). For example, when we are sketching, we force ourselves to come up with four different solutions to a particular user requirement (problem). This forces you to tap into your creativity and once that happens, you are more likely to get into a flow.

• 5. Learn to delegate. If you leave work to other people, and then actually leave it to them, you will find that other people start to grow. They get more pleasure out of what they do and feel truly responsible.

• 6. Provide your employees with the tools to work pleasantly. Provide good equipment and an inspiring workplace. Make working from home easy and possible and create places in the office where people can retreat.

• 7. Give regular feedback and encourage employees to share early in the process. Work with tools such as Basecamp or Slack to make it as easy as possible to communicate with each other quickly and efficiently.

• 8. Have fun! The moment you have fun, your brain opens up to all sorts of creative uses.