Go With The Flow

 Many of you will know of the concept of a 'flow state' whereby humans enter a mental state where they feel completely engaged and absorbed in the task in hand.  Distractions fade away and you concentrate fully onethe task and applying your skills to it.  It is sometimes referred to as being 'in the zone'. It is when you look at the clock and find you have been heavily focused and working productively for a much longer period than you expected.

The term 'flow state' was assigned  by psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi to represent an optimal state of consciousness where action and awareness merge. 

Flow state is blocked by external interventions ands by a real or imagined lack of appropriate skills to deal with a task, and by mental fatigue interfering with full concentration.

Not surprisingly, telephone calls, emails and other forms of messaging interrupt a flow state as does multitasking for most people. Other obvious barriers to achieving a full flow state are anxiety about a task and boredom with the task (or previous similar tasks).

Of course there are things you can do to help achieve flow state - and you certainly need to prepare for it.  

You need to make sure you have everything you need (all the pieces of equipment, tools and so on).  You need (to try) to remove or mute all distractions.  Close down any messaging systems or websites you might be tempted to sneak a look at.

You need to schedule meaningful periods of time - at a time that is in harmony with your natural body clock.

Think about changing your location where others cannot easily reach you.

You will not easily reach a flow stare - but you will have given yourself the best chance of achieving it - and achieving peak performance.

Re-Visiting Working From Home

Those who read my posts regularly will know that I am not a believer in any positive productivity effects of working from home.  It van help but only if the organisation is able to save substantial accommodation costs on workspaces that are no longer needed - and this applies to very few companies who normally 'hedge their bets' by maintaining their properties snd only saving on lower energy costs.

I have been reflecting on this and though I have not changed my opinion, I do feel that perhaps I have been over-critical of those who have allowed employees to work from hime.  It may be that there is nothing inherently or philosophically wrong with home working.  The problem is that most organisations have management teams - and management training processes - which assume 'normal' in-the-workplace environments and systems and processes.  In practice, they need to adjust workflows - and perhaps working methods, communication processes and reporting processes to fit the new environment

Otherwise, processes fail, become inefficient or error-prone.  This is clearly not a recipe for productivity improvement.

So, by all means let employees work from home - if you think it has benefits in employee well-being or in cost-saving.  But ensure your working and communication processes are adjusted to suit the new arrangement. 

Counter-Intuitive Improvement

 Some (but thankfully fewer) managers believe that you increase the productivity of employees by driving them harder. increasing their workload and punishing mistakes.   Nowadays, most managers know that getting results is more of a balance between 'driving' and 'caring', ensuring that hard-working staff are not overworked, burnt-out or increasingly anxious about their work.

We need to increase output and productivity without damaging - or indeed, breaking - our employees.

Simple 'time and motion' or work-study men (for they were almost exclusively men) from 50 years ago built 'rest and recovery' periods into the times allocated for specific tasks.  The 'harder' (more demanding) the work, the greater the recovery time allowed.  The advantage of this approach is that the recovery time was built in - it wasn't given on the whim of the supervisor.

Employees should be encouraged to take 'mini' or even 'micro' breaks during the day - taking a few deep breaths, walking, taking a 'water cooler' moment, etc.

We should also make sure employees have time for focused work - free of (formal or informal) meetings, perhaps with a 'ban' on phone calls.Some organisations provide 'focus rooms' or spaces where people can get sway from their own desk and local environment.

Such small changes mean we give staff the opportunity to recover from their hard work, to feel better about themselves, their work - and the organisation.

They become more productive.