The Regenerate Web

Lisa Haneberg over at Management Craft provides this insight about Improving Pace at Work.

Since I had been thinking about this topic all weekend, and had already threatened to post about it, I am going for it.

My original thoughts came from my experience with the martial arts.  I started a program at the beginning of the year (for the first time) primarily out of my need to exercise.  I wanted an exercise regimen that would occupy my mind as much as my body, because the running, cycling, lifting, cardio-machining that I had been doing were somewhat mindless.

So you see, I am not some black-belt master, but an absolute novice.  The particular system that I am studying places an emphasis on relaxation, natural movement, breathing, and reaction.   The method of study, always requires a partner, often several.  It is during these times when working with several partners, that is defending against multiple attackers or opponents that I have felt the closest to a state of flow.  

Flow occurs when we are not allowed to set-up or stage things in advance.  In self-defense, flow happens when the attacks come in a stream, and one cannot anticipate or setup, one can only deal with each attack as it comes, reacting, evading, countering, moving, breathing.  Flow is a state of heightened efficiency that results from focusing in the now.  Flow is the state, where I am one with the art, and the principles flow naturally from me, because they have been deeply embedded in me.  It can be observed from the outside and the inside.  Flow feels good.  

In a work context flow happens in much the same way, when we are dealing with one task, issue, project, thing at a time, but with sufficient focus that efficiency is increased.  I believe that most of us enter a state of flow when we are required to push our pace to the point where we don't have the luxury of allowing ourselves to be distracted.  I think that we can invoke a state of flow by increasing the pace of our work, as Lisa has suggested.  She has also suggested some ideas for improving the pace.

I also think that flow is a product of our inner discipline.  The product that we control as we develop the principles, and art and discipline around our work.  As in the martial arts example, the deeper the art and principles are embedded are ingrained in me, the greater the ease with which I attain a state of flow.  My self-discipline regarding focus and ability to ignore the many thoughts, people, activities that are competing for my attention, is a major contributor.  

The enemy of flow is overwhelm.  Overwhelm comes when we cannot focus, when we are so distracted that we become inefficient, when we struggle to manage our interrupt vectors.  When I am overwhelmed, I thrash, I flail, I appear to be out of control.  Sometimes the best way to get out of overwhelm is to walk away, retreat, and regroup.  Overwhelm can be accompanied with a sense of hopelessness, that no matter how hard or long or diligently I work, I will not get done.  When this happens, the fatalistic and self-destructive thoughts come, and the hole gets deeper.  When in this state, most of us need encouragement, external stimulus, strokes, to get out of it.  

To echo something else that Lisa talked about, as managers, we often do things that act as flow inhibitors for our staff.  How can we recognize when our actions, or intentions takes our staff out of flow or worse, into overwhelm?  When we are overwhelmed, should we delegate more or should we absorb it and allow our staff to focus, to stay in flow?