Flow disrupted informs our capacity to problem solve and adapt while navigating the course of our life and career effectively.
Flow is a source of creative energy, when we learn how to harness it. On the other hand, flow can be destructive, generating loss, when we fail to channel it wisely.
“The key to flow is to pursue an activity for its own sake, not for the rewards it brings.” – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
The 2020 theme of identity continues with this theme. It is interesting how our identity is shaped by the early lessons we experience and perhaps as much by how we internalize them.
In the Kickass Koach podcast episode dropped July 6th and the first of its 6th year, I share a story about the horse my dad bought me when I was seven. Learning to harness a huge quarter-horse/thoroughbred mix was a significant learning experience in my childhood.
For the newsletter, I liken the energy of a spirited animal like a horse to how to guide and harness the energy of children. I speak to the ways teachers both channeled my natural drive to learn and how they lost my respect by seeking to control and punish my curiosity.
Finally, in this post I entertain Csikszentmihalyi’s admonishment to pursue what matters most to enjoy the flow state and how to lead the flow state in a diverse team to maximize the outcomes a team realizes together. A perfect storm in Canadian politics provides the perfect example of what happens when diversity is neither partnered with inclusion or influenced by practices to integrate.
Flow Disrupted Defined and Described
Most of us have a sense of what flow feels like. Even those who haven’t heard the term have experienced it. Perhaps it was while reading an amazing book at getting lost in time or working on building a model airplane and finding the afternoon disappear. I have found flow in spirited conversations. It is one of my favourite past-times.
Taking a spirited conversation to the next level though, is delightfully powerful. One of the best ways to do that is to be willing to “put a stick in the spokes” – insert a disruptive force. Flow is energy in motion and it is a generative and productive force and still for it to reach its potential, it benefits from periodic disruptions. While it is difficult to see the benefits that will come from the disruptions of this pandemic, in 100 years people will study it closely just as we have studied the pandemic of the early 1900’s. Those willing to challenge and disrupt the former status quo, the thoughtful disruptors, will have changed the world for the better. At least building back better is made possible by these people.
I realize flow doesn’t like to be disrupted. Without disruptions though, laziness or a comfortable complacency becomes prevalent. The pandemic happened to us. Now it is up to us to use it to our won advantage.
Flow Realized in Choices Made
Flow requires choice. It starts with hard work. Consider Csikszentmihaly’s words. Pursuing an activity for its own sake implies passion and competency. We have passion for activities that matter, and we persist until proficiency grows. Flow is built on effort.
First, I think of reading. I loved reading a good book as a child. I’d hide under the covers with my flashlight after bedtime just to try to get in a few more hours undetected. Learning to read takes effort. Last August, I suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and lost my ability to read. Learning to read initially wasn’t so hard. It was effortful to relearn. Today I remain slower than I was. I notice it every time I pick up a book. It grows more and more pleasurable over time, but the flow isn’t back yet.
I make the choice to keep pushing my self to get closer and closer to that feeling of flow because it was so rewarding and offered so much richness to my life. My brilliant niece is dyslexic, and reading is extremely effortful for her. She has yet to taste the feeling of being lost in a book and yet she persists. She earnestly and lovingly talked with me about the strategies she uses, helping me, while I was in rehab last fall.
This summer, at the age of 16, she asked to borrow one of my longer more complex books. The topic is relevant and interesting. She treats it more like a journey than a task, from what I observe. Last evening while sharing a meal with her family on the deck, she demonstrated her skills in applying her efforts to engage in meaningful conversation. I bubble with respect and admiration for her willingness to make the choice to persist, disruption or not.
Harnessing Flow through Inclusion
Interestingly when we ensure that diversity that exists around us results in both inclusion and integration, flow become exponentially more powerful. Notice, the inclusion and integration of the various differences is essential for the flow to expand our performance.
Just as my niece, as noted above, has a very different experience with reading and was able to support my sudden need, so does the different life experiences around us offer rich context. I remember her lighting up when I talked with her about my rehab exercises. She could relate and add to the advice from my Speech Therapist. Recognizing the opportunity to connect with her over my vulnerability and including her in my experience was meaningful for both of us.
Diversity often stops at building numbers, as Dr. Frank Dobbin’s research suggests. We give up at that stage so we rarely see the benefits. Controlling counter productive behaviour to eradicate bias doesn’t work to move diversity to inclusion because the focus of interventions has been on numbers. The interventions in this context generate back lash. The interventions are the mode of disruption but they are ineffective. Just as in the story I share above, the connection must be built on shared experience, not the use of a quota.
For the healthy and productive disruption that a diverse work environment provides, inclusion along with integration must be involved. Flow with disruption of this kind will produce better and more lasting results.
Same old Story…
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did it again. He is being investigated for a breech in ethical behaviour for a third time in 5 years. It appears no one in his office, the PMO, or in his cabinet is capable of asking the necessary questions. Blind loyalty, group think or an inability to recognize the value of diversity may be the culprit.
In 2015 the PM made a big splash when declaring that he would have a gender balanced cabinet, “because if is 2015” but he seriously failed to see the real value in diversity. He is guilty, at least in part, of focusing purely on the numbers or the optics created by the numbers. Diversity is meaningless in the delivery of outcomes when inclusion and integration are not made paramount.
Had this “feminist” (sic) PM truly valued the voices of the diverse voices at the table, they would have learned to challenge him more openly than they apparently do. I am certain he has some brilliant and thoughtful people at the table. Nevertheless, they are failing to see problems lurking around the corner. Former Federal Ministers Jody Wilson Raybould and Jane Philpot may have been examples of exactly what diversity offers. They were silenced and then banished both from cabinet and then from caucus. This fits perfectly into the results Dr. Dobbin outlines in his research at Harvard.
Diversity is a beautify example of productive disruptions to flow. When we value, support and require inclusion and integration the benefits diversity will flow.
Life is one big Experiment
Jobs, in the highlighted quote, suggests we need to love the work we do in order to deliver with excellence. I argue we can love the process or the experience of work without loving the actual work. It is again, all in how we choose to see something. When life is an experiment, we focus on what we can learn about our self and about the world. Whether we serve as a teacher, a nurse, a garbage collector or we bus tables, studies have show when the goal is to serve the team and clients, pleasure in work is likely.
Continuous learning and fresh insights are the goal of the experimental approach. What will the evidence teach us? Moreover, this approach is generative in addition to being iterative. With an experimental collaborative approach, we may find progress is faster and we go further. In collaboration we can crack this, but only together with a willingness to learn and honour the data and the stories will we arrive where we seek to go.
We may be capable of more closely monitoring and learning from our choices and decisions and build capacity to adjust our actions to meet the current situation. Then, we may influence how things unfold. There’s a difference between wanting something and making something happen. With the mindset necessary to perform under pressure we’re able to influence results more deeply. This mindset that relies on clarity, curiosity and a resilient spirit we accept no excuses, only meaningful results. Furthermore, it’s essential we learn to evaluate the risk of any action, removing the very human emotions that cloud our judgment.
Walk with me.
Together let’s examine options consciously and authentically to make choices that move us strategically toward where we want to be. Strategy is a about choices. Execution on these choices requires masterful performance. Furthermore, a well-developed process allows us to enjoy the journey far more fully
Be part of the journey in 2020.
Start by subscribing to my mailing list . Subscribers receive:
- My interactive exercise to begin reducing the impacts of stress and feelings of overwhelm will be sent.
- My newsletter with the related podcast episode will be sent weekly.
- Special offers will be available to subscribers monthly including: a random offer of a complimentary one hour coaching conversation, access to roundtable engagements and group coaching on identity and related subjects, as well as information on an initiative on which I’m collaborating: #FeMasCon.
Regrets are Eliminated with Bank Your Impact (BYI)
The System
The Bank Your Impact (BYI) System is about both developing and embedding self-awareness. Furthermore, the benefits of expanded resilience, connections built on understanding the impact of belonging and an ability to bolster a professional and authentic presence are foundational. Perhaps more than the other two, developing a foundational resilience is critical to with standing that which moves us into burnout.
The current system incorporates 1:1 coaching, roundtable conversations; eventually I’ll add a neuro-social learning experience (currently only available in organizational contracts but will be added to the system for individual engagement in 2021). My approach is based on the ICF (International Coaching Federation) standards. I’m meeting you (my clients) where you are, both as the coaching agreement begins, and in the moment that exists at the time of each conversation. Progress or growth is not a straight line. The ICA model is the framework for every conversation: Issue/Insight, Choice/Commitment, Action/Accountability. Over the past year I’ve been tightening the model to meet the needs of my clients.
Holding space to support my clients in:
- Developing meaningful insights
- Expanding/deepening perspective on those insights
- Building/designing a practice to try on new ways of being/seeing OR experiment for discovery
- Assessing progress, becoming agile in transfer of learning and application before developing additional insights
An organic experience
The experience is tailored around what you bring to each conversation, in my experience, there are common themes that arise including: self-awareness, mindfulness, mindset, communication, connections, and attitude. Self-awareness stands alone but is also a foundational theme. I have registered upwards of 40 sub-concepts that fit under each of these categories. Furthermore, I bring tools, skills and techniques to respond and guide our work together, informed by positive psychology, neuroscience, and management/leadership research.
Walk With Me, to Where You Want to Be
In all my blog posts in 2019, you will find this section outlines what brought me to this area of focus: supporting people in the early to middle part of their career as a #performance #coach.
Feel like you’re living someone else’s destiny?
If that’s working for you, great. If it isn’t or it starts to be a problem, reach out. I welcome a conversation.
Willing to do the work to find more meaning?
With the skills to unpack the emotions and barriers and triggers and mindset challenges with the skills in my BYI system, participants begin to see the impact in their career and finally begin to discover what matters most to them. The bonus: they begin to see a path to get there. Join me… My system is intended to be meaningful, relevant, accessible and affordable. With that in mind, there are many ways to engage with me. Below are TWO ways to start, without spending a dime.
Walk with Me!
- BOOK a complimentary exploratory 1:1 conversation 20-30 minutes.
- SUBSCRIBE to my mailing list. You’ll receive an interactive exercise that you may use to reduce and manage stress or feelings of overwhelm. PLUS each week you’ll receive my podcast and reflections in your inbox AND you’ll be invited to monthly webinars and roundtable conversations.
In closing, I love bringing learning experiences to workplaces that are interested in raising their performance and encouraging their people.
- Book me to speak at your conference or to a group in your organization. My workshops on building resilience, improving workplace outcomes through relationships, and increasing performance are big hits! In 2020 I’ve added a few workshops on gender engagement – how, by knocking off the boxes that limit us by gender we all find our capacity expands.Love