Stop Taking Things So Seriously

This week's article comes from the comments a few blogs back.  Someone asked how do I stop taking things seriously yet stay on top of things on the job?  Hopefully this blog from Less Ordinary Living gives a few good ideas.

STOP TAKING LIFE SO SERIOUSLY

By Phil, February 25, 2010 6:22 pm Happiness, Inspiration 31 Comments

Reading time: 2 minutes and 47 seconds

Chillax

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In pursuit of perfection
Have you ever felt like you are trying way too hard?  Are you stretching and straining every sinew striving for the happy life?  Waking at 5am to run 10 miles before an intense yoga session, then hitting the office and working flat out til 8pm.  Cooking that macrobiotic tofu stir fry, washed down with a superfood smoothie, before updating your seven blogs, tending your organic zen garden and finishing the reading for tomorrow’s philosophy class.
Things may not be quite that extreme, but trying to live life to the full all the time can be exhausting.  Perhaps even more importantly, it can also lack zing, spark, energy and just plain fun.
Fade to grey
I have had a fascinating time over the last few months working on improving myself.  I dedicated myself to a regime of meditation, have been training hard for a marathon and cutting back on my alcohol intake.  As a solopreneur with extrovert tendencies I was interested in exploring the concept of being self-sufficient and so spent a lot of time alone in my inner world.  Don’t get me wrong, this has all been great and I’ve learned a lot about myself.  Yet I woke up one morning and realised that somewhere along the way I’d lost myself.  I was trying way too hard.  I had shut down from the world around me and felt like a silent ghost fading into the background.  I’d forgotten to enjoy the journey and have fun.  Time to lighten up.
Back to Life
I took a deep breath and said b*ll*cks to it.  I started talking, laughing, bringing people into my life.  I started to be kinder to myself – if I’m tired I won’t run, if I’m not in the mood I won’t meditate just to tick a box, heck I might even enjoy a glass of wine or three on a school night.  All the pressure and stress I was feeling started to melt away.  It was like taking off a suit of armour.  Slowly but surely the smile has returned to my face.
The Middle Path
Once I stopped trying too hard, balance returned to my life.  I still have ambitions to live life to the full and am pursuing that.  Yet I remember that this means finding pleasure every day, not just chaining myself to a rock in Spartan self-denial.  Every day I’m looking for the middle path – doing something meaningful and enjoyable.
The best thing of all is that this change of attitude has had a big impact on the way the world responds to me.  It sounds clichéd, however when you smile the world smiles back.  Suddenly people are responding differently to me.  Before they stared straight through my ghostly apparition, now they are talking and engaging.  Things are flowing where before they were stuck.
So what have I learned from this?  Here are five simple yet important lessons:
1)   Life has a sense of humour – the world has an astounding way of playing with us.  If you take things too seriously this can be very stressful, if you play along and laugh about it life becomes delightful.  So lighten up and enjoy the joke, rather than being the joke.
2)   People matter – there is great power in exploring our inner-self, yet even monks live in monasteries.  People bring energy, creativity, joy and learning to life.  Surround yourself with great people and revel in it.
3)   Stress is a killer – taking life too seriously is extremely stressful.  All the expectation and pressure feels like wearing a heavy backpack.  Stress drains our energy, dampens our enthusiasm and makes us sick.  Lightening up takes the stress away and helps us live life.
4)   Let it go – there are some things in life that are fundamental and worth fighting for.  There are many more things that are trivial and we should let go.  Letting go of some of this weight brings more joy to life.
5)   Enjoy the journey – it is vital to have some long term vision and goals to motivate us.  Yet we need a balance with enjoying life each and every day to experience true enjoyment.  Life is precious, so enjoy it every day.
Wherever you are on your journey, I think these are valuable lessons to keep in mind.  If you find your face frozen in a grimace, if you can’t remember the last time you smiled (never mind laughed), if you feel like life is an endless hamster wheel, it might be time to ask if you are taking it all too seriously.  Please share your thoughts on these ideas with the world by leaving a comment – thank you!

Change

 

This week's article by Connie Podesta is linked here

 

Why accepting change is vital to your professional success

Like it or not, change is an integral part of today's business climate. Those employees who embrace and initiate change will thrive, while those who complain and fear change may be headed for the unemployment line. Employers feel strongly about the need to have employees who are successful change agents for their team and their organization as a whole. What exactly is a "change agent?" An agent is someone who represents the interests of another person or organization, and his or her job is to take care of business and make sure everything goes smoothly. Thus, a change agent helps take care of an employer's business by facilitating change.
Are you a change agent for your organization? Can others count on you to make sure things go smoothly? Do you continue to take care of business in the midst of change?
Although some employees have been conditioned to fear change, we must not lose sight of the fact that change is normal, and most of us will experience unpredictable changes in both our personal and professional lives. In the workplace, changes can occur as a result of new thinking, advances in technology, innovation and progress, knowledge and communication, as well as mergers, takeovers, layoffs, and downsizing. These organizational changes can directly affect our professional lives as well as our personal lives. They may also lead to feelings of sadness, frustration, grief, and anger, especially when jobs are lost or worse, when an entire organization ceases to exist. So let's discuss how we can make this normal life experience-change-as positive and beneficial as possible.
What's Wrong with Change?
Employers want commitment to change when it's necessary. Knowing that, then, why are so many people resistant to it? The number one reason is fear, although very few people are willing to admit it. None of us want to acknowledge that we doubt our ability to integrate new ideas, use new technology, or adapt to new organizations. We don't even want to think about what's ahead: new management, new ways of doing things, new terminology, new titles, and new job description.
Fear can have several components:
1. Fear of the unknown: What will happen to my organization, my job, my life, as I know it now? How secure is my future?
2. Fear of not being in control: What should I do? Should I just wait around while they make decisions that could seriously affect my life?
3. Fear of being inadequate: I know how to do this job now, but will I be able to do it as well as they expect me to when everything has changed? And if I can't, what happens then?
4. Fear of moving outside your personal comfort zone: I've been doing my job this way for years, and I'm very good at it. Why do we have to change what has worked so well for so long?
No matter which category your fear falls in, one thing is for sure. The more we fight and resist the change, the more painful and frightening the changes will be. Resisting doesn't keep a new idea from taking hold; it simply makes the process longer and more painful. Change will happen no matter what. We will handle it better when we learn to move with the change-not against it. Plus, this is definitely not the time to drag your feet because managers are not inclined to take employees by the hand and lead them through the change process.
Communication is Key
There is no doubt that employees often view change from a different perspective than their supervisors. Many employees believe that management doesn't understand their side of the story, and managers often feel it is the employees who don't understand why the change is necessary. This is why communication is so vital during any change circumstance.
It's been said that lack of communication is the number one reason why personal relationships can develop problems, and the same holds true for relationships between employers and employees. Change will require open communication on both sides. Unfortunately, fear has the power to freeze employees in their tracks and prevent them from expressing their ideas and opinions.
When faced with change we must always ask ourselves this important question: Does my resistance to change have anything to do with my own fears? That's a tough question and one that's not easy to answer honestly. It's natural to fear the unknown and lack of control. We know that we won't be quite as proficient at our tasks while we're in the process of learning to do things a new way. We know we will have to work a lot harder. Are we willing to let go of the present to embrace the future? We may not know what the future will bring, but we are responsible for what we bring to the future.
The Positive Side of Change
If you routinely describe your current job as boring, mundane, or menial, then perhaps a change is good for you. One of the most positive aspects of change is that it is never boring. On the contrary, it can create passion. And passion-and the excitement, creativity, and energy that accompany it-is the spark that keeps us going.
Passion could be called the charge for our life's batteries. Without that charge, it's hard to get our engines revved up. That igniting charge is sparked by the challenge of change-learning new things, meeting new people, growing as professionals, and taking risks that push us to reach our potential. None of that can happen unless and until we are willing to experience the fear that inevitably arises when we move out of our comfort zones. No risk, no fear; no fear, no passion; no passion, no fun.
If we want passion back in our lives, we must be willing to meet the challenge of change. What might that mean for you? Perhaps it might involve going back to school, learning how to work with a computer, working with a team, taking on new responsibilities, or redefining a career path. If you want to remain employable, you may have to change more than just your attitude and your reaction to change. You may have to change some of your ideas and goals to create a better future for yourself.
Embrace Upcoming Changes
Many people are content to live their lives by playing it safe. If fear, pain, and hard work are prerequisites of change, it's easier to understand why some people are so dedicated to resisting it. They might be good at giving all the best-sounding reasons why this particular change is not right for the department, the organization, the team, or the customer. However, their underlying concern may be their fear about how the change will affect them-their job-their lives.
If you've been reacting negatively to change, it's important to modify your attitude and your behavior before it's too late. Think about what you really want. Comfort at all costs? The status quo? The good old days? If those are the aspects you desire-if that's what you're waiting for-then you will probably soon be out of a job. If, instead, you want challenge and welcome change, you will always be employable.

Written by Connie Podesta

Diminishing Fear

This week's article topic was recommmended by a coworker.  For me it seems to boil down to trust and communication. 

Diminishing Fear in the Workplace

Today, it seems that we are living in a world filled with uncertainty. Change is

constant, and predictions  of doom and  gloom prevail. Confusion  or uncertainty

about the future can lead to feelings of anxiety and fear both in our lives  and

on the job.  How can we  manage fear? Does  it transfer to  the workplace? Is it

reflective of a culture gone sour? Should leaders pay attention to fear?

According to psychologists, there is no such thing as “healthy” fear. Fear robs people of their potential and is a barrier to individual and organizational performance. Fear-based outcomes are usually negative and in most cases affect both organizational and individual quality of life.

Managing fear in the workplace is important and leaders can influence the level of fear in their departments or organizations through effective management techniques.

How can we recognize fear in the workplace?

Is your workplace highly competitive?

In a highly competitive work environment fear is easy to see. Competition between employees or departments creates anxiety, destroying trust and setting off a chain reaction of negative behaviours that can have a negative effect on the total culture of the organization. In a highly competitive organizational culture, people tend to focus on eliminating threats instead of working to achieve desired outcomes and they are more likely to avoid reprisal, perhaps at the expense of others.

Is short-term thinking the standard mode of operation in your department or organization?

Short-term thinking is usually apparent when there is a high degree of emphasis on monthly or quarterly results. Everyone is so focused on delivering the short term goal that there is no time left for long range planning. Eventually, people lose their sense of higher purpose and management fails to provide resources for long range needs. The focus on short-term profitability robs their efforts to develop a plan to become competitive, to stay in business and to provide jobs.

Oftentimes, employees juggle data to avoid repercussion from management and so the numbers do not tell the full story. According to quality consultant, William Scherkenbach, "With a combination of fear and ignorance people can virtually bring any process into statistical control."

Quality guru, Edward Deming refers to eliminating fear as one of his 14 principles of quality management. Deming’s methods helped Japan to move from a world perception as a producer of cheap, shoddy imitations post World War II to one of producing innovative quality products.

He said, “Encourage effective two way communication and other means to drive out fear throughout the organization so that everybody may work effectively and more productively for the company.” Therefore eliminating fear is essential to initiating and sustaining a total quality effort, pursuing continuous improvement, encouraging innovation and achieving customer delight. Deming suggests that standards prescribing quotas or numerical goals for people in management should be replaced with aids and helpful leadership to achieve continual improvement of quality and productivity.

How can we manage fear?

Individually, the most important way to manage fear is to acknowledge that it exists. As well, it is important to manage fear by:

1.            Establishing clear expectations—being clear on what your peers or staff expect of you.

2.            Assessing fear—that is, identifying what you or your team is fearful of and how it affects good performance.

3.            Clarifying perceptions—do you feel that people on the job have to do things that are against their better judgement?

4.            Defining the level of trust—do you feel that your peers, staff or suppliers are trustworthy? Do they trust you?

5.            Communication—do you feel that your staff members have all the information needed to carry out their jobs? Is feedback being collected among peers, employees and management?

6.            Training—is individual development and advancement supported by management? Are you, your peers and staff fully qualified for their jobs? If not, what have you done to ensure that your peers or staff acquire new knowledge and develop new skills?

An environment which helps people cope with fear must include leadership, trust and vision:

Leadership

The job of a leader in managing fear is to create an environment where employees can share information without concern for repercussions. Find out what generates fear in the organization. Listen and observe for signs of fear and take the lead on speaking up about fear. When people do speak up, a leader who manages fear effectively will be patient and understanding. The leader will listen, paraphrase and collect data before passing judgement on employees’ suggestions and actions.

Leaders must also respond to employees’ concerns and ideas quickly. Lack of response sends the message that nothing here will change. As well, leaders must reward cooperation and innovation and reward efforts as well as outcomes.

How to be an Optimist Without Being An Idiot

One of my biggest problems is from time to time I get caught up in what is going wrong and that starts a pessismistic attitude that can really have a negative effect on anyone you come into contact with.  I have been trying to kick this habit for a while now and constantly need reminders like this article.  Optimisim and a positive attitude are essential to your own health and the health of the family and work team's you interact with.  I truly believe it is a trait worth training yourself on if it doesn't come naturally. 

How to be An Optimist Without Being an Idiot

“If an optimist had his left arm chewed off by an alligator, he might say, in a pleasant and hopeful voice, ‘Well, this isn’t too bad. I don’t have my left arm anymore, but at least nobody will ever ask me whether I am right-handed or left-handed,’ but most of us would say something more along the lines of ‘Aaaaah! My arm! My Arm!’”—Lemony Snicket

It’s easy to mock an optimist, isn’t it? Those who hope for the best are scorned as “Pollyannas.” Bart Simpson mocks Lisa’s idealism. Lou Grant mocked Mary Richards in the newsroom. Voltaire enjoys many a knowing smile at the expense of his Candide. 

Yet optimism is one of the key strategies for overcoming fear, anxiety, frustration and skepticism in order to make a small business thrive, argue Clate Mask and Scott Martineau in their new book, Conquer the Chaos: How to Grow a Successful Small Business (Wiley, 2010).

The key, however, is to practice not unbridled, idealistic, romantic notions of cheerfully annoying optimism, but rather to practice “disciplined optimism.”

“Disciplined optimism,” Clate and Scott say, inspires you to maintain confidence and get to work removing whatever obstacle is in your way. It allows you to own the problem, and do something about it, because you have a sense that doing so gets you closer to your ultimate goal.

The authors define disciplined optimism as “faith you will prevail plus discipline to confront the brutal facts.” In other words, disciplined optimists do something about the little black rain cloud over their heads—they erect a very large umbrella, say—while blind optimists simply sit in the muddy puddle and cheerfully wish for the rain to stop (and then get wet and chilled and distraught when it doesn’t).

A good way for small business owners to practice disciplined optimism is to spend some time with unhappy customers. It stings when a customer complains about our product or services, and it’s easy to get incensed, defensive, and, ultimately, be simply unresponsive.

A disciplined optimist, however, assures an irate customer that they both want the same thing: A seamless customer experience. So the optimist (1) apologizes for the malfunction or disappointment; and (2) thanks the customer for bringing the issue to his or her attention so that the business can make this right and help future customers avoid the same frustrations.

The key here, however, is the bigger picture: Responding with confidence and enthusiasm, not just going through the mechanics of fixing an issue, because you see customer issues and other roadblocks as entirely fixable things that, once corrected, hasten the progress toward your long-term goal, Clate and Scott point out.

I particularly like this section on optimism in Conquer the Chaos. Why? Because much as we all know that a doing something about a problem is a better response than simply wallowing in it, it’s easier said than done, right? We all know that a customer complaint is an opportunity to turn an opinion around, but it’s hard not to get ticked off and impassive.

“We’ve all heard that we need to view customer complaints as opportunities to improve, try to turn lemons into lemonade, blah, blah, blah,” Clate and Scott write. But actually doing it is way harder than simply voicing it.

In a larger context, too, it’s hard to maintain disciplined optimism with all of persistent business pressures that make up our workdays—competitive threats, cash flow worries, an underperforming employee, competitive threats, limited resources—or on those days when business feels more like a battle than an adventure. Some days, you need a shot glass full of optimism just to get through the afternoon. But the disciplined kind—not the clueless kind that makes you smile blithely and ultimately give up because things don’t change the way you want them to.

So how do you nurture disciplined optimism within yourself? How do you make an effort to be more of a half-full, and less of a half-empty, kind of person? Here are eight ideas, based on Clate and Scott’s advice in their book as well as my own two pesos.

1. Face the problem (and quickly). This one is from Clate and Scott, who say, “Don’t brood and dwell on difficult experiences,” like a thorny customer or looming cash crunch. “Go to work right away.”
2. Rewind. Go back and address situations you wish you’d handled differently. It’s never too late (well, it’s never too late at least to try.)
3. Rewire your brain. Be conscious of your negative thoughts. Boot them out of your brain and make room for positive thoughts. (This might sound squishy and New Age-y, but it works.)
4. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Believe in yourself and what you are doing, but don’t take yourself too seriously. (Those who do are one of my biggest pet peeves, by the way.) “Laugh at yourself. Have a little fun. Roll with the punches,” Clate and Scott say.
5. Read customer testimonials. Or shake the Magic Google 8-ball: Search on “I love {insert your company name here}.” This does wonders to remind you of the good feelings you engender.
6. Give a compliment. Spread sunshine yourself by telling someone what a great job they are doing. You’ll feel better about yourself, too.
7. Fake it ‘til you make it. This old catchphrase is a great way to shake up your behavior. It’s usually applied to confidence, but you can apply it to optimism, as well, especially if you aren’t naturally a half-full kind of person: Imitating optimism will generate real optimism by producing success; that in turn reinforces your optimism.
8. Be grateful. Those of us here at OPEN Forum are a lucky bunch, aren’t we? We have passion and a curiosity and willingness to learn and grow our businesses and ourselves. (Otherwise, why would you be reading OPEN Forum at all?) That’s an amazing thing, isn’t it? And for that, we can be grateful every day.
   

What about you? Are you a so-called disciplined optimist? How do you maintain it?

Being Successful

 

This week's article is about being succesful.  As I raise my kids I am constantly trying to instill what my vision of success is so they don't focus too much on society's ideals for success.  This has been a good lesson for me to instill into my life....

Enjoy and start being successful now!

 

Being Successful

As strange as it might seem, success, one of the most popular concepts in our modern world, is the most difficult thing to understand for many people. Maybe that would be the main reason for not getting it at all? Maybe because the core definition of success is so foggy we have a hard time identifying a successful outcome? What is success to you? What is the final touch that defines a successful lifestyle?

If you started to wonder even for a split of a second about the answer to that question, I bet you have difficulties in enjoying your life. I know I did. I struggled for years with the socially generated concepts of success and tried a lot of paths in order to achieve those – sometimes even opposed – states of success.

Social pressure

It literally took me years to understand the core meaning of success. It's difficult to understand that because most of the definitions are socially generated and every one of them implies some artificial link between you and the others. In order to be successful you have to be acknowledged by somebody else. You need proof and most of the times you need somebody else to tell you that you are a successful human being.
That's strange. That's the wrong way, you know, to be told you are successful, to need external validation processes. Being successful should be something that comes the other way around: from within. The modern society put such a tremendous pressure on being popular. Success is often defined by the number of people that have heard about you. Being known is enough of a success for many people, even if this popularity has no generated value associated with it.
Even if you do something that is totally in accord with your inner values, you have to correspond to a set of standardized principles in order to achieve success. In modern society, money and recognition are amongst the most important success definitions. You might be a complete and fulfilled person, yet if you don't have tons of money or you're not quite a popular figure, you're not going to be accepted as a successful person.

Building success

Trying to work with ready made definition of success, without first understanding what those definitions mean to you, as a person, is like building a house from a broken foundation. You might know from your heart how to build your house, but you'll be forced to start building on a broken foundation. Your dream house might be built as you wish, but it will fall apart sooner or later, because of the broken foundation.
So, from this broken foundation, every step toward success will be a painful and difficult step in order to achieve something that you don't even know. You'll find yourself fighting to achieve money even if you have enough for your needs, or you'll start to make compromises in order to be acclaimed as a popular person. In fact, you'll start to get out of sync with what you need. You'll start doing things you don't even understand. You'll start to feel bad about what you're doing.
And the most important thing is that, once “successful”, you'll experiment a complete and unbearable feeling of emptiness and frustration. You have something that you didn't even want in the first place. And what you really wanted is not there anymore, leaving you empty and sad.

Success from within

All of this because you resisted your inner being. You succumbed to ready made success principles, without understanding the most important part: what YOU really want. What makes YOU happy. What YOU can offer in an unique and fulfilling way…
Everything starts to lighten when you're doing things you like. Those things will most likely not be giving you millions of dollars. Hmm, I just realized that's not a rule, by the way. They might give you as well millions of dollars, it's just not a rule that you'll actually need millions of dollars in order to express yourself to your full potential.Â
If those things are totally and honestly filling your existence, they will lead you to success anyway. Every thing you like to do is a solid foundation. Every thing that feels good to be done is a guarantee that you'll make yourself happy, sometime. Every thing that you do without effort is a promise of undoubtable success.
The real joy of life always comes from within. The real need for success always come froms you to the others, not the other way around. Whenever you need too much proof that what you're doing is correct, you're going away form your own navigation tools, setting course on somebody else's path. You'll crash, sooner or later.

Getting used to success

Being successful is not a question of how to get there, but how to get used to it. For me that's the most important discovery about success. Most of the people resist to success because they don’t know what to do once they get there.  And they even don't know they are there. I actually met hundreds of successful people that didn't even realize that they lived a successful life.
There is a powerful social conditioning that postulates that success is difficult. So people obey to this and stay in difficult situations, waiting for their success to bloom. But it doesn’t. Because they're on the wrong definition of success. And that definition can’t possibly be correct for everyone, mathematically speaking. Having a limited set of principles defining success is just not working for everybody.
Every human being is different and every one has an internal mission that will make his life bloom. And they're here to do this with all their power and skills. They're here to be in a larger and more powerful flow of other people with their own different skills and expectations. They're here to be happy, and success is just one of the subtle flashing lights that is making them aware of that…
Success is a state of well being. An equilibrium in motion. A personal choice. It is not a social label. Is not a widely accepted set of criteria, that, once met, turn you into a successful human being.
You are successful when being successful is not a stress anymore. When you are outside that difficult path, socially induced. When you feel right about what you’re doing and when you’re doing everything right.
It might be making money, or it might be traveling the world. It might be doing business, corporate style, or it might be teaching others about being happy.

Success is happiness acknowledged.

 

 How to Enjoy Life

This week's article is simply about how to Enjoy the little things we face every day.


Written by Peter Clemens

  Digg

In The Magic of Starting Small, I made the point that it is your days that define your life. In this article, I want to challenge the common perception that it is only possible to enjoy your leisure time. In particular, this article is targeted at the professional stuck in the 9 to 5 grind who longs for the weekend and, in the process, has given up on trying to find pleasure in the ordinary experiences we have every day.
1. Appreciate Beauty. Each day we come across beauty in a number of shapes and forms. It’s a shame, then, that many people have become so accustomed to this beauty that it largely goes unappreciated. I suggest looking again at the people, plants, gadgets, and buildings (to name but a few examples) around you and taking a moment to appreciate what makes them so special.
2. Connect With Nature. Nature is an amazing healer for the stresses and strains of modern life. Eating lunch in the park, attending to a vegetable garden in your backyard, or watching the sunset are just a few simple ideas for how you can enjoy the outdoors on a daily basis.
3. Laugh. E. E. Cummings once said “the most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” How very true. Never be too busy to laugh, or too serious to smile. Instead, surround yourself with fun people and don’t get caught up in your own sense of importance.
4. Have Simple Pleasures. A good cup of coffee when I first wake. Time spent playing with my 8 month old son. Cooking a nice meal in the evening. These may not seem terribly exciting, but they are some of the simple pleasures I enjoy in life. If you slow down for just a moment and take the time to appreciate these ordinary events, life becomes instantly more enjoyable.
5. Connect With People. In so many ways, it is our relationships with people that give us the most happiness in life. Perhaps, then, the best way to enjoy your work more is not to get a raise or a promotion, but rather to build rewarding relationships with your co-workers.
6. Learn. There is a strong link between learning and happiness. Given this, there is no excuse not to be stimulating your brain and learning something new each day. My favorite way to find time for learning is to make the most of the commute to and from work. Audiobooks and podcasts are great for this purpose.
7. Rethink Your Mornings and Evenings. Are the mornings a mad rush for you to get out the door? Do you switch off the TV at night and go straight to bed? I have personally experienced the profound benefits of establishing a routine in the morning and evening. For example, in the morning you may choose to wake an hour earlier and spend the time working on yourself, whether it be reading, writing or exercising. In the evening, consider spending some time just before bed reviewing your day or in meditation.
8. Celebrate Your Successes. During a normal day we are sure to have some minor successes. Perhaps you have successfully dealt with a difficult customer, made a sale, or received a nice compliment for your work. These aren’t events worth throwing a party for, but why not take a moment to celebrate your success? Share the experience with someone else, reward yourself with a nice lunch, or just give yourself a mental pat on the back.
Peter writes about how to change your life at The Change Blog. He also runs a blog for audio book lovers called Audio Book Downloads.

Image by Robby Edwards

Group Flow

This week's article is a study that shows there are great strides of creativity and productivity when group flow is achieved.  This article shows how group flow can be achieved.

Group flow: How teamwork can foster creativity

--by R. Keith Sawyer , Greater Good, Feb 1, 2012

Researcher R. Keith Sawyer looks to comedians and jazz groups for 10 keys to more creative, successful teams in the office, on the field, and beyond.

In 1949, the comedian Sid Caesar brought together a legendary group of comedy writers and created one of the biggest television hits of the 1950s, Your Show of Shows. Caesar’s team included Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Neil Simon. It may have been the greatest writing staff in the history of television.

They developed the show in a small suite of rooms on the sixth floor of 130 West 56th Street in Manhattan. Caesar created a fun and improvisational environment, where the team would riff on each other’s ideas constantly. “Jokes would be changed 50 times,” Mel Brooks later remembered. “We’d take an eight-minute sketch and rewrite it in eight minutes.” They constantly reworked the same scene until something really great emerged. The writers felt like they belonged to something greater than themselves. Critics and TV historians call this comic gold. I call it “group flow.”

The legendary writing staff of Your Show of Shows in the 1950s included Mel Brooks (front row, far right) and Neil Simon (back row, far left). Their collaboration epitomizes "group flow."PBS

Famed psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly coined the term “flow” to describe a particular state of heightened consciousness—what some people refer to as being “in the zone.”

Csikszentmihaly discovered that extremely creative people are at their peak when they experience “a unified flowing from one moment to the next, in which we feel in control of our actions, and in which there is little distinction between self and environment; between stimulus and response; or between past, present, and future.” When they enter the flow state, people from a wide range of professions describe feeling a sense of competence and control, a loss of self-consciousness, and they get so absorbed in the task that they lose track of time.

Researchers have spent a lot of time studying how individuals achieve flow, and how it benefits them and their work. But as Mel Brooks and his partners in Sid Caesar’s laugh factory could confirm, sometimes super-creative groups like jazz ensembles, theater troupes, or comedy writing teams get into flow together.

Carl Reiner (left) and Mel Brooks worked together onYour Show of Shows.

Indeed, group flow is important for all of us, because so many of our personal and professional activities are spent in groups, and we all want these groups to be more effective and more fun—whether they’re a sports team, a business meeting, a non-profit board, a PTA, or a boy scout troop. Decades of scientific research have revealed that great creativity almost always springs from collaboration, conversation, and social networks—challenging our mythical image of the isolated genius. And research shows that when a group is in flow, it’s more likely to resolve problems with surprising and creative solutions.

So how can business managers, coaches, and the rest of us foster group flow? I first explored this question while working on my Ph.D. with Csikszentmihaly at the University of Chicago. A jazz pianist myself, I started my research by studying jazz ensembles; then, I branched out to study improv theater groups, business teams, and sports teams.

I discovered that group flow isn’t just a matter of luck. Rather, it tends to emerge when 10 key conditions are in place. In these 10 conditions we can find lessons for workplaces, sports teams, and just about any other group that wants its work to be more effective and gratifying.

The keys to flow

To understand the roots of group flow, it helps to understand a bit more about how individuals find flow.

Drawing on research with mountain climbers, club dancers, artists, and scientists, Csikszentmihalyi found that people are more likely to get into flow when their environment has four important characteristics.

First and most importantly, they’re doing something where their skills match the challenge of the task. If the challenge is too great for their skills, they get frustrated; if the task isn’t challenging enough, they simply get bored.

Second, flow occurs when the goal is clear, and third, when there’s constant and immediate feedback about how close you are to achieving that goal.

Fourth, flow occurs when you’re free to fully concentrate on the task.

Building on this research, I found that group flow requires conditions that overlap with and go beyond these four. Here are the 10 factors I identified for group flow.

1. The group’s goal

First, I found that it’s essential for groups to have a compelling vision and a shared mission—they need to be clear about what their collective goal is. But how we define a group’s goal can vary depending on what type of group it is.

Jazz and improv theater are relatively unstructured. The only goal is intrinsic to the performance itself—to perform well and to entertain the audience. This is problem-findingcreativity because the group has to “find” and define the problem as they’re solving it.

But the groups in which we participate during the workday—task forces, project groups, and committees—usually have a specific goal in mind. Business teams are expected to solve specific problems. If the goal is well-understood and can be explicitly stated, it’s a problem-solving creative task.

Problem-finding and problem-solving creativity can both foster flow, depending on the context. Either way, the key to group flow is managing a paradox: establishing a goal that provides focus for the team—just enough focus so that team members can tell when they get closer to a solution—but one that’s open-ended enough for maximum creativity to emerge.

2. Close listening

Actors and musicians both talk about group flow using metaphors like riding a wave, gliding across a ballroom with a dance partner, or lovemaking. Group flow is more likely to emerge when everyone is fully engaged—what improvisers call “deep listening,” in which you don’t plan ahead what you’re going to say, but your statements are genuinely unplanned responses to what you hear. Innovation is blocked when one or more participants already has a preconceived idea of how to get to the goal; improvisers frown on this practice, pejoratively calling it “writing the script in your head.”

Here’s an example from an improv performance with no group flow. A pair of improv actors, a man and a woman, are walking slowly across the stage, hand in hand, taking a romantic walk in the park, when this exchange occurs:

Woman (pointing to the side of the path): Oh look, what’s that?
Man: It’s just a pile of dog poop.
Woman (bending closer to look): No, it’s a lottery ticket!

When the woman pointed to the side of the trail, she was already “writing the script” that they would find a discarded lottery ticket in the park. She was probably already thinking that it would be a winning ticket and that it would change their lives. That “scripting” kept her from listening to what her partner really said and riffing off of that.

3. Keep it moving forward

After deep listening, team members need to keep moving the conversation forward, meaning that they follow the most important rule of improv: “Yes, and…” In other words, listen closely to what’s being said, accept it fully, then extend and build on it. This often leads down an unexpected and improvised path, a problem-finding process that can result in surprising new ideas.

Nothing staunches creativity quicker than negating or ignoring your partner. “Yes, and…” builds on deep listening, and it’s critical to group flow.

4. Complete concentration

In basketball, complete concentration is required because the game moves fast—everyone’s constantly moving around you, and yet you need to remain constantly aware of your teammates and opponents. One of the basketball players Csikszentmihalyi interviewed said, “If you step back and think about why you are so hot all of a sudden, you get creamed.” When a player is in flow, time becomes warped, minutes seem like hours, and the basketball can appear to move in slow motion.

To enable a similar degree of concentration—and flow—in group settings, it helps to wall the group’s work off from other activities, giving them the space to devote their full attention to their work. Perhaps this is why many high-performing groups have a strong feeling of group identity, of standing apart from the world.

5. Being in control

People get into flow when they’re in control of their actions and of their environment. In the same way, group flow increases when people feel autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Many studies of teams have found that if a team knows that their managers trust them and will, in the end, accept and support what they decide, that team performs better.

But in group flow, unlike solo flow, control results in a paradox: Each participant must feel in control while at the same time remaining flexible, listening closely, and always being willing to defer to the emergent flow of the group. The most innovative teams are the ones that can manage that paradox.

Andy Newcombe/Creative Commons

6. Blending egos

Jazz musicians know that they need to control their egos; every jazz player can tell a story about a technically gifted young instrumentalist who was nonetheless a horrible jazz musician. What they’re lacking is the ability to submerge their ego to the group mind, to balance their own voice with deep listening.

Group flow is the magical moment when it all comes together, when the group is in sync and the performers seem to be thinking with one mind. In group flow, each person’s idea builds on the ones that their partners just contributed. Small ideas build together and an innovation emerges.

“He is animated and engaged with you,” one executive said of a colleague who often participated in groups in flow. “[But] he is also listening and reacting to what you are saying with undivided attention.”

7. Equal participation

Group flow is more likely to occur when all participants play an equal role in the collective creation of the final product or performance. Group flow is blocked if anyone’s skill level is significantly below the rest of the group; all of the members must have comparable skill levels. This is why professional athletes don’t enjoy playing with amateurs: Group flow can’t happen, because the professionals will be bored and the amateurs will be frustrated. It’s also blocked when one person dominates, is arrogant, or doesn’t think they have anything to learn in the conversation.

8. Familiarity

By studying many different work teams, psychologists have found that when we’re more familiar with our teammates, we’re more productive and make more effective decisions. When members of a group have been together awhile, they share a common language and a common set of unspoken understandings—what psychologists call ”tacit knowledge.” Because it’s unspoken, people often don’t even realize what it is that enables them to communicate effectively.

In improv, group flow happens only when all the players have mastered a body of tacit knowledge. Improv actors learn a set of guiding principles that help make it work, rules such as “Don’t deny” and “Show, don’t tell.”

This shared understanding gets group members on the same page about the group’s goals—and clear goals are a cornerstone of group flow. Familiarity with one another’s communication style also helps them respond to each other quickly, and we know from Csikszentmihalyi’s research that immediate feedback is critical to flow.

9. Communication

Indeed, group flow requires constant communication. Everyone hates to go to useless meetings. But the kind of communication that leads to group flow often doesn’t happen in the conference room. Instead, it’s more likely to happen in free-wheeling, spontaneous conversations in the hallway, or in social settings after work or at lunch.

10. The potential for failure

Jazz ensembles rarely experience flow during rehearsal; group flow seems to require an audience, and the accompanying risk of real, meaningful failure. Jazz musicians and improv theater ensembles never know how successful a performance will be. Professional actors learn not to ignore the feeling of stage fright but to harness it, using it as a powerful force to push them toward flow.

Research shows us over and over again that the twin sibling of innovation is frequent failure. There’s no creativity without failure, and there’s no group flow without the risk of failure. These two common research findings go hand in hand, because group flow is often what produces the most significant innovations.

Finding the balance

As this list suggests, group flow happens when many tensions are in perfect balance: between convention and novelty, between structure and improvisation, between the critical, analytic mind and the freewheeling, outside-the-box mind, between listening to the rest of the group and speaking out with your own individual voice. The central paradox of group flow is that it can only happen when there are rules and the participants share tacit understandings, but with too many rules or too much cohesion, the potential for innovation is lost.

The key question facing groups that have to innovate is finding just the right amount of structure to support improvisation, but not so much structure that it smothers creativity. Jazz and improv theater have important messages for all groups, because they’re unique in how successfully they balance all of these tensions.

The most effective business teams balance these tensions in the same way: They listen closely, they are concentrated on the task, they communicate openly so that everyone gets immediate feedback, and they trust that genius will emerge from the group, not from any one member. When that happens, groups find flow—and with it, studies show, comes more effective team performance, greater innovation, and higher workplace satisfaction. It’s good for the organization, and it’s good for its workers, too.

R. Keith Sawyer, Ph.D., a professor of psychology and education at Washington University in St. Louis, is one of the country’s leading scientific experts on creativity. He elaborates on the ideas in this essay in his book Group Genius. A jazz pianist for over 20 years, Dr. Sawyer lectures to corporations, associations, and universities around the world on creativity and innovation. This article was reprinted with permission from the Greater Good Science Center.