We formally launch Team Flow Institute this Labor Day, 2023, when we not only celebrate the contributions of labor in the United States but also recognize the essential value at the heart of their human work.
Perhaps at no other moment in history has the need to unify our often opposing interests been so urgent or the stakes so high. As we stand at the dawn of the Autonomous Age, the writing is on the wall. We once thought artists, lawyers, computer programmers, writers, and so many other professions were unautomatable. That they were the essence of creative human work.
Given the power of modern artificial intelligence, you likely think differently today.
But as has often been said, AI isn’t coming for your job, a person with an AI is coming for it. That couldn’t be more true. I’ve personally experienced a task reduction of close to 90% on many projects, like building a customer experience workshop in under 2 hours, which would normally have taken dozens of hours over three weeks. On other project’s, saving at least 25% or more of my time.
To address this challenge, and prepare for the world that is emerging in front of our eyes, we must each take a more holistic perspective, seeing the forest around us all in addition to the individual trees in front of each of us. Many of you, like myself, have seen this rodeo before, and know it likely won’t be pretty. We can, however, make it a bit more beautiful, together.
That is one of the broader missions of the Team Flow Institute: to bring together the best and brightest researchers, practitioners, and creators to preserve and enhance human work. So this launch today is also a call to my colleagues, friends, old souls, visionaries, change agents, and believers in our ability to create a better tomorrow. Read on. Join us. Enroll in our Team Flow Fundamentals course.
The other mission, is to develop and advance the role of Team Flow Facilitator, with a new set of jobs to fulfill in supporting projects and project managers. We believe facilitator is the appropriate word choice here, but you might think of them as more of a team coach. You’d be right if you were thinking that this sort of work may also involve serving as an AI pilot and using technology to improve our meetings, brainstorming, decision making, and communications.
Our approach to the Team Flow Facilitator role is different because it’s not just about the technology, it’s about unifying all stakeholders in a collective ambition in our mutual interests. It’s about answering the question of how we work better together first, and how we do that with technology second. As with every technological revolution I’ve seen in my lifetime, there are invariably things about using the tools that require the development of expertise, that benefit from unique talents, and some things that can’t be easily learned.
Hence the reason for forming an institute instead of seeking to become a unicorn. We have a need to study which practices, systems, and technologies work most effectively in which situations, in different areas of human work to unlock a team’s full potential. Based on the research of Dr. Jef van den Hout, we believe that the pursuit of a state of Team Flow is the key to unlocking that potential.
Which is why we are proud to announce that the world’s leading researcher on Team Flow, Dr. Jef van den Hout, has agreed to take on a role as a Senior Research Fellow and is working with us to offer our first course on the path to becoming a certified Team Flow Facilitator or Strategist. Together, we seek to continue his work through a global network of professionals committed to preserving human work and using technology to augment us, not replace us. More information about the course, Team Flow Fundamentals, is below and on our web site.
Dr. van den Hout will also serve the Institute as an advisory board member with Jen McClure, former head of digital for Thomson Reuters and founder and CEO of the nonprofit think tank Society for New Communications Research, one of the first organizations to research the impact of digital technologies on business, media culture, and society. McClure will lead the development of a research and fellowship program for the Institute.
As I said with Web 2.1 in 2005 and Web 3.1 in 2022, ‘the point is still people’. So once again, I am bringing a human-centric approach and a more holistic view to the staid belief that things will always be this way. We can create any world we want to have, if we are only willing to come together, to find our collective ambition, to achieve a state of flow together. To become a team, together.
If you are curious, join us and let’s seek better answers through better questions, together. Let’s augment humanity. Let’s create a win-win-win for all stakeholders. Let’s not only celebrate labor, but let’s also recognize the immense and often untapped value of human capital in the Augmented Age.
Join us in redefining a future for human work that is more fulfilling, equitable, and inclusive—one in which the well-being of “our most valuable assets” is the well-being of the corporation, and of the market it serves.
This is the beginning of a truly beautiful journey, with a team of teams aligned by a collective ambition to create a world where “business as possible” is the norm, not an anomaly. Where people are free to do their best work ever, as Seth Godin has written about in our first Book of the Month. A world where the well-being of our most valuable assets is recognized as the well-being of the organization and the market it serves. A world where we augment humans as Doug Englebart once envisioned, and unleash our best work ever into the universe.
Want to get involved?
Join our community for free and join us in our conversations and efforts towards augmenting our capabilities and
- Join the discussions in our Discord server
- Participate in our upcoming book club
- Access weekly office hours
- Submit to publish your work like Dyske
- Receive our weekly newsletter
- Follow us on Linkedin for alerts to important news and insights
Sign up for our “Team Flow Fundamentals” course, which runs 8 weeks from Wednesday October 4, 2023 to Wednesday December 6, 2023.
- Explore the team flow framework and model created by Jef Van Den Hout, who is co-designing the course and will guest lecture
- Learn what parts of the culture you can influence and what sort of influence you can have for creating the conditions for team flow
- Develop experiments and pilots for empowering your teams with the fundamentals
- Discuss the role of the Culture Plan for ensuring better outcomes across your teams
- If you desire certification in team flow facilitation, this is the pre-requisite to joining that training in FEB – a sort of 101 equivalent before the 301 of the certification program
- If you want to understand how to implement team flow principles into your culture and operational plan at a strategic level, this course is also for you as the core 6 pillars of team flow and of this course are foundational
Those who sign up for the course will also receive a charter professional membership in the institute and be invited to shape our charter, our research, and our educational programs, along with all the other membership benefits including a RallyBright Executive Profile and a Go Team Flow assessment for your team, which we will help you launch with your team.
Upcoming research fellowships
Our primary research is to map what practices, systems, and technologies work in which situations to achieve maximum momentum with team flow principles in human work and beyond. To understand which industries, functions, and types of teams benefit most and where this effort is not necessary, but where other approaches are required.
- With the recent addition of Jen McClure and Dr. Jef van den Hout, we are now designing our fellowship programs, with more information to come soon.
- We are in the process of reaching out to a long list of colleagues from around the world to invite their participation, if this includes you, please reach out to us if this work resonates with you.
- If you would like to stay informed about the program dates and refined focus, join as a free community member, register for the Team Flow Fundamentals course, or reach out and let us know.
