The way we worked under industrial capitalism is no longer tolerable to top talent. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated trends that were already in motion, pushing organizations to rethink how they operate. The shift to remote and hybrid work models has been a significant part of this transformation. However, these new models have brought their own set of challenges, from maintaining productivity and engagement to ensuring the well-being of employees. It’s becoming increasingly clear that we need a new approach to intentionally design our work to support our humanity. One that doesn’t treat us as cogs in the machine.
The current state of work is characterized by inefficient systems, poor work cultures, and ineffective management practices focused on measuring the wrong things. In many organizations, these issues have been exacerbated by the shift to remote and hybrid work models. The traditional 9-to-5, office-based work model is no longer fit for purpose in a world where flexibility, autonomy, and digital connectivity are paramount.
The challenges of remote and hybrid work are numerous. Employees struggle with isolation, burnout, and the blurring of boundaries between work and personal life. Managers grapple with maintaining team cohesion, communication, and productivity in a virtual environment. Organizations wrestle with the logistical, technological, and cultural changes required to support remote work.
The need for a new work design is urgent. We need to move beyond merely changing where we work, to fundamentally changing how we work. This involves rethinking our work systems, cultures, and management practices to better support remote and hybrid work models.
Pursuing Team Flow, Alignment from Anywhere
Enter the concept of team flow. Team flow refers to the state where a team is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. It’s about creating conditions that enable teams to achieve their best work, together. The benefits of team flow for productivity and well-being are significant. It can help address many of the challenges of the modern workplace, from improving collaboration and innovation to enhancing employee engagement and satisfaction.
The power of team flow is not just theoretical. There are numerous examples of organizations that have successfully harnessed team flow to drive performance and well-being. These case studies provide valuable insights into how team flow can be cultivated in a remote or hybrid work context. Researching and organizing these case studies into actionable insights is only one part of our work here.
The Team Flow Institute is standing at the forefront of this work revolution. Our mission is to help organizations create the best jobs ever for top talent. To unlock the power of team flow more consistently, improve team member’s well being, dignity, and agency. We do this through a variety of strategies and initiatives, from research and education to consulting and facilitating.
A key aspect of this mission is the establishment of a new role for supporting collaboration, the team flow facilitator. This is a new role that we are proposing, designed to support teams in achieving flow. The team flow facilitator helps teams navigate the complexities of remote and hybrid work, fostering conditions that enable team flow, deepen engagement, sustain alignment, and produce self-generating momentum .
Our vision for the future of work is one where team flow is the goal, one that we understand how to achieve by balancing light structure with emergence. We believe that by changing how we work, not just where we work, we can create organizations and teams that are more productive, more enjoyable, and more human.
The Team Flow Institute is committed to shaping this future, and we invite you to join us on this journey. Become a free community member to comment on these articles and to participate in our discord server. You can also sign up to our newsletter and of course, we hope to speak with you at one of our educational events.
Better still join as one of our Charter Professional Members and participate in our fall class, “Team Flow, What We Know” – an ongoing socratic dialog and laboratory for safe fail experiments and an elevated dialog about the development of the Team Flow Institute. From now until Labor Day, September 4, 2023 save 50% and join for only $250.
