Carrot, Stick or Flow?

Thousands of years ago motivation was easy. We did what we had to do to survive. We did not need bonuses or glorious titles. Then our society evolved and we needed more finely toned methods to motivate us. We started to create codes which stated which deeds were preferrable and which were not. If you did something bad or did not do something good, you got the stick – which ever form it took. And if you were nice, worked your butt off you got a good pay – maybe even a bonus. That basically was our motivational system in the past. But then something changed.

Today we use many innovations that were not created with the traditional stick and carrot- compensation model. Most of the best innovations were created by people who just loved what they did and who did not think about money. Neither was there any stick waiting them if they did not perform. They just had a lazerlike focus on their passion and just did it.

If you asked them, I would think most of them would say, that they felt they were in some kind of flow state of mind. Time flew and they felt a great feeling of accomplishment.

The term Flow is widely used and also studied. It was named by Mihail Csikszentmihalyi who stated that, flow is completely focused motivation. In flow even emotions are positively focused, channeled and aligned with the tas at hand. And you feel joy while performing tasks.

Schaffer (2013) proposed, that there were 7 flow conditions:

1. Knowing what to do
2. Knowing how to do it
3. Knowing how well you are doing
4. Knowing were to go next
5. You feel the task challenging
6. You feel your skills are evolving
7. You have freedom of distractions

Now think about your workplace. Do all people know what to do, how they are doing, what’s next and do they feel free of distractions. Probably not, but most of these conditions are in our own hands.

Akselworks can create the backbone of a flowing work place. When you use it, you can easily meet these conditions technically. Your people know what to do, what is next, how they are doing and you can assign tasks based on their skill set and proven trackrecord. And since it creates the reports while you work and is focused on tasks – not on bureaucrazy – you can work without distractions.

To be honest – when we created Akselworks we had not studied Csikszentmihalyi’s writings nor did we have the flow conditions in mind. We just created a tool that helped to get the job done, because that is the most rewarding feeling: To finish something and move to the next thing.