Go With the Flow

In the improv of life we all have the same 24 hours in our days.

How do you spend your 24 hours?

How much of your work day do you spend doing things that energize you?

How much of your free time do you spend doing things that energize you?

Have you yet identified what specific activities fall into your flow?

If not, I suggest you do it now so you can be specific and purposeful in what you do.

Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi, the former head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago identified the concept of "flow".

When a person is performing an activity that is within their flow, they are completely immersed in a state of energized focus, fully enjoying and completely involved in the process.

When you're in your flow you feel supremely alive! You feel wide-awake, excited and creative when you're doing those things. Someone involved in their flow doesn't feel bored, depressed or anxious.

(And, if you are feeling any of those things I'm here to tell you you're not really in your flow!)

Beyond flow, there are tasks and activities where we might be particularly skilled but those activities don't excite us at all.

So please remember, just because an employee or volunteer is good at something, it doesn't necessarily mean they are happily engaged in one of their flow activities.

More than once I've heard a leader say, "He's in his flow," while watching someone skillfully performing a task.

Or say, "I'm going to ask her to (FILL IN THE BLANK)  because it'll be right in her flow!"

But I always wonder, did you ask that person about their flow?


I think one of the frustrations in life is when someone else mistakes our skill for our passion.

Ironically, some of the things we do well, or easily, can be something we do efficiently because we dislike it and are trying to complete it quickly!


Another mistake, I think we make is assuming flow-by-association.

For example, asking the Dad who just made a fabulous casserole for the neighborhood potluck to whip up a batch of cupcakes for a PTA event, might induce anxiety in his heart.

He might indeed find his flow in cooking but hate baking.

You were innocently assuming that baking falls right in his flow because he said he loved cooking (and that casserole was SOOOOO good).

Cooking. Baking. It all happens in the kitchen, right?

Same thing, right?

Wrong. There are significant differences.

If baking is NOT in his flow, and that Dad agrees to bake the cupcakes, he'll probably do it skillfully but find it completely exhausting and frustrating.

Even more frustrating, he'll probably do a great job and find that he's expected to bring the homemade cupcakes from then on!

Has anything similar ever happened to you?

It has certainly happened to me.

I'm no longer in the corporate world but I'm very active in the volunteer world.

Over the years, I've become better about protecting my free time and keeping a good balance of flow activities in my week. However, what I'm NOT good at yet is turning down non-flow requests more openly.

I tend to say, "I can't, I'm busy, " when I'm asked to give of my time in a non-flow activity.

What I really should say is, "I've reached my allotment this week for doing volunteer activities that are out of my flow."

Today, I put a challenge out there to leaders to get specific information regarding flow.

Ask your employees, volunteers -even family members- these three questions:

1. What specific tasks and activities energize you?
2. What specific tasks and activities do you feel accomplished doing but you would prefer to do less often?
3. What specific tasks and activities completely drain you?

We did this exercise on a team once and found that a completely draining task for one person was a flow task for another! The two were able to "trade" tasks and their energy and happiness increased.

I Didn't Expect to Win This Award

I cannot tell you how MANY times I heard, "I didn't expect to win this award!" while watching the Golden Globe telecast last night. As if saying THAT made it okay for the winner to waste our time by babbling on mindlessly until the "wrap it up" music started playing.

Midway through viewing all those train wrecks last night, I was reminded of my STRONG belief that when faced with even the remote possibility of speaking before a live television audience, it is polite -and prudent- to prepare something genuine, coherent (and succinct) to say.

The same goes for ANYONE. In fact, in this big old improv of life, I believe it is even more important for all of us non-stars to have something coherent and succinct to say about our work/passions when presented with an opportunity to do so.

I feel it is time to re-publish my post from last February, on this very topic. Here it is: Hollywood Stars and Your Elevator Speech.

Everybody's Talking At Me

As the song lyric goes: Everybody's talking at me/I don't hear a word they're saying. . .

The month of September brought into my life an AMAZING array of PRESENTATIONS. Our kids go to two different schools, and I went to a couple of community events. Overall, I saw more than 15 formal "presentations".

I'm going to be brutally honest: I was bored out of my mind in every one. And, when something bothers/bores me, I gets my creative wheels spinning. I started pondering What ARE they keys to a great presentation?

Presenting information should be a CREATIVE and ENGAGING endeavor. Not a chore. If you hate it, the audience will know! So, find ways to be creative if you HAVE to give a presentation.

I reflected back on some of the greatest presentations I've seen and here are some tips:

Honesty - Presenters who are their honest selves capture my attention every time. The ones that talk to a roomful of people the same way they'd talk to one or two people convey honesty. The people on the platform at my church all have this skill. I'm certain they were chosen to be ON the platform for this very skill.

Eye Contact - If you are reading from notes; or looking OVER the heads of your audience, you will not capture anyone's attention. The greatest presenters make each audience member feel as if they are engaged in a direct conversation with the presenter.

Humor - Presenters who take themselves and/or their subject TOO seriously are going to lose the entire crowd within the first 3 seconds. Smiling, finding light-hearded moments, sharing an honest moment all those things relax your audience and helps them to relate to what you're saying.

Stories - Telling a story is always more powerful than reciting statistics. Don't tell me how many kids have been through your program, share the stories of how those kids have been positively affected. Share the stories of the rough times, the funny times, the touching times.

Passion - If you are truly passionate about your subject, it shines through. If you "have" to give a presentation, make sure you find some aspect of it to be passionate about. If you can't, then maybe someone else should give the presentation.

Interact - Find spots in your presentation where the audience interacts with you. Answering questions, playing a super-quick game, asking them to repeat a point, anything, get them involved.

Don't Ramble - Make your point. What are you trying to say. Boil it down to one or two talking points, then share that information. Don't let anyone leave the room feeling like they wasted their time.

Test the Technology - Build in time for a mic check, slide check, clicker check, whatever. Make sure you know where your light is, etc. Don't waste the audience's time with mics that crap out, slide shows that don't work, etc - you should test that at least 15 mins before the presentation.

Keep it Interesting or Keep it brief - There's a showbiz saying, "Always leave them wanting more." If you have 15 minutes to speak don't speak even a second longer than that. Better yet, speak for 12 minutes and give 3 minutes to Q & A.

KILL YOUR POWERPOINT - Seriously. Unless you use it sparingly to punctuate a thought or a story, get rid of the blankety-blank slides. Especially if you are just reading to us from the slides. We can read. You insult your audience when you just read from your slides and don't add any new information.

SAME WITH HANDOUTS - Unless you have crucial information, like a calendar, don't bother with handouts. If there is important info that people just NEED to know, tell them you're giving them a handout with the crucial stuff AT THE END OF THE PRESENTATION. Again, just like the Power Point, if you are just going to pass out a handout and read from it, don't even bother. That's not a presentation that's a reading recitation.

Get creative - You don't have to give a presentation in exactly the same way all the people before you have given presentations. Bring your UNIQUE style and view to the table.

What tips would you give to presenters?
What bothers you most at presentations?
What was the most creative presentation you ever saw?

Being Creative

I think this graphic is a great way reminder that we are all creative beings. Sometimes, though, we need to remind ourselves!! (Don't fool yourself into believing that you aren't creative. You have to be creative to navigate the world!)

How do you stay creative?? Here are some ideas. What would add to this list? What would you delete?