Naiman Labs Newsletter #43. The pool, the guitar and the flow

Hello everyone! Thank you for reading Naiman Labs newsletter!

I saw a lifeguard near the pool. Usually his job is very basic and limited. He sits and observes, takes care of the pool, making sure it’s clean and nobody throws any stuff in there.

One day, rare Dubai rain hit us hard. It was chaotic, almost like the first snow in Moscow—total surprise. You know this - every year there is a day with the first snow and even though it happens every year it turns out to be a surprise for everyone and it creates a lot of chaos around the city.

The lifeguard, used to a laid-back gig, had to hustle. Seats needed arranging, the pool deck was a mess, and all pool stuff had to be in order. He had to arrange seats, clean the pool deck, and ensure all pool inventory was in its place.

To put it in more familiar work related words: he suddenly found himself dealing with unexpected challenges. The complexity of his job skyrocketed instantly, and his frustration was evident.

I could see the real frustration in his face. He was doing breaks every minute, trying to avoid the work. Every moment he could talk to someone he went for it. He saw his colleague - started a quick chat, saw another - another break. He moved 1 seat - a break. Cleaned 1sq m of deck - break.

Got me thinking—was it because he's not used to doing more than the basics, or did he lack tools , resources and instructions for the challenging situations? It's about getting too comfy doing the bare minimum. It is about being bored at work that might decrease skills.

We often find ourselves working at the bare minimum, and when the complexity of our job suddenly increases, we must improvise, make extra effort, and learn on the go. This can be stressful, challenging, and create immense pressure, requiring a specific set of skills.

However, some I know for a fact that some people find these moments highly motivating. Imagine - you need to release a new feature in a couple of days. Or an important piece of technology broke down and you have only a couple of hours to fix it before it is too late, or too expensive for your company.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the author of "The Flow," wrote:

"The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile."

Take a moment here. Not “passive, repetitive, relaxing” but “voluntary effort, stretched, to accomplish something difficult.” If we examine the concept of "flow," we find the sweet spot where genuine engagement, the flow, and the key to internal motivation lie:

This sweet spot involves doing something challenging enough that requires a specific skill set. If it's too easy, boredom sets in quickly, leading to a loss of motivation. If it's too challenging for the existing skill set, demotivation follows because it feels overwhelming, too complicated. The ideal work situation is somewhere in this sweet spot. It should be close to your skillset but at the same time it should be challenging enough to make you learn something new, master new skills, otherwise it will be too easy and boring.

Why does the Flow state matter? Intrinsic motivation, doing something because you love it, is at its highest in a flow state. Csikszentmihalyi described the flow as a state where self-consciousness is lost, and one surrenders completely to the moment, where time becomes irrelevant. Time is the ultimate measurement—if you're so absorbed in what you're doing that you don't notice time passing. Recall moments when you were completely engrossed in your work or life; those were moments of being in the flow state. You don’t look at your watch thinking: “oh, nice 2 hours before I can close my laptop”. These thoughts just don’t come to your head when you are in the flow. Imagine a musician playing without thinking, or a surfer catching a great wave and riding it with joy. Just because it feels right. Remember when you had those moments in your life, or in your work. Remember the environment, remember what you were doing. When you felt this - you were in this flow state.

This is why one of the tricks to boost your motivation is to increase the complexity of what you are doing or gamify it. I wrote some more tips here: Hack your motivation at work

Also here comes the message to managers and employers as well. If you want to keep your team members motivated and engaged make sure you give them enough freedom to increase the complexity of the work they do. Or increase this complexity from time to time. And don’t forget to help them develop their skills otherwise you will leave them high and dry in a challenging situations. So - yes give them the option to increase the complexity of their work, but make sure you support them.

Personally, I'm always against doing just the bare minimum—it doesn't feel right for me. When I do the bare minimum, I lack that sense of completeness and accomplishment.

Let me conclude with a quote from my all-time favorite book, "Atlas Shrugged":

“Francisco could do anything he undertook, he could do it better than anyone else, and he did it without effort. There was no boasting in his manner and consciousness, no thought of comparison. His attitude was not: ‘I can do it better than you,’ but simply: ‘I can do it.’ What he meant by doing was doing superlatively.”

Want to read more? Try this: https://positivepsychology.com/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-father-of-flow/

Follow me for more content: https://medium.com/@vladnaiman

Have a productive week everyone!

Vlad from Naiman Labs