The yoga teacher at my gym does dance yoga. He takes us through a series of poses so we are familiar with what to expect , turns up the 80's music and twee Christmas songs and has us boogey to yoga moves.  We finish exhausted, laughing, our hearts are singing. It may sound ridiculous but if yoga is about being fit, feeling relaxed and leaving all your stressful thoughts behind we have achieved our purpose. How clever, fun and hard work combined!

What is the equivalent to our yoga dancing in the workplace?  How do we get people's heart to sing when they are at work?  To me 'the concept of flow' (Csikszentmihalyi 2003) seems to embody the idea of 'a singing heart'.  We can all describe a time when we have experienced flow when we are totally absorbed in an activity, feel happy, everything seems effortless and we would do this for no seeming external reward.

The research suggests that flow happens when we are faced with challenging tasks that make use of our talents and develops new skills. Inversely a mismatch between the level of challenge and our skills results in anxiety, apathy or boredom.  A rich and challenging workplace environment where flow is optimised is said to create well-being, engagement and ultimately productivity.

How is it that we know what it takes to create flow, we know that it leads to improved productivity and wellbeing and yet we so often get the balance between challenge and skill levels so wrong? When coaching I often work with people who are experiencing stress and anxiety in the workplace and I the  articles about high levels of anxiety in the workplace seem to be commonplace. We want people to be their very best in the workplace, experience wellbeing and perform to the highest level. Understanding what this takes may be an elusive quest as we tinker with structure, culture or leadership in the workplace.  While there are structural elements that may need to be addressed there are some key elements to achieve that balance beween challenge and skill and creating flow.  These are simple to enact and can happen now.

1. Prioritise relationships in the workplace
2. Know who your people are, their skill levels and what motivates them
3. Have skilled conversations (to achieve number 2);   talk with your people (often), listen and hear what they are saying (The 5 Levels of Listening), trust them and give them a level of autonomy that matches their ability
4. Provide feedback that recognises their skills and development and how this has contributed to great results. Listen and encouage them to identify opportunities to do even better.
5. Act to build a culture and leadership that has and encourages skilled conversations.

A workplace that recognises people's capability and motivation and enables flow is a workplace where the heart sings.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Beyond boredom and anxiety. Jossey-Bass. (Original work published 1975).

 Novak, M. (1996). Business as a calling. New York: The Free Press