How Can Workers Utilize Their Potential Flow State?
“Nudging flow through ‘SMART’ goal setting to decrease stress, increase engagement, and increase performance at work”
Jared Weintraub, David Cassell and Thomas P. DePatie (2021)
What are the researchers interested in?
“[Flow is] an engrossing and enjoyable state of mind that occurs when people feel optimally challenged and are fully absorbed in their current activity”
The concept of a flow state has proven to provide benefits for concentration and creativity. Weintraub, Cassel, and DePatie (2021) were interested in how flow states can be initiated in individuals while they are at work. Previous studies examining flow have made assumptions that a flow state can only be initiated when their working conditions support it. If periods of flow have its success in increasing concentration and engagement in other activities besides work, why not test out a self-determining intervention that can be done, despite not having optimal working conditions.
The researchers believe that individuals who are able to take advantage of their own flow state will dramatically improve results and in turn, help an organization’s objectives. On that account, the researchers will aim to accomplish this by using Goal Setting Theory with SMART goals to initiate a flow state in their participants. We explain these two concepts below:
Flow
“[Often feels like I am] being carried along a stream of water”
The construct of flow emerged in the 2000s; researchers were only interested in its temporal precedence (cause-and-effect) with creativity. Researchers back then only observed 'creative' individuals – such as musicians and painters – and realized that many were engaging in their craft with very little regard for extrinsic rewards (eg. money). Researchers have identified elements that were associated with the state: clear goals, the balance of challenge and skill, feedback through self-reflection, deep concentration, and a feeling of time passing slower or faster than normal.
Goal Setting Theory
Studies have argued that Goal Setting Theory and Flow Theory are very much related, in that flow requires clear goals and a balance of skill – tenets of goal-setting theory as well. Studies have confirmed this pairing by applying goal-setting theory to professional gamers; through the facilitation of tasks with clear proximal goals, one proved to increase the prevalence of flow.
I am sure we have all encountered this, but have overlooked its significance. The researchers will utilize ‘SMART’ goals to incorporate a concept under Goal Setting Theory. To recall its facets, goals should be Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Time related.
Hypothesis Tests (coming up with predictions)
Utilizing the 2 concepts discussed, Weintraub et al., (2020) developed a ‘SMART’ goal-setting intervention by using a smartphone application that will encourage individuals to set daily goals through a “nudge” (notification) on their phone. As mentioned above, setting daily goals that are ‘SMART’, will induce the same facets that are needed to increase flow states (clear goals, feedback, and a balance of challenge and skill).
Below we have laid out the predictions they have tested:
Individuals in the ‘SMART’ goal-setting nudge condition will experience more flow
Flow mediates the relationship between goal-setting and performance
Flow mediates the relationship between goal-setting and stress
Flow mediates the relationship between goal setting and work engagement
What methods did they use?
Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk using a cloudresearch toolkit. Participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental group or the control group. Both groups were subjected to a 5-day goal-setting experimental design, the only difference was that the experimental groups received the goal-setting nudges every morning at 8:00 am.
Additional dependent variables (outcome variables) were measured by using a questionnaire:
Flow Prevalence – e.g. “I felt in complete control of what I was doing”, “Things seemed to be happening automatically”, “Time stopped/sped up, while I was doing work.”
Work Engagement – e.g. “At work, my mind was always focused on my job.”
Daily Job Performance – e.g. “How often did it happen that you carried out the parts of your job well?”
Daily Stress – e.g. “When thinking about my time at work today, I was tense/stressed.”
Lastly, both groups were asked to measure their flow tendency, daily stress, and daily performance at the end of each day. On the final day, only work engagement was measured.
What did they end up finding?
Researchers found that daily ‘SMART’ goal nudges increased self-reported flow at work overtime and also subsequently predicting important work outcomes. Not surprisingly, all four hypotheses were supported. Successfully concluding that flow states are able to play a mediating role between ‘SMART’ goal setting and a number of variables – stress, work engagement, and job performance.
Taking into consideration the results of this study, we have created a self-intervention kit for individuals who want to capitalize on their flow states to get work done!
Why does this matter for organizations?
If we were to quantify lack of engagement in employees, researchers have found that a lack of engagement is costing around 483 billion to 605 billion in lost productivity for the US economy annually, alongside other studies displaying significantly higher and rising levels of burnout (Gallup, 2017; Shirom, 2011; Sigsbee & Bernat, 2014). Organizations are often finding drastic ways to increase work engagement by providing certain external rewards. However, researchers have found that the greatest motivation comes from intrinsic rewards and feedback (reflection). Individuals and organizations should be highly interested in incorporating and fostering the state of flow for its desirable effects on work productivity. If one’s work environment does not provide productive states, individuals can take control of their own situation by setting daily or weekly “SMART” goals. It is often easy to overlook the simplest and most effective methods.
References
Fullagar, C.,&Delle Fave, A. (2017). Flow at work: Measurement and implications. NewYork, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Gallup. (2017). State of the American Workplace. https://news.gallup.com/reports/199961/stateamerica workplace-report-2017.aspx.
Shirom, A. (2011). Job-related burnout: A review of major research foci and challenges. In J. Quick,& L. Tetrick (Eds.), Handbook of occupational psychology (2nd ed., pp. 223–241). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Sigsbee, B.,&Bernat, J. L. (2014). Physician burnout:Aneurologic crisis. Neurology, 83, 2302–2306. https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000001077
Weintraub, J., Cassell, D., & DePatie, T. P. (2021). Nudging flow through ‘SMART’goal setting to decrease stress, increase engagement, and increase performance at work. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 94(2), 230-258.