Magic in the Room #169: Using Flow State to Care for Your Team's Wellbeing
October 10, 2023
In our ongoing series about wellbeing, we want to turn to how leaders can care for the wellbeing of their team while keeping performance high. In this replay episode of Magic in the Room, Luke, Hannah, and Chris discuss how Mihály Csíkszentmihályi's concept of Flow State allows leaders to match the level of challenge to the team's ability.
Listen now on your favorite platform!
Research in this Episode:
- THE COVID STATES PROJECT: A 50-STATE COVID-19 SURVEY REPORT #54: MENTAL HEALTH IN THE US - http://news.northeastern.edu/uploads/COVID-19_CONSORTIUM_REPORT_54_DEPRESSION-May2021.pdf
- Flow State - https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Graph-of-Csikszentmihalyis-flow-state-when-a-persons-ability-to-execute-a-task_fig1_279226015
- This could be why you're depressed or anxious - Johann Hari: https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_this_could_be_why_you_re_depressed_or_anxious?language=en
- Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong - Johann Hari: https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong
Credits:
- Music by Evan Grim. Find his music on
Apple Music
In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke and Hannah explore the concept of polarities. Tensions like purpose and performance, stability and change, or accountability and grace that are often mistaken for problems to solve rather than dynamics to manage. Drawing on insights from Barry Johnson’s work, they explain how these opposing forces are interdependent and must be balanced over time to achieve sustained success. Through practical examples and personal reflections, they show how over-relying on one side of a polarity leads to predictable “shadow sides” such as stagnation, chaos, inefficiency, or burnout, while effective leadership requires recognizing where you are on the cycle and intentionally recalibrating. The episode emphasizes that many recurring organizational frustrations are not failures, but signals of imbalance, and offers a more nuanced approach to leadership. One that replaces rigid either/or thinking with flexible both/and awareness to improve decision-making, team dynamics, and long-term performance.
In this episode of Magic in the Room, Luke Freeman, Hannah Bratterud, and Chris Province dive into the concept of “mattering,” inspired by Zach Mercurio’s work, and explore why it is a foundational driver of engagement, performance, and culture in organizations. They challenge leaders to move beyond assuming people matter to actively ensuring individuals feel that they matter by being valued and by contributing value to a shared purpose. The conversation highlights how mattering differs from belonging, why it cannot be replaced by perks or efficiency, and how leadership behaviors like attention, recognition, and presence directly shape whether people feel seen, heard, and understood. Through examples ranging from workplace dynamics to broader societal trends like social disconnection, they argue that disengagement, conflict, and even poor performance are symptoms of a mattering deficit. Ultimately, they position mattering not as a soft concept, but as a measurable, actionable leadership responsibility that underpins trust, resilience, and long-term success.