Building on Csikszentmihalyi’s research on flow, team flow is defined as a shared experience of flow while performing interdependent personal tasks that serve the interests of the team. This experience arises from optimized team dynamics and is characterized by seven boundary conditions and four team-level characteristics. Despite the recognized potential of team flow to promote team performance, subjective well-being and healthy team dynamics, there are also pitfalls that can hinder team flow that have been little researched. To address this, we collected interview and focus group data from both student teams and business teams. From this, we conclude that disorder, disagreement, distrust and delays – the counterparts of the preconditions for team flow – are the main obstacles. Based on this research, we offer guidelines for preventing and/or overcoming these obstacles.

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