Who are you?
I’m Lies. Professionally, I am part of D-NA, a tight-knit collective that allows organizations, employees, teams, and executives to grow and flourish, even in lesser or downright difficult circumstances. I love to see possibilities. I do that as a committed coach and trainer of executives who don’t stock feet, but connect authentically and go for strong teams and organizations. As a team coach, I look unbiased, curious, and with pleasure, which makes a lot possible. Based on the positive psychology of team flow, I help teams improve their interaction processes, results, and work organization. I help temporary teams to “team up” so that the whole leads to better performance, job satisfaction, creativity, and fulfillment. I also like to be a builder of smart networks in participative processes with stakeholders and a facilitator of change processes, focusing on creating connections and aligning strategy, organization, and people to a clear, structured, and recognizable output. Sometimes it is good to have your feet in the mud as an interim manager who quickly senses the strengths, opportunities, and difficulties of the organization, with attention to what is important for the organization and for the people.
What drives you?
The contagious energy and strength that emanates from people who suddenly do see it again. Furthermore, I love freedom and things moving forward, but can very much rely on and see small steps in what is happening here and now.
What was the first time you heard about flow?
Like many, I used the word flow in about the right context without really knowing the science behind it. It was a cousin who told me at a family party in the Netherlands about some very interesting research on Flow and Teamflow. He also works as a consultant with organizations and saw Flow as an addition to what he was already able to accomplish because employees with a drive still produce unprecedented results. What he said there seemed very valuable to me and so I started reading more about flow.
Can you share a personal flow experience with us?
As a young girl, I and my family went on an annual mountain vacation with a group of people. A week of hiking and building up to “the big trek.” You could only join that one when you were 12. However, I was quite driven and joined the big tour anyway as a 10-year-old. It really took a lot of effort to overcome the forests, rocks and snow peaks. I was tired and at the same time blessed for the beautiful landscape in which we hiked. The last meters to the summit I scrambled through the snow on all fours, super focused not to stumble, but with a clear goal. At the summit, I didn’t dare let go of the cross that was there, but at the same time I stuck my nose into the wind and gave my eyes a look. The view there was mighty and my feelings equally so.
Can you also share with us a team flow experience? So where you were part of a team and the whole thing came into flow?
I play at improvisational theater Preludo. Every time we perform, there is team flow. We build a story together from nothing, or at least from the impulses we get there and then. People sometimes ask if it’s not super exciting to go on stage “just like that, without a scenario.” There is indeed a kind of “risk,” but the trust in the group is great. I know that everyone is building with me and that we are very connected as a group at that moment. We trust each other’s moves, even when what the other does is awkward or unexpected. The idea that every input can be valuable makes me jump along. During a performance like this, I am very focused in the here and now and at the same time I let go, because I can’t do it alone and there may be playing. So a performance is actually surfing the waves that are already there. That is the magic of team flow.
Do you have an example of a team you coached to flow as a Team Flow Coach?
With D-NA, we guided a local government in a process to define the vision for the next 20 years with equal participation of all political parties, with input from staff, experts and citizens. An ambitious project. For each of the themes for which a vision was developed, a working group was set up consisting of a few employees from different departments. A temporary team, in other words. At the start of this working group, they were introduced to the team flow model. It helped them to describe cooperation agreements in a kind of “team charter.” In 1 of those working groups, I felt an enormous drive to engage in debate on their topic with different stakeholders and shape the scenarios for the future. The working group members originally participated as subject matter experts but spurred by the collective ambition of this temporary team, they emerged as interviewers, vision developers, thoughtful colleagues in a team that didn’t even exist before. They were clearly propelled forward by an attractive assignment, but certainly also by the fact that none of them had ever done this before. The whole project was new and so asking questions and spouting ideas was never so easy, because it was very ok if it wasn’t that after all. There was great psychological safety and plenty of skill. It was really nice to witness that from their agreements, ambition and the model, this team clearly knew what results they wanted to achieve together, what each of them could contribute, how they could count on each other and communicated openly about it. The fact that the group worked so well meant that the individuals could also handle exactly more than they originally thought. I can still feel it fizzle when I tell about it here.
How did you get in touch with Jef van den Hout or Flow Concepts?
Through a fellow Team Flow Coach, I became the first Belgian participant in Flow Concepts’ Team Flow Training. Below is a picture of Lies in action during her participation in the Team Flow Training in the Netherlands.
How do you use team flow thinking in your work life?
The Teamflow Model unites for me everything I saw for years in coaching teams but could not clearly name. Yet it often seems necessary to clarify that achieving flow is not the bottom line. The road to it is so valuable to a team, and when team members help recognize the elements of optimal collaboration, they themselves gain valuable language to discuss that collaboration.
Furthermore, I work a lot with leaders. In any leadership training I interpret teamwork using team flow. The model proves to be such a useful tool there as well, highlighting both the results of a team and the way it works together.
Finally, we run D-NA with 8 associates in a self-managing team surrounded by about 20 freelancers. The way of working together there was already modeled on our values but the language of the team flow model sometimes makes it clearer around the table to confirm what is right or take steps forward.
How do you use team flow thinking in your personal life?
What I really need to grow, be myself and give myself easily is open and direct feedback. Sometimes people are shocked by that and then I like to adjust. The idea that open communication and safety clearly lead to increased trust according to the Teamflow research strengthens me in my open attitude. I would like that to be very evident for more people to be able to get and give feedback on both the task and the collaboration and not see that as something heavily charged, but as an opportunity to grow and get closer together.
What kind of teams do you personally love to guide toward more flow?
I am a visual thinker/bridge builder who likes to see links so some complexity does attract me. What I find very enriching about the job of team coach is that I get to work in so many different environments. I try to see and understand as much as possible what is going on and like to make links with what is going on around a team. In Belgium we have already trained several groups of team coaches in our open training and in-company training in the use of the team flow philosophy. Below is a picture of an inspiration session I did with Jef for the AgO (Flemish Government).
Would you like to get in touch with Lies Verstraete and engage her as a Teamflow Coach in a Teamflow Trajectory. Please let her know directly or us through our contact page. We highly recommend Lies to all teams in Belgium!
