We see a clear difference between result- and flow-people. And as inventors, we clearly favour one over the other in our team.
When we teach at the Technical University of Denmark, there are two kinds of students. Oftentimes, we can almost draw a line through the auditorium: One half is result-people, and the other half is flow-people. And we see this clear distinction in a lot of places in the business world as well.
Result-people are those who focus on the outcome. They hunt for the best grades – or in the broader business world, they are fueled by a sale or the prestige involved in finishing a project on time.
Flow people, on the other hand, are fueled by the process itself. Those who enjoy the journey more than the outcome.
Inventors need flow
As inventors, we very much need flow people on our team. People who don’t rush to a conclusion in order to finish a project, but instead enjoy looking at a problem from a bunch of different viewpoints before starting to solve it.
This means the whole Lolle & Nielsen team is flow-oriented. People who inspire each other along the way. And in the end, create extraordinary results in our arena.
The right mix
Flow is crucial to most development projects, including our business. Other businesses are better off hiring results-oriented people – e.g. sales teams driven and measured by results rather than their flow qualities.
However, no matter the business, you need to find the right mix of flow and results. Which makes it very important to know if potential co-workers are driven by results of process before hiring them.
