Flow State, Part Two
— Continued from Last Week —
In his 1990 book, Flow, along with his 1996 and 1997 works Creativity, and Finding Flow, the late Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defines flow as “the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.” While Csikszentmihalyi’s work initially focused research into the concept of “optimal experience” for an individual, the concept of flow can be extended into work environments and team dynamics.
Much has been written regarding Csikszentmihalyi’s portfolio of books on the subject of flow, so we’re not going to retread well-worn paths here. Instead, I’ve included a few links in the endnotes of this Muse for reference. We will, however, spend just a few pixels on the eight elements of flow, which are:
Complete concentration on the task at hand
A heightened sense of control
Action and consciousness are joined together
An altered perception of time (speeding up, slowing down)
Challenge and skill are balanced
Reward for the work is intrinsic—self-motivation is built in
Effortlessness
Clarity of goals and immediate feedback
We’ll continue our story of The Schweser Study Program from last week by touching on each of the eight elements of flow.
Complete Concentration on the Task at Hand
The CFA® curriculum at each level is vast, spanning topics ranging from ethical and professional standards to derivative securities. As a result, the act of synthesizing/summarizing this highly technical content across multiple disciplines meant that Carl and I needed to write hundreds of pages of text each CFA season. We would both engage in our normal duties during the day, have dinner with our families, and then write deep into the night.
There were many nights when I’d help put our children to bed, brew a pot of coffee, and make my way to the basement where I would spend hours in complete silence. The only sound that could be heard was the click, click of my fingers on the keyboard of a desktop computer with the latest Intel 80486 chip installed! Our colloquial writing style helped me enter a true flow state because I felt like I was speaking directly to our customers through the rat-a-tat-tat of the keyboard.
A Heightened Sense of Control
In the early years of the business, I’m sure that the inner workings of The Schweser Study Program would likely have been viewed as complete chaos to the average independent observer. Outside of the tidy office environment that our spouses maintained for order entry, packaging, shipping, and customer service, the rest of our business—especially the intellectual property production process—was cluttered and disorganized at best. But that’s to an outside observer. Carl and I knew exactly what we were doing and how to crank out the best possible product in the shortest amount of time.
As I look back, this heightened sense of control came from two primary sources. First, we were supremely confident that we were onto something big—that the market was yearning for a solution to the incredible level of complexity they faced when trying to make sense of a mountain of information—that our philosophy of colloquial distillation was exactly what the market needed. Second, we believed that we were the only ones who could do this work, as if we were anointed and appointed by the finance gods to do this noble job. Of course that was primarily our inflated egos talking and, in retrospect, many other people could have done the same or similar work. However, in the moment, we believed that this was our calling.
Action and Consciousness are Joined Together
This third element of flow is related to the previous element and basically says that self-doubt, worry, and fear are minimized or completely absent. If you’re new to my work, it bears noting that I’m also a musician and performer. When I’m on stage with my bandmates in The Remainders, we frequently reach a state of flow where all worries, self-doubt, and fear melt away. The subconscious takes over and the music “just happens.” Note that there are thousands and thousands of hours of practice and many mistakes that support a musical flow state, but when flow occurs on stage, it’s a glorious thing.
In the early years of the Schweser Study Program, years of training and hundreds of direct interactions with clients led both Carl and I to the point where self-doubt melted away. This was true when we were writing, but was especially true when we were “performing” in front of a live audience.
Our performances took the shape of two- and three-day seminars that we would provide each spring in cities around the world. We would secure conference rooms at the finest airport hotels (yes, that’s a joke—I know the carpeting in a Holiday Inn conference room better than anyone) and CFA candidates would meet us there to hear our tips and tricks for passing the exams for eight hours a day, three days straight. I look back with wonder now and think to myself: “How did I keep up this grueling schedule,” and “Who in their right mind would want to listen to me talk for 24 hours over the course of a weekend?” Well, it turns out that necessity and desperation are real drivers of consumer behavior and that being in a flow state frees up reserves of energy that most of us don’t know we have inside us.
An Altered Perception of Time
Everyone experiences time differently. As a useful aside, research suggests that our perception of time depends upon age, but the root cause of the acceleration of time perception as age increases is unknown. From my own direct experience, the perception of time can accelerate and then decelerate as one moves into and out of a flow state.
In the live seminars that Carl and I would lead, it was extraordinarily easy to lose track of time. One minute it was 10am and I would be staring into the overhead projector, furiously scribbling the formula for bond duration on a blank acetate slide. The next thing I knew, it was noon and we had to break for lunch! The old adage that “time flies when you’re having fun” is absolutely true and could also be changed to read, “time flies when you’re actively engaged.” Interestingly, time seemed to slow way down for me when I was working on things that did not align with my passion. As a graduate student and adjunct instructor, manually grading papers seemed to take forever because I viewed such activities as non-value-adding to the business we were trying to get off the ground.
If I could go back and do it all over again, I would be more mindful of how I was perceiving time in relation to the various activities I was responsible for—in both my personal and professional lives. Instead of viewing anything that wasn’t in service to the growth of our small business as drudgery, I would shift tack and take a more balanced approach. Pro tip: look for the positive in all things—not just what you’re passionate about. Sometimes the positive is nowhere to be found, but I implore you to at least look for it.
Challenge and Skill are Balanced
To illustrate the relationship between complexity and skill in the context of achieving flow, Csikszentmihalyi plots complexity against skill. When skill levels are low and the complexity of a task is also low, apathy is the likely result. As skill increases but complexity of a task remains unchanged, boredom sets in. If skill levels remain low but the complexity to complete a task increases, worry and anxiety mount. It is only when skill and complexity are matched that flow can be achieved.
It may not be obvious, but the pursuit of achieving more flow states is the best reason I’ve found to support a lifelong learning mindset. Achieving flow at a given level of skill requires that the complexity of the task is balanced with skill. However, if skill and complexity are static through time, then the probability of achieving a flow state diminishes.
As we were building the Schweser Study Program, I was learning and refining new skills as the complexity of the business increased, making it much easier to achieve a state of flow—things I learned yesterday were put into practice the next day. Both complexity and skill were changing rapidly. I posit that if complexity and skill change more slowly, the opportunities for achieving flow are reduced. The bottom line is that if you desire to achieve more hyper-productive flow states, keep learning and keep pushing yourself to take on new challenges.
Effortlessness
Throughout the 1990s, I was a graduate student, teacher, business owner, writer, father, husband, and runner. While I still have no idea how we were able to achieve everything we accomplished, living in a flow state had a lot to do with it. Today, I am able to achieve periods of flow, but my productivity today pales in comparison to what I was able to crank out then.
The concept of effortlessness (or weightlessness) is important here and is not to be confused with ease or easiness. In all the flow states I can recall during my life, I was engaged in a difficult, complicated activity. Teaching, writing, and singing are three such activities that immediately come to mind in which I’ve felt completely weightless when all the stars align and flow is achieved. Here, the complexity of the activity and the skill needed to perform that activity are perfectly balanced.
Intrinsic Motivation
Csikszentmihalyi refers to intrinsic motivation as autotelic (greek for “self goal”). In my experience, I’ve rarely achieved a state of flow in situations where I’m working to fulfill someone else’s goals and my personal purpose is not aligned with the purpose of the organization I’m working for. Said differently, it’s unlikely that you’ll achieve a flow state if there’s not something in it for you. If you’re just punching the clock or your personal life is completely separate from your work self, then flow states will be few and far between.
This is why I’m so keen on promoting the relationship between personal purpose and the purpose of the company you agree to give your talents to in the form of an employment relationship. When purpose is aligned, the likelihood that you’ll simultaneously fill your purpose cup and do great work in your job is heightened. When purpose is aligned, you’ll find more opportunities to reach a state of flow with your team.
It should go without saying that as we were building the Schweser Study Program, there was tight alignment between my personal purpose and the purpose of our tiny but growing business.
Clarity of Goals and Immediate Feedback
Flow relies on clearly defined goals and the receipt of immediate feedback. If communication is poor, goals are not well defined, and feedback/coaching is non-existent, then flow is damn near impossible to achieve. In my opinion, this is why flow states are so rare in medium and large-sized organizations. Here, leader egos clash, information is used as a weapon, and goals are not aligned up, down, and across the company. To be pithy, flow cannot survive or thrive if employees are wading knee deep in the mud of obfuscation.
During the high growth years of the Schweser Study Program, our goals were extremely clear and we bathed in constant customer feedback. When Carl and I would deliver our live seminars, our students would stop us in the hall and follow us into the bathroom with questions and feedback. The high-stakes nature of the exams meant that we received unvarnished feedback—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Ideas for new products and enhancement of existing products were received on a daily basis, making it easy to incorporate them into the flow of our work.
One of the most important lessons I learned during that time was the value of visual management tools. Making your company’s metrics and key performance indicators visible for all to see pulls down the veil of obfuscation that makes finding flow so difficult in large organizations.
If you’re a leader and are frustrated that flow is difficult for your people to experience, then make your purpose, vision, and cultural aspirations crystal clear; align goals up, down, and across the organization; respect your people by treating them as your most valuable asset; minimize waste and unnecessary organizational friction; foster a maniacal focus on the customer; install effective visual management systems; and make sure incentive systems are congruent with all of the above.
My forthcoming book: The Balanced Business: How Flow Improves Accountability and Unlocks Trust will deeply explore these issues.
— To Be Concluded Next Week —
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Endnotes:
https://positivepsychology.com/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-father-of-flow/
https://www.flowskills.com/the-8-elements-of-flow.html
https://flowleadership.org/flow-conditions-csikszentmihalyis-summary/
