Flow is the experience of being “in the zone,” completely absorbed in a task. Since Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi first began writing about flow in 1975, “it has become a widely studied and popular concept with broad implications” (Engerser and Schiepe-Tiska,
2016). For L&D professionals, flow has potential applications in supporting employee satisfaction, engagement, and achievement.
So how can you achieve flow? In order to figure it out, Csikszentmihalyi interviewed people from around
the world, having them describe in detail their experience of different types of successes or “moments of mastery.” The experiences were very different, from sporting achievements to artistic achievements; what they all had in common was a deep sense
of enjoyment and fulfilment, which made the energy involved in the pursuit worthwhile.
Csikszentmihalyi (1990) further described flow as having at least one of eight characteristics:
- Strong concentration on a specific task.
- Clear goals/rewards with immediate feedback.
- Changed perception of time.
- Pleasure or reward from the activity itself, not just from achieving goals.
- Sense of effortlessness.
- Feeling of being in control (think: “I’ve got this”)
- Ideal level of challenge, not too hard or too easy.
- Loss of self-consciousness as actions and awareness merge.
Group flow goes beyond individuals in the group being “in the zone.” Rather, it happens when the group as a whole is “clicking or in sync” (Pels, Kleinert and Mennigan, 2018). Walker (2010) found that social forms of flow were rated as more enjoyable than solitary forms, but “in Western culture, groups appear to thwart more flow than they promote.”
More research is needed to improve understanding of group flow and its impact on performance. Of particular interest is how groups made up of diverse members (such as community groups or volunteer organizations) might experience flow, given their individual differences. Sawyer and others (e.g. Salanova et al., 2014) have suggested that diversity within a group could impact experiences of flow.
Have you experienced individual or group flow at work? If you are an I4PL member, sign in to add your comments!
Sources:
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience (Vol. 1990). New York: Harper & Row.
Engeser, S., Schiepe-Tiska, A., & Peifer, C. (2021).
Historical lines and an overview of current research on flow. Advances in flow research, 1-29.
Pels, F., Kleinert, J., & Mennigen, F. (2018). Group flow: A scoping review of definitions, theoretical approaches, measures and findings.
PloS one, 13(12), e0210117.
Salanova, M., Rodríguez-Sánchez, A. M., Schaufeli, W. B., & Cifre, E. (2014). Flowing together: A longitudinal study of collective efficacy and collective flow among workgroups. The Journal of psychology,
148(4), 435-455.
Sawyer, K. (2017). Group genius: The creative power of collaboration. Basic books.
Walker, C. J. (2010). Experiencing flow: Is doing it together better than doing it alone?. The Journal of Positive Psychology,
5(1), 3-11.
Tags: flow performance team building
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