Software Process and Measurement

Optimal experiences and flow are states that are often left to chance. One of the important ideas from Flow is these states should not be left to chance and that they can be created and fostered. Instead of can, consider should. In Flow, the author has argued, successfully that our happiness depends on achieving flow. The world around us does not always play along. One of the prerequisites of flow discussed in Chapter 4 was the need for minimizing distractions. Simply put, the potential for optimal experience is increased when we find or create a quiet space. One example of an anti-flow environment (the world not playing along) is the open office movement of the last 20 years. This movement reflects an overweighting of the concept of collaboration over individual optimal experience and flow. We all know there is a problem; many people actively take countermeasures. Noise-canceling headphones or cramped, poorly ventilated privacy rooms are poor substitutes (this was also discussed in our re-read of Deep Work). We need to find the right balance because flow and optimal experience foster the growth of capabilities and capacity. In an organizational parlance that is code for increased productivity and value.

Chapter 10, Making Of Meaning, culminates Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow. Meaning provides a yardstick to evaluate the human condition and to consider what it means to be a human being in the context of our world. “Meaning” is a catalyst to provide energy and stimulate the intellectual vitality required for optimal experience. Without meaning it is difficult to find the rationale for tasks and cares that may feel mundane, but are necessary to reach a goal or as we pivot toward another. 

Three main ideas struck me during this read of Chapter 9 of Flow. Chapter 9 is titled: Cheating Chaos. The chaos we are working to cheat is the random energy pushing us in random directions from inside and outside ourselves. Creating order provides a space for optimal experience and flow. 

The first idea reinforces the role that clarity of purpose plays in optimal experiences and flow. Clarity of purpose creates an environment where focus happens. A close corollary occurs when tragic or adverse events reinforce clarity of purpose, These events reduce options by removing contradictory and inessential choices from consideration. Context and environment combine to generate a laser focus. While the author does not suggest that we manipulate adversity like a volume setting, it is useful for understanding why people in tough situations can achieve flow often more easily than someone with all of the advantages in the world. Constraints aren’t always a bad thing. As I pondered this part of Chapter 9 I was reminded why the angst of deadlines or austerity can be so effective at generating focus and are so often used as cattle prods by poor managers.

Logistics note:  Including this week, we anticipate completing this re-read in 4 weeks. Are there recommendations for the next book in the Re-read series?

Chapter 8, of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book Flow, titled Enjoying Solitude and Other People, discusses the impact of people on optimal experience and flow. The author grounds the chapter by reminding us that the quality of life depends on how we experience work and relationships with others. Chapter 7 wrestled with the work portion of the equation and Chapter 8 the people part. The two are highly intertwined.

Chapter 7 of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow is titled, “Work As Flow.” Work is one of the largest single blocks of time adults carve out of their 168 hours of breath in a week. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi states. “Work that requires skill and is done freely refines the complexity of self.” Flow is the result of this refinement, at the least the potential for optimal experience from work. Juxtaposition work generates opportunities for flow with work which is the energy used to realize someone else’s dreams, hopes, and ambitions. This is not a formula for optimal experience and flow. 

Chapter 5 of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow is titled, The Body In Flow. This Chapter deals with the kinesic contribution to optimal experiences and flow. The word contribute is an important descriptor; the author warns the reader: “The body does not produce flow merely by its movements. The mind is always involved as well.” Csikszentmihalyi defines the contribution of the body as broadly encompassing movement and the contribution of the senses. Regardless of the bodily function, we must train the body in the skills needed to do and enjoy the activity. Learning allows us to be good, or at least better than we were yesterday, in the skill. This is the prerequisite for the mental components of flow. Neither the mental nor physical components are sufficient to create an optimum experience alone.

We consider consciousness this week in our re-read of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow. Consciousness is a process of interpreting and processing thoughts and feelings. The author defines consciousness as a biological process rather than something metaphysical. It is shaped by the information we accept and then assemble into an order that constitutes our reality. The chapter begins with a bit of history. In some cultures in the past, people weren’t judged to be human unless they could master their thoughts and feelings. Mastery is the outcome of a process to order what we see, hear, and feel. Current culture is less impressed with people who attempt to master their thoughts and feelings. People who develop control of thoughts and feelings are viewed as “ridiculous, uptight, or not quite with it.”