Flow
While studying artists in 1975 at the University of Chicago, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi observed a fascinating phenomenon: painters becoming completely absorbed in their work, forgetting everything else around them. He called this Flow. This state of full immersion in the creative process intrigued him so much that he developed the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) to study it systematically. His research revealed that this state of absorption wasn’t unique to artists—it appeared across diverse activities, from rock climbing and sports to chess and dance.
Csikszentmihalyi identified nine elements that characterize the Flow state. These include complete involvement and focus on the task, a sense of ecstasy paired with remarkable inner clarity, confidence in one’s ability to complete the task, and a loss of temporal awareness. This optimal state of consciousness became known as “Flow,” representing a peak of creativity, productivity, and wellbeing—qualities highly valued in today’s competitive world.
Whilst highly valued, the scientific concept of Flow is not easy to use within a business context. For example, it is defined as a very specific binary state. You are either in Flow or not. It is also a very rare state, so it is difficult to create a learning path towards flow. That is why books on Flow in a business context almost always refer to one of the nine characteristics of Flow, for example having a sense of serenity, not worries about oneself and a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of the ego. To make the concept practical in a business environment two things should happen. Firstly a transfer into a continuum instead of a binary state, and secondly it had to be made easy measurable. For example it is important to notice that one had a Flow score of 72% this week which is an improvement of 6 points versus last week.
To make Flow more practical and measurable in professional settings, ForeF simplified the concept as ‘a combination of energy and involvement while executing a task.’ This definition breaks down into two key components: Fun (energy) and Focus (involvement). Flow is calculated as the product of these two factors (Fun * Focus). This multiplicative relationship means both elements must be strong for optimal Flow—if either Fun or Focus is low, the overall Flow state will be diminished, regardless of the other factor’s strength.
