Great Example of Flow

Deepak Chopra says the ultimate goal of life is love (I’m paraphrasing). Giving love, receiving love, and experiencing love of everything around you (i.e,. appreciation).

Sola Fiedler is a superb example of someone getting to spend the majority of her time doing something she absolutely loves. When you get to use the gifts that come naturally to you towards something that matters, you experience resonance. Note that true resonance is indirectly related to the absence of fear; it’s as if love crowds out fear, and you get to truly express yourself.

I joke with people that if 80% of your job matches your gifts you are in a superb job. The rest of your job then becomes a mystery for you to unwrap, to figure out what you can learn and how you can surprise yourself with new skills, perspectives, and results.

From Wikipedia: “Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does. Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, this positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields. Check out his website for more information.

According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow is completely focused motivation. It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate experience in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. In flow, the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task although flow is also described as a deep focus on nothing but the activity – not even oneself or one’s emotions.”

When have you experienced flow, and what might you do to increase it in your life now? What about those around you? In what ways can you help people get in roles that align with their gifts and passion while executing organizational plans and innovating?

Our belief at Adaptive Talent is that execution and adaptability / innovation are a polarity, or an interdependent pair. When you emphasize one at the expense of the other you get predictable and undesirable results, but achieving both means harvesting the upsides of both while mitigating the downside risks of overdoing either pole. It’s why we created the Adaptive Flow model, which is an example of an organizational framework that leaders can use as an example for their organizations. The purpose of a framework is “a deliberately developmental approach to character and capabilities for individuals and organizations seeking mutual beneficial partnerships.” Achieving flow states with employees is not the exclusive goal; it’s attracting employees with aligned values, capabilities, passions, and growth goals so that the organization executes its plans while it innovates and scales.