What does it mean when we say “Flow”? In the study of organizational dynamics and productivity, the concept has evolved significantly over time. We can see three distinct yet interconnected types of Flow that have shaped our understanding of creativity, efficiency and productivity in various contexts. Let’s review them (using some names I made up) and then look at a new book, Flow Engineering, that will help you apply the principles of flow to your organization.
1. Psychological Flow
The oldest form of flow, psychological flow, was popularized by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his seminal book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” where he describes the mental state of an individual when fully immersed in a task, experiencing a sense of energized focus, full involvement, and deep enjoyment in the process.
This state is personal, individual, and is characterized by:
- Complete concentration on the task
- A sense of immersion in the work
- Great inner clarity and knowing what needs to be done
- A sense of serenity and timelessness
- Intrinsic motivation, where the experience becomes its own reward
This form of flow is associated with artisans, athletes, and creative professionals who lose themselves in their work, achieving a state of peak performance in their deep focus. It harkens back to the old days of craftsmanship when goods were created only through the highly refined expertise of master workers.
2. Systemic Flow
As we moved into the industrial age, the concept of flow evolved to encompass entire production systems – the coordination of processes to enable people and machines to work together at scale, producing goods en masse. Systemic Flow is exemplified by the Toyota Production System and Lean manufacturing, and focuses on optimizing whole systems to achieve consistent results, high quality, and reduced waste.
Key aspects of systemic flow include:
- Visual management
- Just-in-time production
- Continuous improvement (Kaizen)
- Standardized work processes
- Pull systems
This approach aims to create smooth, uninterrupted processes by minimizing bottlenecks, reducing inventory, and maximizing efficiency. It’s about creating a rhythmic, predictable flow of work through an entire system rather than just the experience of individual contributors.
3. Cognitive Flow
As we’ve entered the information age, a new form of flow has emerged that combines elements of both psychological and systemic flow and applies them to the context of socio-technical systems – humans and computers working together as a collective cognitive system to deliver the “invisible” work of the information economy. It recognizes that in modern knowledge work:
- Information and decision-making flow through networks of people and computers
- Work is often non-linear and requires constant adaptation
- Creativity and problem-solving are as important as efficiency and consistency
- Collaboration and communication are critical to success
This new paradigm seeks to create environments where people can give their best inside complex systems of technology and process, fostering innovation while maintaining efficiency. It incorporates ideas like:
- Agile methodologies in software development
- DevOps practices that bridge development and operations
- Design thinking approaches that emphasize empathy and iteration
- Data-driven decision-making that leverages both human insight and artificial intelligence
- Value stream management to connect all the activities required in end to end delivery
Cognitive Flow defines the modern era of work, where we need to harness the mechanistic elements of scaled systemic flow with adaptations needed to enable human creativity and craftsmanship at every stage of the delivery process.
Flow Engineering
In their new book “Flow Engineering”, Steven Pereira and Andrew Davis lay out the fundamentals needed to engineer our systems of work for cognitive flow. It captures the state of the art in improving organizational performance when working on information systems at scale, systems where we need to find harmony between personal mastery and organizational systems, centralization and decentralization, planning and uncertainty.
I appreciate that the book does not presume to cargocult a set of practices into any organization. The thrust of the book is how to use a set of calibrating mapping exercises to understand and improve the structure of your specific business and its delivery flows. There are five key maps that create interactive visual representations of flow to help you figure out how to manage it:
- Outcomes Map, to discover and align on value
- Value Stream Map, to find and measure key constraints
- Dependency Map, to connect constraints to dependencies
- Future State Map, to design an improved system of flow
- Flow Roadmap, to create and plot clear next steps
Engaging in these mapping exercises provides a basis for applying the principles of flow in your organization, bridging the visibility gap inherent in knowledge work to create a foundation for managing, leading and scaling flow across teams. If you are looking to understand how to execute on achieve cognitive flow in your organization with a practical set of actions, this book is the place to start.
The Evolution of Flow
The progression from psychological to systemic to cognitive flow reflects the changing nature of work and organizational structures over time:
- Psychological flow emphasizes individual mastery and the joy of craftsmanship.
- Systemic flow looks at the entire production system, optimizing end-to-end processes for efficiency and consistency.
- Cognitive flow seeks to create systems that are both efficient and adaptable, leveraging human creativity alongside technological capabilities
As organizations continue to evolve, our understanding of flow will continue to adapt. The key is to create systems that not only optimize for efficiency but also foster the conditions for individual and collective creativity, learning, and growth.
At Enterprise Technology Leadership Summit 2024, Steve (co-author of Flow Engineering) and I will be presenting on a unique area in Flow Thinking: applying concepts from computer networking to improve Flow in organizations! Let us know what you think!
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