Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi- Quality of Life Research Center, Claremont Graduate University

FLOW: Play and Creativity
It‟s the Play that Makes Serious Play Serious
Serious Play Conference
August 21, 2013
Seattle, WA
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, PhD
Quality of Life Research Center
Claremont Graduate University
Claremont, CA
COPYRIGHT © 2013 BY MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Outline
• Why is Play Serious?
• Flow: The Experience of Play
• The Elements of Flow
• What Makes Flow Happen
• Flow at Work
• Flow is Good Business
• The Making of an Interactive Simulation
Game for Teaching Flow to Managers.

What Is Serious About Play?
• Playfulness is necessary for personal
development, from infancy to old age
• Playfulness is a necessary component
of creativity
• Playfulness is an important component of
cultural evolution
© 2013 BY MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI

What is Playfulness?
• Playfulness is a quality of experience
people feel when they do something
they enjoy doing for its own sake,
usually in games, sports, artistic activities,
but also in work and other “serious”
activities.
• In what follows, I shall describe
playfulness as the Flow Experience.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FLOW
EXPERIENCE
WHEN WRITING POETRY
“You„re right in the work, you
lose your sense of time,
you‟re completely enraptured,
you„re completely caught up
in what you‟re doing…. there„s
no future or past, it‟s just an
extended present in which
you„re making meaning…”
Poet
Mark Strand, 1991

“To go into a dark room and look through
the microscope and see these glowing
objects which may be moving around or
may be stationary, and in different colors –
it's a video game, if you will. It's just
beautiful…I can sit in front of a microscope
for three or four hours at a time, just looking
at the material and analyzing it….I can be
very disconcerting to other people in the
degree to which I can concentrate on
something and not pay too much attention
to what's going on around me.”
DESCRIPTION OF THE FLOW EXPERIENCE
WHEN DOING RESEARCH
Cell biologist
Joseph G. Gall, 1991

You Must Have Flow to Do Something
Creative.
But You Can Have Flow Even if
You Work on An Assembly Line.
So . . . What is Flow?

DIMENSIONS OF THE FLOW EXPERIENCE (1.)
– Attention is focused on a limited
stimulus field. There is full
concentration, complete
involvement.

“Concentration is like
breathing: you never
think of it. The roof could
fall in and, if it missed
you, you would be
unaware of it.”
Chess player
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1975)

– Attention is focused on a limited stimulus field. There
is full concentration, complete involvement.
– Action and awareness merge

“You‟re so involved in what
you‟re doing, you aren‟t
thinking about yourself as
separate from the immediate
activity. You‟re no longer a
participant observer, only a
participant. You‟re moving in
harmony with something else
you‟re part of.”
Rock
climber

– Action and awareness merge.
– There is freedom from worry about
failure.

“You feel like…there‟s
nothing that will be able
to stop you or get in your
way. And you‟re ready to
tackle anything, and you
don‟t fear any possibility
happening, and it‟s just
exhilarating.”
Cyclist
(Jackson & Csikszentmihalyi, 1999)

– There is freedom from worry about failure.
– Self-consciousness disappears.

“You are not aware of the body
except your hands….not
aware of self or personal
problems….If involved, you
are not aware of aching feet,
not aware of self.”
Surgeon

– The sense of time becomes
distorted.

“Two things happen…. After it‟s
passed, [time] seems to have
passed really fast. I see that it‟s
one o‟clock in the morning and I
say, „Ah-ha, just a few minutes ago
it was eight o‟clock.‟ But then while
I‟m dancing…it seems like it‟s been
much longer than it really was.”
Social dancer

– The sense of time becomes distorted.
– The experience become its own
reward - auto-telic.

“Do it for the satisfaction it gives….This is what I tell my
students. Don‟t expect to make money, don‟t expect fame or
a pat on the back, don‟t expect a damn thing. Do it because
you love it.”
Composer

TO SUMMARIZE:
DIMENSIONS OF THE FLOW EXPERIENCE
– Attention is focused on a limited stimulus field.
There is full concentration, complete involvement.
– The sense of time becomes distorted.
– The experience become its own reward - auto-telic.
…WHAT CONDITIONS FOSTER FLOW?

CONDITIONS OF THE FLOW
EXPERIENCE
1. There are clear goals every step
of the way.
2. There is immediate feedback to
one's action.
3. There is a balance between
challenges and skills.

HIGH
FLOW
BOREDOM
ANXIETY
HIGH

A B
C
D E
Flow
BOREDOM
ANXIETY
High
HighLow

Arousal
Flow
Control
Relaxation
Boredom
Apathy
Worry
Anxiety
SKILLS highlow
high Favorite activity,
Hobby, Work,
Love Life
Driving,
Work
Eating, Reading,
Conversation
Work,
Household Chores
Loneliness,
TV Viewing
Family
Problems,
Work Hassles
Work Stress,
Sudden Threats
New Tasks,
Learning

• 4 YEARS IN THE MAKING
• A MULTI-NATIONAL TEAM
• LONG EXPERIENCE IN DEVELOPING SIMULATION
LEARNING TOOLS
• CONCEPTUAL BASE: FLOW AND GOOD BUSINESS
Creating an interactive Flow tool
for managers

Csikszentmihalyi’s
FLOW for Business™
the ultimate leadership simulation game
and blended learning solution

Narrative Context – The Turul Winery
www.fligby.com - www.facebook.com/fligby 27
Good Games have
Good Backstories
The player takes on the role of the General
Manager of the well-established and well-known
Turul Winery, in California and faces the
challenging task of having to achieve a state of
harmony and co-operation in a team significantly
weakened by internal conflicts. Will it be possible
to win the international "Spirit of Wine Award"
as a direct result of leadership skills and efforts?
Check out Turul’s website (www.turulwinery.com)
©2013ALEAS Simulations, Inc. California

What is FLIGBY®?
„FLOW for Business™” (FLIGBY®) is an online game-based Leadership
Development Simulation. This is the official Flow program for
decision makers. The simulation allows you to test your leadership
skills, provides a unique Flow-based self-assessment opportunity and guides
you on a path towards optimizing a "Flow-centric" corporate culture.

FLIGBY’s Screen Structure (Main User Interface)
29www.fligby.com - www.facebook.com/fligby
“Magic
FLIGBY
Button”
“Full
Screen”
Button
Control
Panel
Next
Button
Flow
Gauge
Button
FLIGBY
Media
Library
Subtitle
Field
Virtual
Time in the
Story
Link to
Turul
Winery’s
external
website
Flow
Trophies

FLIGBY’s Screen Structure (Flow Gauge - 1)
The
PROFITABILITY
INDEX shows
how a player's
decision
impacts Turul
Winery's
revenue gener
ating ability.
“Flow Status / Personal Profile” Switch FLOW Meter of the
Winery
Quick Links to
Personal Profiles
Changes in the Flow State
"Flow Meter"
is the
CORPORATE
ATMOSPHERE
METER of the
Turul Winery
which shows
the average
mood inside
the
organization.
Profitability Index of
the Winery

Leadership Skills Tested by FLIGBY®
The extensive research which was part of the development of FLIGBY®, partly on the basis of
the Professor Csikszentmihalyi’s book titled “Good Business”, identified the leadership skills
contributing to create and maintain the Flow-state. These 29 skills were named “FLIGBY
Leadership Skillset”.
The course and the decision points of the game were built up to test these leadership skills.
1.
Active
Listening
2.
Analyzing
Skill
3.
Assertive-
ness
4.
Balancing
Skill
5. Building
Engage-
ment
6.
Business-
oriented
Thinking
7.
Commu-
nication
Skill
8.
Conflict-
mana-
gement
9.
Delegating
10.
Diploma-
tic Skills
11.
Emotional
Intelli-
gence
12.
Empower-
ment
13.
Enterpre-
nuership
14.
Execution
Skills
15.
Feedback
Skill
16.
Future-
focused
Thinking
17.
Information
Gathering
18.
Intuitive
Thinking
19.
Involvement
20.
Motivati-
onal Skills
21.
Organi-
zing Skills
22.
Prioriza-
tion Skill
23. Quick
Decision-
making
24.
Realizing
Personal
Strenghts
25. Social
System
Thinking
26. Social
Responsi-
bility
27.
Strategic
Thinking
28.
Teamwork
Mana-
gement
29. Time
Manage-
ment
Skills

32
Professional Reporting
This part of FLIGBY®’s feedback system is for professional use: Several Leadership Skills are
tested at the same time at the Strategic Decision Points of the game. If the player makes a right
decision the system raises the values of the skills belonging to that certain decision point on the
player’s assessment sheet. This means that the „relative strength” of the certain skills in the players’
leadership styles can be concluded from the decisions they make.
The strategic decision points test
several relevant leadership skills at
the same time.
The game tests each
skill on the basis of
several decisions. This
multiple testing
ensures the reliability
of the feedback.

”YOU CAN DISCOVER MORE
ABOUT A PERSON IN AN HOUR
OF PLAY, THAN IN A YEAR OF
CONVERSATION”
Plato, (c. 429-347 B.C.)

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi- Quality of Life Research Center, Claremont Graduate University

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