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.
The author summarized this portion of the chapter with a quote attributed to the Stoic Philosopher, Seneca “The good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.” The good pulled from adversity is a truer reflection of focus, goals, and character than those that come like a tide that lifts all boats.
The second idea was the concept of dissipating structures. These “structures” store and dissipate energy. In terms of this book, dissipating structures absorb the energy that can cause chaos and push it away or fix it – making order out of chaos. Leaders can be a dissipating structure. I have known several leaders who by their presence in a team create focus. They make the team something greater than a mere sum of the parts. As proof to this idea consider the alternative structure, the person or event that sends people off in a random direction – the anti-dissipating structure. I know more than a few office gossips who play that role. The goal is to take neutral or destructive events and turn them into positive ones.
The third concept is a flow model that builds on the idea of the autotelic self (see Chapter 7). Goals are integral to achieving flow; an autotelic self needs to have self-contained goals that they have chosen themselves. The flow model is useful for controlling chaos. The model:
- Set goals,
- Become immersed in activity to achieve the goals,
- Pay attention to what is happening, and
- Learn to enjoy the immediate experience.
Paying attention provides context which helps to sustain involvement. Learning to enjoy the immediate experience requires reflection and paying attention to what is happening – a feedback loop.
Next Week: We reflect on Chapter 10, the final chapter in Flow.
Buy a copy and read along – https://amzn.to/4b5kPmb
Week 1: Preface and Logistics – https://bit.ly/3WLjFHU
Week 2: Happiness – https://bit.ly/4dUSpNg
Week 3: Consciousness – https://bit.ly/4bEu3pN
Week 4: Enjoyment and The Quality of Life – https://bit.ly/4eeknDQ
Week 5: The Conditions Of Flow
Week 6: The Body In Flow
Week 7: The Flow Of Thought
Week 8: Work As Flow
