Throughout history we’ve been aware of the state we now refer to as flow. It describes the sensation of existing purely in the moment of some activity, effortlessly achieving what we have set out to achieve and unaware of distractions. Mystics have described it as ecstasy, artists as rapture and athletes as in the zone. This state was first described as flow by the Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in 1975 and has been developed by him and a wide range of other researchers in a number of fields since that time.
The essential characteristic of flow is an individual’s total and enjoyable absorption in an activity to the point that they lose a sense of space and time. It is related to focus but it is not the same. Flow is a state of transcendence and it is just as important in office design as any other domain of human activity.
The idea has been widely talked about as a desirable state in which to complete work, especially creative tasks. Indeed, the idea of heightened states while engaged in tasks predates the work of Csíkszentmihályi. Perhaps the best-known organisational psychologist of all time Abraham Maslow coined the term peak experience to describe intensely joyous and exciting moments. In these moments, we feel more whole, integrated, aware of ourselves and deeply happy. Maslow described them as those “moments of highest happiness and fulfilment” in his 1964 work Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences. He linked them to the idea of self-actualisation from his famous Hierarchy of Needs.
Flow is more common at work
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Such moments are more likely when we are at work than in other periods of our lives and are relatively common. According to an article by Csíkszentmihályi published in Psychology Today, in a survey of 6,469 Germans, when asked how often they entered a flow state: 23 percent said often; 40 percent said sometimes; 25 percent said rarely; and 12 percent said never or don’t know.