Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning

Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi coined the term "Flow" back in 1975 to describe the experience that many of us are familiar with: time is suspended, our focus is completely on the task, and everything around us ceases to exist. In this book, the author attempts to map and apply his research to the world of management and businesses.

I doubt that some of the arguments and propositions the author makes will ever make it into the mainstream management literature, but the overarching argument for optimizing the work experience to match the challenge of the task, skill of the person, and giving them the opportunity to grow is right on target. If there are no mistakes, they are not pushing hard enough. If they are coasting, the motivation and morale is likely lacking as well.

A thought provoking read and one that every entrepreneur and founder should read.

I am a psychiatrist who thinks this book is so wonderful that I not only strongly recommend it, I even wrote a post about it on my blog at

http://drbremer.blogspot.com

!! Especially in these difficult financial times, I think this book resonates. The professor both supports capitalism heartily and yet calls business leaders to rise to the challenge of building businesses with vision and building settings which promote happiness for their employees, their customers and themselves.

I've read a few of Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced chick-sent-me-high-ee) books and found this one the least informative and similar to many other leadership books. The book continuously quotes successful executives and emphasizes the Flow concept, but it is repetitious. Flow is experienced in your job when you are doing something of interest and it is aligned with your skill level. If you are off-balance on either variable, your temperament will descend into anxiety or boredom. This being the case, most people don't experience flow because the two variables aren't at equilibrium.

I would recommend his book Flow, and his book Talented Teenagers; especially, if you have children. Arthur R. Jensen's writings, along with the aforementioned books, would provide a synthesis to the reader and better understanding of how general intelligence (g) affects Flow. For example, a student in school with low g will never find Flow in algebra class or any other advanced studies. He will most likely experience anxiety and act accordingly. Additionally, a teenager who has weak athleticism will never find Flow in track or other sports. If he is smart, not athletic, but likes sports; then maybe sports journalism or coaching would create Flow.

Work can and should make you happy. If it doesn't something is wrong, according to the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book Good Business: Leadership, Flow and the Making of Meaning. We spend much of our lives working, and it is not just a waste of time and energy when we do not enjoy it. Our output suffers, which the author argues is bad for society, not just for ourselves. Hungarian-born Csikszentmihalyi wrote the groundbreaking 1990 book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience that brought his research into human behavior to a wider audience. Martin Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association, described Csikszentmihalyi as the world's leading researcher on positive psychology. In 1999, after a long career teaching psychology at the University of Chicago, he began teaching the subject to MBA students at the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. He is also the director of the Quality of Life Research Center, a nonprofit institute in Claremont, California. The book centers on the topic of flow. Flow means being so absorbed in an activity that we shut out distractions and worries to devote all our energy to the task at hand. It can occur in work or play, but the focus in this book is on how people can find flow when they work, and how leaders can encourage flow in employees. Flow occurs when there is a balance between high challenges and skills. Flow is unlikely in an activity until we become proficient in it. It's also not static. Without continual challenge, boredom creeps in. "The important factor to keep in mind is that personal growth is contingent on the balance of opportunities for action and the capacities to act that a person encounters at work," he writes. He describes seven other components of flow: clear goals, immediate feedback, deepening concentration, focus on the moment, personal control, a sense of altered time and loss of ego. However, flow by itself is not sufficient for a happy, productive and meaningful life. We must be engaged in a worthy, ethical enterprise, working toward aspirations beyond ourselves and, ideally, with effects beyond our lifetime. Good Business contains snippets of interviews with top executives, such as Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, chosen not only for their success in business, but because of their strong social conscience. Csikszentmihalyi's argument is that business is now our most crucial institution, so it has an obligation to the quality of life not just of its employees, but of society. He also quotes people who find flow in such activities as writing poetry, rock climbing and surgery. Flow is not just for executives, or those with exotic jobs or hobbies. His research shows that flow happens in service workers, such as janitors, or in workers on assembly lines. Finding flow is important, but happiness is the bottom line. Csikszentmihalyi says happiness usually follows fulfilling our potential, which rests on two separate but simultaneous processes. One is differentiation, the recognition of our unique characteristics and our sense of responsibility for survival and well-being. The other is integration: realizing that we are "completely enmeshed in networks of relationships with other human beings, with cultural symbols and artifacts, and with the surrounding natural environment. A person who is fully differentiated and integrated becomes a complex individual -- one who has the best chance at leading a happy, vital, and meaningful life."

Good Business is a good book. But it's not a "how-to" with neatly compartmentalized bullet points and acronyms for success. There aren't simple strategies and steps that can be applied after you're through reading. There aren't quizzes or assessments to rank your or your organization's degree of Flow.

Hungarian author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, director of the Quality of Life Research Center (QLRC), and author of such works as: "Beyond Boredom and Anxiety," "Flow: The psychology of optimal experience," "Being Adolescent," "The Evolving Self & Creativity," and "Flow and the Psychology of Discovery & Intervention," can now add another work of art to his collection. "Good Business: Leadership, Flow and the Making of Meaning" is the latest publication by Dr. Csikszentmihalyi. Like many of his works, "Good Business" relies on creativity, innovation, and the development of flow to achieve the bottom line. Through its explosive accounts of interviews by leading business men and women, Csikszentmihalyi presents a strong argument for developing human well-being in the work place. "Good Business" just might change the way workers and business leaders view success.