Reaching a Flow State: Creativity for Businesses and Individuals

When we think of ‘creativity’, what often springs to mind is an individual’s ability to create; their innate or harnessed ability to ideate and innovate.

While that does cover some of the scope, there is a second piece which is sometimes forgotten: organisational creativity.

From my own experience, I believe that harnessing both types not only provides a deeper sense of purpose and intensity in individuals, but also offers something that can be applied to organisations that will be conducive to success in the long run.

There are two books which I think are particularly interesting on this topic - the first being ‘Flow’ by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi that I first read 30 years ago. I was saddened to hear that Mihaly recently passed away, but his ‘Theory of Flow’ was something that did, and still does, inspire me.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s ‘Theory of Flow’

Mihaly’s theory describes a state of being where people become so immersed in the joy of their activity “that nothing else seems to matter”.

It denotes moments when we are completely absorbed in a challenging but doable task. And by achieving these states, we are instilled with a higher level of enjoyment, energy, and involvement. It’s when “your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost.”

I’ve experienced - as I’m sure we all have - instances where we lack focus and a deep attachment to what we’re doing in that present moment. However, we can better cultivate our flow when we have a clear sense of our purpose.

Flow has helped people foster passion, allowing us to pursue projects with joy and effortless productivity. In many ways, these flow states help inspire a more fulfilled life through its power to help us achieve our personal missions.

We do our best work when we are in our flow and, I hope that YuLife is an environment where individuals feel able to tap into a flow where they are not only functioning at their best, but feel completely absorbed and fulfilled by it, too.

‘Creativity Inc’ by Ed Catmull

The other, which I finished just this past weekend, is ‘Creativity Inc’ by Ed Catmull. Ed is the co-founder of Pixar and has some fascinating insights into this topic. In the aforementioned book in particular, he applies the same principles as Csikszentmihalyi but directs them towards organisations - so as to describe ‘organisational flow’.

When I put both into context by thinking about how we work at YuLife, I realised that both are at play in our day-to-day lives. One of our values is ‘actualising potential’ which relates to inspiring one another to reach that flow state - both individually and collectively - which is something we try our absolute best to uphold.

It’s about nourishing relationships, working together as a unit while also giving people the space they need for their own creativity to flourish.

There is one quote included in ‘Creativity Inc’ which stood out in particular, which I’d like to end this article with. Catmull was describing an encounter with the person at Apple who introduced him to Steve Jobs. This person had said to him:

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

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I’m sure this is an interesting concept for most people, and it resonates with me in particular because of what we’re doing here at YuLife.

Through our creativity - both individually and as a group - we are reinventing Life Insurance.