report#2

In the second segment of Flow,Csikszentmihalyi explores the idea of using the developed understanding of “self” to control attention.  The author says, “Attention shapes the self, and in turn is shaped by it.”(71)  In the development of Flow, it becomes essential to develop an understanding of self. Self is not simply comprised of physical attributes and mannerisms; it is the complete compilation of behaviors and attitudes that we pack into our “being”.  Every day, as a being, we develop our notion of self. With each experience we have, our “self” emerges evermore.  As we begin to get to know our “self”, we begin to recognize our interests and our tendencies. For instance, many students experience the feeling of not knowing exactly what they want to pursue Post College. Perhaps one of these students takes a trip or has an experience with something new to them. That experience could trigger a new interest, an interest that seeds itself in our “self”. Suddenly the student begins to take classes related to this experience and the student surrounds himself with things that remind him of the experience. By integrating these new behaviors into his routines, he has allowed his “self” to direct and focus his attention on the development of this new interest. Suddenly the experience has gone from random occurrence, to life changing incident, and perhaps the student will direct a significant portion of the rest of his life towards focusing attention on the experience. 

People who are fortunate enough to recognize their “self” early on in life can, in theory spend the entirety of their lives tuning and developing the self. These people will find themselves in situations that continuously benefit them, ever furthering their development of self. The author suggests that by having a defined understanding of self, people are able to obtain flow, or optimal experience in more cases than most. By understanding ourselves we are more apt to placing ourselves in fulfilling situations. Perhaps we are faced with a daunting task, a person who experiences a great relationship with his/her, “self”, will most certainly approach this task with a different focus than, a person with a limited relationship with his self.  This suggests that a person with better self-identification may have a better life, but it is more important to show that a person with better self-identification will have a more fulfilling interpretation of the experiences he has.

The interpretation of life through the eyes of a developed self is described by the author as psychic energy. The author does not suggest that we have psychic abilities, in the sense of being able to predict thoughts, but we have the ability to organize our consciousness in such a way that provides optimal experience in day to day life. We have spoken about heuristics, and in a way developing an understanding of self, is the development of heuristics that explain us. Different than any heuristic though, flow and psychic energy emerge from certainly positive experiences. Flow cannot be described as prediction of events to come, or the enjoyment of predicting upcoming events based on prior knowledge; flow is dependent upon feeling, a crossroads in our thought process where we let go of conscious efforts and allow our certainty in “self” to take control and lead us to and through optimal experience.

Flow(REPORT 1)

Draft 1

In Csikszentmihalyi’s book “Flow”, the concept of achieving optimal experience is discussed. Flow, what the author defines as,” the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”(17), is what any team or organization no matter how large, is ultimately striving to find. Similarly individuals spend their lives trying to find this “flow”. However, the author suggests,  that flow and its intricate components, which will be explained later, are not easily obtainable; especially for those of us who are consciously searching. In fact flow seems to come when we are least expecting it. Perhaps when we take time to look inward, and develop a comfort and understanding with ourselves, we will be better able to harness flow. By figuring ourselves out, we must make it our responsibility to gain control and respect for our intricacies. Including an understanding of our perception of what is happening around us, after all it is said that the only thing you can control 100% is yourself. Controlling perception is a difficult task, and in Flow the author outlines a few devices we can use in attempts to harness ourselves. This is no new notion, as the author suggests, philosophers and ancient rulers alike understood that control of their consciousness was the key to controlling happiness. By becoming consumed with finding an understanding of ourselves, we liberate our consciousness from the restraints of society. As the author suggests, there is much more than obtaining knowledge throughout life; knowledge is to be applied to modify our own habits and desires. We can apply this philosophy to groups and teams as well. Groups and teams could potentially take time in the beginning of their existence to examine, the groups’ entity. Just as the author suggests each of us needs to find a better understanding of ourselves, the group must think of itself as one unit. Once the unit is defined, they will have an opportunity to examine it, get to know it, and ultimately harness its potential. Just like the crew team describing the feeling of the boat lifting out of the water when they achieved synchronization, teams in business settings can also feel similarly. Teams must work to overcome themselves as obstacles, in order to find flow and produce the ultimate experience, which certainly must be the desired experience.

                

Wisdom of Crowds

Institutions with vast financial means seem to be able to produce whatever results necessary to support their desired outcomes. As seen in the Wal-mart case, the prosecuting attorneys felt as though they had found statistical evidence to support discrimination in the company. To no surprise, the Wal Mart officials declared that THEIR analysts had found much different results. Point being, through manipulation and incidences of groupthink groups,statistics, and conclusions can be skewed by the "powers that be". In the case regarding Columbia and the foam debris, the narrative clearly shows a situation in which NASA's officials were not interested in hearing inconclusive results. By steering the analysts towards an outcome which supported the launch, officials deliberately deprived analysts of vital information. In this case, the negligence put lives in direct danger.  The article really outlines the dilemma in creating cohesion in groups. It is clearly important to have cooperation in groups, but as this article suggests, lack of cognitive diversity can certainly limit the groups ability to consider conflicting approaches. The NASA situation was certainly caused by the pressures applies from higher ranking officials. The members wanted to have their names attached to a successful mission, so they applied that pressure to their subordinates thus allowing for nothing other than a launch. The members involved lost their will to consider anything other than positive conclusions. Their only cry for help; stating that their evidence developed from limited resources.

RACE!

Initially it seemed as though racing would be the natural decision for the team. Without any clear evidence to support not racing, other than some of the recorded data on engine failures related to temperature. Financially, there are more outcomes that warrant financial gain, while racing, than if the team doesnt race. Of course, if they were to race and fail, nearly all would be lost. Perhaps the team should do some personality testing in the near future. By determining some characteristics of the driver and the team, each member would be able to approach the decision with a different view. Not until we saw the information regarding victory's based on temperature did it become clear what the racing team should do.