Creativity and Flow: The Art of Mindful Creativity

Dhiman, Satinder

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_4

Satinder Dhiman²

2589 Accesses

Abstract

Leaders are increasingly expected to nurture an environment of collaborative innovation. Some of the world’s most iconic companies are embracing creativity as a way of life. Now more than ever organizations must innovate in order to survive and succeed. Treating creativity as a form of competence that can be nurtured, this chapter focuses on the role of creativity and flow in life and leadership. It garners the view that it is leaders’ job to foster creativity. It reviews some of the mounting research that shows that creativity is very much a science. After defining creativity as person, process, and product-based, it provides a brief overview of the experience of flow as observed in the behavior of creative individuals and the anatomy of mindful creativity. It explores the relationship between mindfulness as a creative process and the concept of flow, suggesting that the meditative practice of mindfulness at once contributes to the successful attainment of both of these experiences. It concludes with reviewing the benefits of mindfulness, creativity, and flow.

This chapter utilizes the Buddhist construct of mindfulness as a framework to approach the works of Langer, a Harvard psychologist, and Csikszentmihalyi, who popularized the concept of flow. Over the years, this author has had the honor of interviewing Csikszentmihalyi and Langer. He has also had the privilege of participating in two extended mindfulness meditation retreats. This has brought added clarity to the theoretical concepts and conviction to their practical application.

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Notes

1.
Robert Northcott, Genetic Traits and Causal Explanation. In Kathryn S. Plaisance and Thomas Reydon, Eds., Philosophy of Behavioral Biology (New York: Springer, 2012), 78.
2.
Quoted in Laurence J. Peter, Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (New York: Bantam Books, 1979), 25.
3.
Sir Ken Robinson, Do Schools Kill Creativity? Ted Talk. February 2006. Transcript retrieved February 15, 2016: https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity/transcript?language=en. Also see Ken Robinson, Out of our Minds: Learning to be Creative (New York: Capstone, 2011).
4.
Quoted in “A Bias against ‘Quirky’? Why Creative People Can Lose Out on Leadership Positions.” Leadership entry: Knowledge @ Wharton. Retrieved February 18, 2016: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/a-bias-against-quirky-why-creative-people-can-lose-out-on-leadership-positions/.
5.
This term was mentioned during the interview by Dr. Langer: Ellen Langer, Personal Communication, Unpublished Transcripts, April 15, 2009.
6.
Ellen Langer, On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity (New York: Ballantine Books, 2005), 4.
7.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper and Row, 1990), 3.
8.
See Teresa M. Amabile and Mukti Khaire, Creativity and the Role of the Leader, Harvard Business Review, October 2008, 86, (10), 101–109. Teresa M. Amabile, A Model of Creativity and Innovation in Organizations, Research in Organizational Behavior, 1988, Vol. 10, 123–167. Teresa Amabile, How to Kill Creativity, Harvard Business Review, 76, no. 5 (September–October 1998): 76–87.
9.
Teresa Amabile, “How to Kill Creativity,” Harvard Business Review, 76, no. 5 (September–October 1998): 76–87.
10.
Ibid., 77.
11.
Michael Mumford, Where have we been, where are we going? Taking stock in creativity research. Creativity Research Journal, 2003, 15, 110.
12.
Dr. Ellen Langer, personal communication, April 5, 2009. Unpublished Interview Transcripts.
13.
Donald C. Pelz and F. M. Andrews, Scientists in Organizations: Productive Climates for Research and Development (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 1976).
14.
Teresa Amabile, “Motivating Creativity in Organizations: On Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do”, California Management Review, 40 (I), (Fall 1997): 39–58.
15.
Teresa M. Amabile, “A Model of Creativity and Innovation in Organizations”, Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol. 10, (1988): 126.
16.
Rosabeth Moth Kanter, The Change Masters: Innovations for Productivity in the American Corporation (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983), 20.
17.
Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (New York: Basic Books, 2011), xxxvi.
18.
Howard Gardner, Creating Minds: An Anatomy of Creativity Seen Through the Eyes of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi (New York, NY: Basic Books, 1993).
19.
Gardner, Frames of Mind, xxxvi.
20.
Rom Schrift quoted in “Can Creativity be Taught?” Management entry: Knowledge @ Wharton. Retrieved February 19, 2016: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/can-creativity-be-taught/.
21.
Ibid.
22.
Ibid.
23.
Teresa M. Amabile and Mukti Khaire, “Creativity and the Role of the Leader,” Harvard Business Review, 86, (10), (October 2008):101–109. Teresa M. Amabile, “A Model of Creativity and Innovation in Organizations,” Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol. 10, (1988): 123–167.
24.
Teresa Amabile, “Motivating Creativity in Organizations: On Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do,” California Management Review, 40 (I) (Fall 1997): 43; Teresa Amabile, “How to Kill Creativity,” Harvard Business Review, 76, no. 5 (September–October 1998), 76. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Frontiers of Management (Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press, 1997).
25.
See Teresa M. Amabile, Creativity in Context: Update to the Social Psychology of Creativity (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1996). Teresa M. Amabile, Robert Burnside, and Stanley S. Gryskiewicz, User’s Manual for KEYS: Assessing the Climate for Creativity (Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership, 1998).
26.
Jennifer Mueller as quoted in “Can Creativity be Taught?”
27.
The Little Book of IDEO: Values from Tim Brown. Retrieved February 7, 2016: http://designthinking.ideo.com/?p=1282.
28.
Teresa Amabile, Colin M. Fisher, and Julianna Pillemer, IDEO’s Culture of Helping Harvard Business Review, January–February 2014.
29.
David Burkus, The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies and People Generate Great Ideas (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2014), 11–14.
30.
See Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (New York: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition, 2013), 79–83.
31.
See Charles Murray, Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences (New York: Harper Collins, 2003).
32.
See Robert W. Weisberg, Creativity: Beyond the Myth of Genius, 2nd edition (New York, NY: W. H. Freeman & Co., 1993); See also Weisberg, Creativity: Genius and Other Myths. (New York: W. H. Freeman & Co., 1986).
33.
John Baer, The Importance of Domain-Specific Expertise in Creativity, Roeper Review, 2015, 37, 165–178. Retrieved February 20, 2016: http://users.rider.edu/~baer/ExpertiseCreativity.pdf.
34.
David Burkus, The Myths of Creativity, 67–68.
35.
Spoken statement (c. 1903); published in Harper’s Monthly (September 1932).
36.
Ira Flatow, They All Laughed … From Light Bulbs to Lasers: The Fascinating Stories Behind the Great Inventions That Have Changed Our Lives (New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 1992).
37.
Cited in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1990), 54.
38.
See “Flow States: Answers To The Three Most Common Questions About Optimal Performance,” Retrieved February 18, 2016: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenkotler/2014/02/09/flow-states-answers-to-the-three-most-common-questions-about-optimal-performance/#5a396e953d1533fc83393d15.
39.
Recent Gallup polls have indicated that 71 percent of US workers were “not engaged”, or “actively disengaged” from their jobs. See Gallup Report: “70 % of US workers not engaged at work.” State of the American Workplace. The report highlights findings from Gallup’s ongoing study of the American workplace from 2010 through 2012. Also see, Amy Adkins, “Majority of U.S. Employees Not Engaged Despite Gains in 2014.” Retrieved February 19, 2016: http://www.gallup.com/services/178514/state-american-workplace.aspx?g_source=position1&g_medium=related&g_campaign=tiles.
40.
Steven Kotler, The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance (New York: New Harvest, 2014 ), ix.
41.
See Shawn Achor, “Is happiness the secret of success?”, Special to CNN, March 19, 2012. Retrieved February 20, 2016: http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/19/opinion/happiness-success-achor/.
42.
See: 17 “Flow” Triggers That Will Increase Productivity—Tapping into Peak Human Performance in Business—http://www.mymasterminder.com/blog/17-flow-triggers-will-increase-productivity-tapping-peak-human-performance-business#sthash.kAVfM0Im.dpb.
43.
Understanding Flow Triggers, with Steven Kotler. Transcript retrieved, February 20, 2016: http://bigthink.com/videos/understanding-flow-triggers-with-steven-kotler See also: Kotler, “Flow States.”
44.
Steven Kotler, The Rise of Superman, 98–135.
45.
See Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, 3. Also see: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life. (New York: Basic Books, 1997), 7.
46.
Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, 71–93.
47.
Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow, 28.
48.
Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: The Works and Lives of 91 Eminent People (New York, NY: HarperCollins 1996), 1–2. See also Csikszentmihalyi, The creative personality. Psychology Today. 1996: 36–40.
49.
Csikszentmihalyi, “The creative personality,” Psychology Today, 1996, 36–40.
50.
Ibid., 1.
51.
Csikszentmihalyi, The creative personality. Psychology Today, 1996, 58–73.
52.
Mikhaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (New York: HarperCollins, 1996), 347–370.
53.
Ellen Langer, On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself through Mindful Creativity (New York: Ballantine Books, 2005), 16.
54.
For a clear summary of Gurdjieff’s teachings, please see P. D. Ouspensky, In the Search of Miraculous, revised edition (New York: Harcourt Inc., 2001). See also Collin Wilson, G.I. Gurdjieff: The War against Sleep (New York: Aeon Books, 2005). One of the most seminal ideas of Gurdjieff’s system is that nature develops us up to a certain extent; after that we must take our psychological evolution in our own hands to complete what nature could not finish. He called it “creating” the soul and recommended a two-fold process of conscious labor and intentional suffering to accomplish this process. He used to insist that one cannot create one’s own immortal soul unless one “dies” to one’s outer life. This refrain is common in all the wisdom traditions of the world. For the real to come, the unreal has to go. Gurdjieff used to say that in this process of soul-creation, ordinary efforts do not matter; only super efforts count!
55.
Mindfulness in the Age of Complexity: Spotlight Interview with Ellen Langer by Alison Beard. Harvard Business Review, March 14, 2014, 1–7.
56.
Ibid., xv.
57.
Ibid., 35.
58.
Ibid., 229.
59.
Ibid. 229–230.
60.
Shelley H. Carson & Ellen Langer, Mindfulness and Self-Acceptance. Journal of Rational-Eomotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 2006, 24, 1, 29–43.
61.
See Langer, Mindfulness (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1989).
62.
Langer, On Becoming an Artist, 21.
63.
Ibid., 5, 16.
64.
Ibid., 25.
65.
Ibid., 36.
66.
Ibid., 40.
67.
Ibid., 43.
68.
Ibid., 58.
69.
Ibid., 76.
70.
Ibid., 103.
71.
Ibid., 130.
72.
Ibid., 171–172.
73.
Ibid., 150.
74.
Ibid.
75.
Ibid., 175.
76.
Ibid., 182.
77.
Ibid., 190.
78.
Ibid., 203.
79.
Ibid., 211.
80.
Ibid., 223–224.
81.
Ibid., 225.
82.
Ibid., 210; 229; 194.
83.
Bhikkhu Khantipalo, Practical Advice for Meditators (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1986), 8.
84.
Ven. Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English (Boston, MA: Wisdom, Rev. ed., 2002).
85.
Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering (Onalaska, WA: BPS Pariyatti, 1994), 70. Ven. Bhikkhu Khantipalo, Practical Advice for Meditators (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1986), 8.
86.
Ibid., 76.
87.
Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, trans., Sutta Nipata: 48.10. Retrieved February 21, 2016: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn48/sn48.010.than.html.
88.
See Ven. Thera Nyanaponika, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation: A Handbook of Mental Training Based on Buddha’s Way of Mindfulness (London: Ryder., 1960).
89.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment and Your Life (Louisville, CO: Sounds True, 2012), 4 (emphasis in the original).
90.
Ibid., 1.
91.
See Langer, On Becoming an Artist; Saki Santorelli, Heal Thy Self: Lessons on Mindfulness in Medicine (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2000).
92.
Jon Kabat-Zinn & Saki Santorelli, Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Professional Training: Scientific Papers from the Stress Reduction Clinic (Boston, MA: Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society, 2002). Spiral Bound.
93.
See Langer, Mindfulness (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1989).
94.
Mindfulness in the Age of Complexity, HBR, 2014, 4.
95.
Ibid., 7.
96.
See Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophic Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Anxiety and Depression (New York, NY: Guildford Press, 1990).
97.
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School of Business, Woodbury University, Burbank, California, USA
Satinder Dhiman

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Dhiman, S. (2017). Creativity and Flow: The Art of Mindful Creativity. In: Holistic Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_4

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_4
Published: 12 January 2017
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-55570-0
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