Un-Flow and New Ways to Flow

I spent the end of last week in Macau at a management retreat for the School of Design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University where I teach. It was a great chance to catch up with colleagues, explore new opportunities, and develop a better understanding of the direction of the School and how everyone fits in to the bigger scheme of things in the School. Designers are an interesting bunch (our Head of Department, Lorraine Justice, relates her job to that of a cat herder).

During the retreat, there were a variety of presentations, discussion, etc. that highlighted and reflected the different cultures and personalities (myself included) that were there. Underlying all of the perspectives was a deep concern about how what we are doing (education) will impact the world in a positive way, and a striving towards “quality.” What was very interesting to me was the way in which discussions were carried and the dynamics that contributed to the overall “energy” of the group. There were times in which the discussions seemed quite lively and other times in which, well, seemed not lively (lively-bar as we would say in logic terms). What is it that keeps a person engaged or interested? What is it that keeps some people engaged and not others?

I’ve read Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (who I also found out will be coming to speak in Hong Kong later this year) which addresses the peak experience and staying in the “flow,” but doesn’t really speak about the physiological aspects of boredom which many people seem to be uncomfortable with. I think it also generally happens in groups, not unlike the “uncomfortable pause” that happens during conversations among a group in which no-one has anything to say. During a cocktail party, people naturally drift from one person to another, from one conversation to another. The “inner force” that prompts a person to move to another conversation usually results from a “level of interest” threshold being crossed. In a cocktail party, one can always move to talking to someone else, standing alone, or leaving. However, in a group meeting, the socially proper thing to do is to keep attention and interest.

As someone who practices meditation, I have no problem sitting and “doing nothing” for long periods of time. I also have no problem watching movies like Dumbo 50 or so times with my kids. However, something physiological seems to happen to me at meetings. What is interesting from this experience is that it seemed to take a lot of work (e.g., tiring / draining) in trying to stay engaged in something that does not inherently engage. After a prolonged period, it seems that a “sluggishness” of the mind develops which gradually leads to a “zoned out” state, as if the brain goes catatonic.

I began to investigate this phenomenon within myself. Getting up and walking around in the room, stretching, and applying meditation techniques such as focusing on breathing seemed to alleviate the energy drain. It was very interesting during these low-energy states to look around the room and see what others were doing. Several people at the table I was at were involved in drawing and doodling. Others were scribbling up upcoming projects. I was fascinated by one comrade’s short-hand notation in “designing” the story for a new book. At another table, I saw a couple who seemed to be passing notes to each other. Intrigued, I walked by and noticed that they were actually engaged in a game of hang-man. It seemed that the mind needed amusement to stay occupied. Like yawns, the effect seems to be contagious and propagates from person to person.

In contrast, the “flow” condition in which hours can pass by in seemly minutes. All of this said, the retreat did fly by pretty quickly. My wife had also been gone for the past week and a half (as was my last post) which also seemed to go by pretty quickly. The semester is starting next week and there have been a lot of developments at work. The dinners and discussions in Macau were also quite interesting with a lot of follow-up meetings planned.

There are new technologies to facilitate greater discussion in meetings. Recently I’ve been investigating Open Space Technology (http://www.openspaceworld.org/cgi/wiki.cgi?AboutOpenSpace), Zing (http://www.anyzing.com/) who’s CEO, John Findlay, came for a visit last week, DeBono’s Six Hats (http://members.optusnet.com.au/~charles57/Creative/Techniques/sixhats.htm), and Bohmian Dialogue (http://www.david-bohm.net/dialogue/) as alternative approaches to discussion that engage by actively involving participants. What is it about these techniques that make them work better than the traditional lecture? How can we apply them more directly in education? Interactivity design?