Working with my colleague Ced Ignjatovic, we have been advancing the work of Mihalyi Csiksgentmihalyi and Jeanne Nakamura on both flow and vital engagement, through a concept that we call values flow. Here we introduce the values flow concept, which integrates aspects of flow theory, vital engagement, and dialectical behavioural therapy. Also see our related papers and chapters.
THE ‘WHAT’ OF VALUES FLOW TECHNOLOGY
Values-Flow is based on systems science, and flow theory and research over the last five decades, while simultaneously expanding the practical accessibility and applicability of flow to everyday contexts
Advances in the applications and generalizability of systems sciences within positive and educational psychology have potential benefits for the ‘everyday person’. Traditional attempts to apply flow in work settings prescribed the benefits of optimal transmission of cultural information for everyday survival and the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of structuring optimal attention and experience. This information remains highly valid particularly as contemporary society makes it harder to focus attention in daily life.
However, efforts thus far have been ‘static’ and ‘rigid’ translations of the flow theory; lacking the transforming impact for typical working adults of various socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. That is, a theoretical translation rather than applying a practice-based evidence framework in real world settings. Positive and Educational psychology, as domains with a strong applied focus, have faced similar ‘information transfer’ barriers.
Values-Flow method focuses on the ‘what DOING’ and ‘how DOING’ (vs ‘what and how’ to DO) in daily work situations. Guided by research a growing evidence based and over a decade of experience in Clinical Psychology practice, and training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy methods for mental health, Values Flow provides a technology to bring ‘flow into play’ in the educator’s day.
THE ‘HOW’ OF VALUES FLOW TECHNOLOGY
Values Flow, the aims to have a practical and lay-audience focus that brings Csiksgentmihalyi’s vision of the accessibility and applicability of the flow concept to life.
In 1990, Csiksgentmihalyi noted: “The tools of that make flow possible are common property, and [should be] knowledge recorded in books available to schools and libraries (p. 127)”.
Flow refers to a daily experience of absorbed attention and joyful application of cultural information, representing optimal attentional states and contributing to the life well-lived. The concept has international appeal across a variety of settings. And yet the flow concept has not been effectively translated into the everyday lives for working adults, educational staff, or teachers. User-friendly protocols to teach and model ‘joyful information transfer’ and ‘self-application’ in optimal ways are all but non-existent.
Building upon rigorous research practice, Values-Flow that aims to describe step-by-step protocols to bring flow theory into practice, provide tools to apply flow theory among educators, and encourage joyful application of self in everyday educational settings.
Values-Flow aims to push past the ‘generic’ prescriptions of ‘what’ and ‘how’ of the flow zone by bridging ‘what’s known’ with ‘sustainably applicable’ in terms of flow theory amidst daily challenges.
Focussing on practice-based literature on information transfer, clinical psychological technology, parental and attachment modelling, self-efficacy, optimal experiential fluctuations, and mnemonics, Values-Flow protocols will be applicable in daily challenges by optimally involving competencies and the selves of educators.
Values Flow Cards and Research Background
THE ‘WHAT’ OF VALUES FLOW TECHNOLOGY
Values-Flow is based on systems science, and flow theory and research over the last five decades, while simultaneously expanding the practical accessibility and applicability of flow to everyday contexts
Advances in the applications and generalizability of systems sciences within positive and educational psychology have potential benefits for the ‘everyday person’. Traditional attempts to apply flow in work settings prescribed the benefits of optimal transmission of cultural information for everyday survival and the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of structuring optimal attention and experience. This information remains highly valid particularly as contemporary society makes it harder to focus attention in daily life.
However, efforts thus far have been ‘static’ and ‘rigid’ translations of the flow theory; lacking the transforming impact for typical working adults of various socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. That is, a theoretical translation rather than applying a practice-based evidence framework in real world settings. Positive and Educational psychology, as domains with a strong applied focus, have faced similar ‘information transfer’ barriers.
Values-Flow method focuses on the ‘what DOING’ and ‘how DOING’ (vs ‘what and how’ to DO) in daily work situations. Guided by research a growing evidence based and over a decade of experience in Clinical Psychology practice, and training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy methods for mental health, Values Flow provides a technology to bring ‘flow into play’ in the educator’s day.
THE ‘HOW’ OF VALUES FLOW TECHNOLOGY
Values Flow, the aims to have a practical and lay-audience focus that brings Csiksgentmihalyi’s vision of the accessibility and applicability of the flow concept to life.
In 1990, Csiksgentmihalyi noted: “The tools of that make flow possible are common property, and [should be] knowledge recorded in books available to schools and libraries (p. 127)”.
Flow refers to a daily experience of absorbed attention and joyful application of cultural information, representing optimal attentional states and contributing to the life well-lived. The concept has international appeal across a variety of settings. And yet the flow concept has not been effectively translated into the everyday lives for working adults, educational staff, or teachers. User-friendly protocols to teach and model ‘joyful information transfer’ and ‘self-application’ in optimal ways are all but non-existent.
Building upon rigorous research practice, Values-Flow that aims to describe step-by-step protocols to bring flow theory into practice, provide tools to apply flow theory among educators, and encourage joyful application of self in everyday educational settings.
Values-Flow aims to push past the ‘generic’ prescriptions of ‘what’ and ‘how’ of the flow zone by bridging ‘what’s known’ with ‘sustainably applicable’ in terms of flow theory amidst daily challenges.
Focussing on practice-based literature on information transfer, clinical psychological technology, parental and attachment modelling, self-efficacy, optimal experiential fluctuations, and mnemonics, Values-Flow protocols will be applicable in daily challenges by optimally involving competencies and the selves of educators.
Values Flow Cards and Research Background
Click here to download the Values flow practices card
Click here to download the Values flow skills card
Ignjatovic, C., Kern, M.L. & Oades, L.G. (2022a). The VIVA Sustainable Work Engagement Model: A Conceptual Introduction and Preliminary Test Over Three Years. Int J Appl Posit Psychol 7, 251–270 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41042-022-00064-4.
Despite the popularity of Mindfulness interventions among students and schools, the mechanisms and process that sustain engagement in these important practices are not well understood. The VIVA model and initial test provides one step towards understanding the processes involved in optimal engagement in optimal functioning within the workplace environment. We were able to provide support that vital engagement model represented the subjective element of a thriving working adult across their careers, which emerges from the combination of a subjective sense of vitality, virtue-based action, grounded in a sense of acceptance, and experienced through involvement in work. Our model contributed to the conceptualizing and operationalizing the process of involving individuals in a ‘good work life’ in a sustainable way, and the study provides initial albeit imperfect support for the VIVA model. These findings provided important intervention points to increase a type longer-term optimal work process – involving acceptance, involvement and mindfulness skills application - that results from a continuous inter-relationship between the best of the individual towards virtuous ends both at work and life in general.
Ignjatovic, C., Kern, M L., & G. Oades, L. (2022b). Values-Flow in Contextual Psychotherapy: The ‘What’, ‘Why’, and ‘How’ of Sustainable Values-Based Behaviour. Happiness - Biopsychosocial and Anthropological Perspectives. doi: 10.5772/intechopen.106594 (pdf)
In this invited book chapter, were able to provide further detail about the Values Flow process VIVA (Virtue, Involvement, Vitality, Acceptance) and ARIA (Attending, Reflecting, Informing, Acting) and how they may be relevant and enhances the practice Mindfulness and Acceptance skills (from psychotherapies such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or Dialectical Behaviour Therapy) in Adult populations. The chapter also introduces the Values-Flow monitoring tools which aim to build commitment and sustainable engagement in psychological skills use and values-based behaviour in working adults struggling with sub-optimal functioning.
Ignjatovic, C., Kern, M.L., & Oades, L.G. (2021). Flow Support at Work: Examining the Relationship Between Strengths Use and Flow at Work Among School Staff over a Three-Year Period. Journal of Happiness Studies, 23, 455 - 475. (pdf)
In this study we examined data collected from a panel of school staff (N = 253) across five measurement occasions over a three-year period. We investigated the extent to which flow at work and strength use were mutually supportive cross-sectionally and prospectively. Although flow and strengths were correlated within each time point, flow was not predictive of strength use nor was strength use predictive of flow at subsequent time points. Results point to the complexities of understanding dynamic psychological processes over time, which may differ from short-term relationships. Implications for measuring and supporting wellbeing at work, while taking into account its dynamic nature, are considered.
Ignjatovic, C. (2020). Investigating flow at work and vital engagement of working adults across 3 years. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The University of Melbourne, Graduate School of Education, School of Positive Psychology, Victoria, Australia.
This dissertation provided a background and a context for understanding engagement at work, a meta-analysis examining 54 independent samples (N = 16,171) was conducted from the last 30 years of flow at work. Findings point to the centrality of contextual factors such as social support, skill development opportunities, job resources, and autonomy as being critical to flow among working adults. Moreover, the dissertation extends the concept of work-related flow to capture broader elements of engagement among school staff. Findings provide support for vital engagement as an emergent construct, with the latent model supported across multiple time points for school staff. Finally, the dissertation provides initial evidence for vital engagement was relatively stable over time. Finally, the dissertation considers implications for future research and application related to flow and engagement at work, with consideration of the conditions needed to facilitate vital engagement among school staff.
Despite the popularity of Mindfulness interventions among students and schools, the mechanisms and process that sustain engagement in these important practices are not well understood. The VIVA model and initial test provides one step towards understanding the processes involved in optimal engagement in optimal functioning within the workplace environment. We were able to provide support that vital engagement model represented the subjective element of a thriving working adult across their careers, which emerges from the combination of a subjective sense of vitality, virtue-based action, grounded in a sense of acceptance, and experienced through involvement in work. Our model contributed to the conceptualizing and operationalizing the process of involving individuals in a ‘good work life’ in a sustainable way, and the study provides initial albeit imperfect support for the VIVA model. These findings provided important intervention points to increase a type longer-term optimal work process – involving acceptance, involvement and mindfulness skills application - that results from a continuous inter-relationship between the best of the individual towards virtuous ends both at work and life in general.
Ignjatovic, C., Kern, M L., & G. Oades, L. (2022b). Values-Flow in Contextual Psychotherapy: The ‘What’, ‘Why’, and ‘How’ of Sustainable Values-Based Behaviour. Happiness - Biopsychosocial and Anthropological Perspectives. doi: 10.5772/intechopen.106594 (pdf)
In this invited book chapter, were able to provide further detail about the Values Flow process VIVA (Virtue, Involvement, Vitality, Acceptance) and ARIA (Attending, Reflecting, Informing, Acting) and how they may be relevant and enhances the practice Mindfulness and Acceptance skills (from psychotherapies such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or Dialectical Behaviour Therapy) in Adult populations. The chapter also introduces the Values-Flow monitoring tools which aim to build commitment and sustainable engagement in psychological skills use and values-based behaviour in working adults struggling with sub-optimal functioning.
Ignjatovic, C., Kern, M.L., & Oades, L.G. (2021). Flow Support at Work: Examining the Relationship Between Strengths Use and Flow at Work Among School Staff over a Three-Year Period. Journal of Happiness Studies, 23, 455 - 475. (pdf)
In this study we examined data collected from a panel of school staff (N = 253) across five measurement occasions over a three-year period. We investigated the extent to which flow at work and strength use were mutually supportive cross-sectionally and prospectively. Although flow and strengths were correlated within each time point, flow was not predictive of strength use nor was strength use predictive of flow at subsequent time points. Results point to the complexities of understanding dynamic psychological processes over time, which may differ from short-term relationships. Implications for measuring and supporting wellbeing at work, while taking into account its dynamic nature, are considered.
Ignjatovic, C. (2020). Investigating flow at work and vital engagement of working adults across 3 years. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The University of Melbourne, Graduate School of Education, School of Positive Psychology, Victoria, Australia.
This dissertation provided a background and a context for understanding engagement at work, a meta-analysis examining 54 independent samples (N = 16,171) was conducted from the last 30 years of flow at work. Findings point to the centrality of contextual factors such as social support, skill development opportunities, job resources, and autonomy as being critical to flow among working adults. Moreover, the dissertation extends the concept of work-related flow to capture broader elements of engagement among school staff. Findings provide support for vital engagement as an emergent construct, with the latent model supported across multiple time points for school staff. Finally, the dissertation provides initial evidence for vital engagement was relatively stable over time. Finally, the dissertation considers implications for future research and application related to flow and engagement at work, with consideration of the conditions needed to facilitate vital engagement among school staff.