Until recently, insufficient attention has been paid to the many ways in which Flow Theory ideas can be used and leveraged by managers and leaders to enhance successful practice. Filling this gap, a panel of CEU Business School professors and invited experts in the field discussed how the Theory of Flow can be innovatively mastered by leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, students, and just about anyone, as a way of simultaneously improving individual satisfaction, organizational effectiveness and societal well-being. The Forum introduced a just-published book on this topic.

1. 1 | P a g e
This is an edited transcript of the Forum held by CEU Business School.
MISSING LINK DISCOVERED:
Planting Csíkszentmihályi’s Flow Theory
into
Management and Leadership Practice
held on Monday, November 9, 2015
CEU AUDITORIUM, Budapest V, Nádor u. 9
Welcome remarks by Mel Horwitch, Dean, CEU Business School
Paul Marer Prof. of Business, CEU Business School, co-author
Zoltan Buzády Prof. of Management, CEU Business School, co-author
Zad Vecsey CEO of ALEAS Simulations, Budapest and Los Angeles., co-author
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi Distinguished Prof. of Psychology & Management,
Claremont Graduate University, California, contributor
One of world’s most distinguished social science scholars is Mihály Csíkszentmihályi,
whose renown rests especially on his Theory of Flow:
“A mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of
energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment”.
Until recently, insufficient attention has been paid to the many ways in which Flow Theory
ideas can be used and leveraged by managers and leaders to enhance successful practice.
Filling this gap, a panel of CEU Business School professors and invited experts in the field
discussed how the Theory of Flow can be innovatively mastered by leaders, managers,
entrepreneurs, students, and just about anyone, as a way of simultaneously improving
individual satisfaction, organizational effectiveness and societal well-being.
The Forum introduced a just-published book on this topic.

2. 2 | P a g e
Prof. Paul Marer (see bio at end):
This event is labeled not as a series of lectures, not as a conference, not as a workshop, but as
a forum. A forum means, first, that each of the four panelists will offer ideas and personal
stories – not lectures – that we hope you will find interesting and perhaps useful in some
ways. The stories will focus on the following topics:
Slide:
 The concept and application of Flow
 Leadership and Flow
 Teaching innovations related to Leadership and Flow
 New research vistas and plans on Leadership and Flow
I’ll introduce these topics briefly; my colleagues will elaborate them.
The second reason this is a forum is that about 1/3rd
of the two-hour program is reserved for
your participation: comments, suggestions, questions.
I must start with an apology: The organizers received written requests for participation from
more than twice as many persons as expected. Even this Auditorium – the largest space at
CEU – cannot accommodate everyone. Therefore, we are streaming the proceedings into two
large rooms upstairs as well as to outside the Auditorium. We welcome the other half of the
audience upstairs and outside. You can hear us and see us but will not be able to ask Qs or
make comments, live. We apologize to you for the unavoidable “discrimination”. Thank you
for understanding.
To alleviate the problem that some in the audience will not be able to contribute live, we
opened a messaging wall on the Facebook event page of this Forum. You’ll find the
hyperlink to the messaging wall. https://goo.gl/PJy1DW
We also welcome persons around the world who are viewing us live, via ustream broadcast.
THE CONCEPT AND APPLICATIONS OF “FLOW”
The three of us on the podium are most pleased to be on the same panel with one of world’s
leading social scientists of Hungarian origin: Prof. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It is difficult for
non-Hungarians to pronounce his name, so his colleagues and students call him Prof. Cheek;
his friends address him by his first name, Mihaly.
Prof. Cheek is one of the founding fathers of positive psychology: that branch of the
discipline that focuses not on treating mental illness but on a scientific understanding of what
it means, and how to achieve, a good and happy life that is also socially productive.
Prof. Cheek has done decades of path-breaking research to understand the thinking, the
feeling, and the motivations of ordinary people, like you and I. An example of his pioneering
research decades ago: his team gave beepers to well over 100 high-school students in

3. Chica
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ich a person
vement, and
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mood state.
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4. 4 | P a g e
FLOW AND MANAGEMENT/LEADERSHIP PRACTICES
The concept of Flow has found research and practical applications in many fields, including:
Slide:
 Psychology
 Self-improvement
 Religion
 Sports
 Music
 Education
 Architecture
 Leadership/Management
At CEU Bus School, our focus of course has been on the implications of Flow for
management and leadership.
* * *
There is a raging debate in the literature on whether managers and leaders are the same or
different species. Many experts say that they are different. Their frequently cited mantra is
that “managers do things right; leaders do the right things.”
Slide: the above quote
The three authors on the panel agree with one of the best known professors of management
who says that the distinction between leaders and managers is artificial and unnecessary:
Slide: “Leadership involves plumbing as well as poetry. Instead of distinguishing leaders
from managers, we should encourage all managers to be leaders. And we should define
leadership as management practiced well.”
Thus, to us, management and leadership are interchangeable terms.
* * *
How Flow and leadership got linked is an interesting story. In the 1990s, Prof. Cheek was chair
of the Psychology Dept of the U of Chicago. Prof. Peter Drucker, arguably the most influential
management guru of the 20th
century and a prof at Claremont Grad U in California at the time,
was able to convince Prof. Cheek and his wife, Isabella to exchange cold and windy Chicago for
the blue skies and sunshine of California. In2000 the Csikszentmihalyis moved to Claremont.
Mihaly became Chair Prof of Psychology & Management (a chair he occupies still). Befitting a
prof also of management, in 2003 Prof. Cheek published:
Slide: book title and publisher

5. The b
why
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w.
f the book:
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ness, a unive
at work – w
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5 | P
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6. Slide: Flo
Csiks
exper
us --
FLOW
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story
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NNOVATIO
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amework for
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ago. He gra
simulation
reating innov
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r Individuals
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n the podium
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vative manag
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s & Leaders
selfish reas
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London Busi
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nged the fir
ver the yea
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nce, in 2012
was preparin
6 | P
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sey, and we
iness School
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7. Zad c
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se you may.
plete, it has
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CEU Bus Sc
lation games
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ut myself sh
ents I see in t
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ed the game
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ast few years
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erestingly, w
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nced, I hope
e in 2012, w
echnical asp
ich integrate
7 | P
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8. 8 | P a g e
Oh yes, the fourth theme of this Forum is our ambitious plan to build, together with Prof.
Cheek’s Quality of Life Research Center at Claremont, and others, a global Leadership and
Flow research program and network that is also being launched today.
It is my pleasure to turn over the microphone to my colleague, Zoltan Buzady, whose
presentation will elaborate on the themes I introduced.

9. 9 | P a g e
Prof. Zoltan Buzady (see bio at the end).
I will make a few remarks on four of the topics. Specifically:
Slide:
 Leadership & leadership skills
 Flow-based leadership skills
 Teaching leadership
 The “Leadership & Flow” Research Program
So what is leadership? - I quote from Mihaly’s essay in our new book.
Slide
“Good management is not perfectly definable and not precisely measurable.”
Indeed so. Yet, effective managers are supposed to possess a pretty well-defined set of skills –
a set, on which there is by and large a consensus among academics as well as practitioners.
Here is an example of a standard set of leadership skills:
Slide: A typical set of management/leadership skills

10. This part
identified
the leade
By the w
leadershi
Most of
abilities
And ther
educated
practices
by some
they them
hindering
Slide:
It is also
importan
ticular one
d, based on M
ership simula
way, these sk
ip-skills clas
those skills
make it easy
re are some
d, but are so
validated b
emotional n
mselves may
g their collea
o a fact of li
nt implication
has 29 item
Mihaly’s Go
ation game I
kills here are
ssification sy
s can be lea
y for some
- or maybe
o full of the
y academic
need to sati
y not be ful
agues and su
ife that the w
ns for manag
ms. It happen
ood Business
’ll come to i
e much the s
ystems.
arned. Of co
to learn and
e many?- in
emselves tha
research as
sfy some “p
lly aware of
ubordinates t
world aroun
gement/lead
ns to be the
s book. The
in a moment
same as thos
ourse, differ
d to apply th
leadership p
at their way
well as by p
particular” p
f. Such boss
to experience
nd us has ch
ership.
e one that M
y are also th
t.
se one would
rences amon
hose skills a
positions wh
y of managi
practitioners
personal amb
es can block
e “Flow” on
hanged, and
Mihaly and
he skills that
d find in mo
ng people in
and more dif
ho are highl
ing is not g
s. Such bosse
bition or to
k initiatives
n the job.
will continu
10 | P
Zad jointly
t are identifi
ost other stan
n their born
fficult for ot
ly intelligen
grounded in
es may be d
hide a weak
by others,
ue to do so,
a g e
have
ied in
ndard
n-with
thers.
nt and
best-
driven
kness
often
with

11. One of th
knowledg
(importan
For the a
importan
of Mihaly
Slide: 4 F
Among t
Flow:
1) Strateg
2) Realiz
3) Balan
should to
4) Giving
he most imp
ge workers,
ntly, among
above and fo
nt -- today an
y’s contribut
Flow-based
the 29 mana
gic thinking
zing and en
cing, dynam
o do the sam
g frequent an
portant trend
not physica
g other thing
or many othe
nd tomorrow
tion in his G
skills
gement skill
-- that is, se
ngaging for
mically, the s
e for their su
nd actionabl
ds in recent
al workers!
gs) a work e
er reasons, a
w -- for mana
Good Busines
ls, four are e
etting clear g
a common
skill and cha
ubordinates.
e Feedback.
decades is t
Knowledge
environment
a certain sub
agement to b
ss book that
especially im
goals and pri
purpose the
allenge leve
# 4
# 27
that leaders
workers w
t that enable
bset of leader
be effective.
Paul mentio
mportant for
orities. # 27
e personal s
els of key em
increasingly
ant not just
es them to e
rship skills i
This, in a w
oned:
helping oth
7
strengths of
mployees - a
11 | P
y have to ma
a paycheck
experience F
s becoming
ay, is the ess
hers to exper
f employees.
and they, in
a g e
anage
k, but
Flow.
more
sence
rience
. #24
turn,

12. 12 | P a g e
TEACHING LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Let me now turn to teaching leadership skills.
I used to teach it in what might be called the conventional way: assigning readings and case
studies, several of which I wrote myself, then discussing them in the classroom. The approach
was OK. But something was not fully satisfactory, something was missing.
For example, academic writings on the topic are too scholarly, too abstract, focusing only or
general principles, with applicable illustrations that were often hard to implement in other
situations that are not really identical to the textbook illustrations.
Many case studies, while helpful, tend to mirror insufficiently the real dilemmas leader routinely
face. In real life they have to make choices almost continuously, not just one big strategy
decision, like “yes or no”, or choose between the few simplified options that so many cases
studies offer.
For these reasons, years ago already I was drawn to leadership-content simulations games, such
as those developed by this Gentleman on the podium (-> Zad). I found them to be more realistic
ways to teach students what it is like to be a manager then either textbooks or case studies. A
good leadership simulation teaches that a leader has to be guided by key objectives as well as by
certain basic principles. Even after strategic directions have been agreed upon, there is no easy
formula on how to apply them in practice, day-to-day, on the many decisions a manager has to
make continuously on team and organization issues.
Therefore, instead of some magic formula, the workable approach is to be guided by the agreed
upon key objectives and to act according to basic principles of FLOW.
This brings me to the award-winning game produced by Zad and his team, about which our book
is partly about. The story, in a nutshell:
You, the individual player, have just become the new GM of a mid-size winery in California.
Your predecessor was one of those bosses who excelled in dividing his team, pitting one against
the other, thus doing a good job in destroying the morale. This has started to adversely impact
profitability, too.
To make a long story short: you, the new GM, have to make about 150 decisions during the
virtual span of 6 months. The game takes you 6 to 10 hours to complete; you can stop and start
any time. All your decisions are “saved” in the cloud, on the basis of which the player’s
leadership skills -- not only the 4 mentioned - but also each of the other 25 in the skillset -- are
measured and appropriately benchmarked.
You in the audience (and the reader) might wonder how can one use in a course a game that
takes 10 hours to complete. The answer is a recent teaching innovation, called the flipped
classroom!

13. Slide: Fli
After a re
all the te
their priv
write blo
questions
importan
skills pro
own busi
Zad’s ga
There ar
instantan
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There are
that I hav
ipped classr
elatively det
echnical stuf
vate time. T
ogs. During
s and topic
nt! Then the
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iness context
ame has man
re 19 diffe
neous, drive
ber - getting
e so many di
ve labeled it:
room
tailed introdu
ff related to
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s. The debr
e players rec
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t, with a focu
ny innovativ
erent types
en by the
immediate &
ifferent mod
: the ‘Galaxy
uctory sessio
the simulat
line reading
een sessions
riefing sessi
ceive the ind
discuss their
us on applyi
ve features. L
of feedbac
150 mana
& actionable
des and timin
y of feedbac
on, during w
tion game, s
gs, and prep
s we devote
ion at the c
dividual gam
learning mo
ing Flow-bas
Let me emp
ck in this
gement dec
e feedback is
ng on how th
k”.
which we dis
students pla
are individu
some time
conclusion
me scores a
ments and fu
sed leadersh
phasize just
simulation.
cisions take
s a key preco
hose playing
scuss Flow-th
ay the game
ual or group
to discuss s
of the gam
and their per
future plans a
hip concepts
one: its syst
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en during
ondition of g
g the game, r
13 | P
heory basics
at home, d
p assignment
imulation-re
me is particu
rsonal leade
as leaders in
and tools.
tem of feedb
personalized
the game
getting into F
receive feedb
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s, and
during
ts, or
elated
ularly
ership
n their
back.
and
play.
Flow.
back,

14. Slide: Ga
This illus
image of
and durin
alaxy of feed
stration is to
f how many d
ng the final d
dback slide
oo detailed to
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o be explaine
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ack there are
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e during the g
n read more a
t wanted to
game, when
about it our b
14 | P
give you a v
n the game is
book.
a g e
visual
s over

15. NEW VI
So far n
Since eac
leadershi
Slide: Ne
 O
 Q
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The signi
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much tho
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Slide: Fl
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rather va
ISTAS FOR
nearly 10,00
ch player ha
ip skills.
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ocus: Best m
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we did not co
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f skills and c
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mply explore
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LOW RESE
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he observatio
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15 | P
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16 | P
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17 | P
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ze for
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18. 18 | P a g e
When I heard about Flow and read Prof Csikszentmihalyi’s book, Good Business: Leadership,
Flow, and the Making of Meaning, I said, Flow is a great topic for my next serious simulation
videogame. I did not know Prof Cs, but I contacted and visited him in California - to try to
persuade him to cooperate with me/us in designing an interactive videogame simulation to help
popularize and teach the relevance of his Flow theory for management/leadership.
I realized that both of us had a big challenge: my was to convince a traditional professor who
wrote academic bestsellers to agree to work with me to find a new way to deliver and implant his
obviously insightful advice to managers and leaders to help them to create for their co-workers a
Flow-supporting work environment.
Frankly, initially, Prof. Cs. was not too motivated to help. In 2007 serious gaming business (and
the gamification trend) had just started, and the first results did not seem too relevant for science.
So first Prof. CS. was rather skeptical, but things turned for the better. At our initial meeting I
showed him one of our earlier products (actually a project management simulation of a Himalaya
expedition, and it turned out, that Prof. Cs. was a serious young mountaineer.
Slide: Prof. Csikszentmihalyi as a mountaineer (shown)
I think that, fortuitously, it helped to make him more cooperative, so our deal for Flow was
finally done. Gradually he became an ever more supportive and involved partner, as he himself
states in his contribution to our book being published today.
FLIGBY was the most challenging projects in my life. Not only from a technical point of view,
but also developing the content required innovative approaches. A new way was needed because
even though Csikszentmihalyi’s Good Business, published a dozen years ago, had persuasive
reasoning and many good suggestions, a gap remained on how to transplant, effectively, his
ideas into the minds of current and future managers/leaders. The tool for this, I thought, was
through serious gaming, hence FLIGBY.
Why CEU Business School? Personal contacts with local professors (to whom we have made our
products free for a decade, including FLIGBY, gratis) helped us in several ways:
Their classroom experiences and intellects helped lift the Game to a higher level;
FLIGBY has been played by close to 10,000 players, yielding millions of skill-linked
observations. This growing data bank is able -- and we are willing to support -- excellent
opportunities to better understand managers/leaders’ behaviors and the kinds of skills they need
to be effective managers/leaders by following practices that are in accordance with the principles
and values of Flow.
We have a symbiotic relationship, as increasingly found in the real world: academia (MCs –
corporation (ALEAS) – academia (CEU).
The most recent product of this symbiotic relationship is the book being published today.
* * *

19. 19 | P a g e
Summarizing the experiences I learned through this project: three major lessons:
Lesson 1: Working with scientists is a real challenge but it also offers a magic source for
inspiration and learning. Entrepreneurs are suspect to scientists and academics, but they should
not be; if the cooperation is good, it can be a win-win situation.
Lesson 2: Flow is a complex thing. Flow seems to be an easy theory and not too difficult to
practice, but in reality, it is far more complex than anything in the world of “5 minutes
management” -- books and advice -- that proliferate to entice gullible managers.
Lesson 3: Pioneering innovations happen in teams. The FLIGBY ecosystem is a complex
network of teams (Support providers, Researchers, Clients, Players) and Interesting characters
(MCS, Paul, Zoli, MC).
END.
The Authors: Zad Vecsey, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Paul Marer, Zoltan Buzady

20. 20 | P a g e
Brief bios of the main panelists, Nov 9, 2015 Forum on Missing Link Discovered
Paul Marer, Ph.D. (marerp@business.ceu.edu)
Professor of International Business, Economics, Finance, and Management
CEU Business School, Budapest
Member, Board of Directors, “Leadership & Flow” Global Research Program
Born in Hungary; emigrated to the USA in 1956; a US citizen since 1961; and a dual US/Hungarian citizen since
2000. His M.A. and Ph.D. degrees are from University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School), concentrating on
economics and business. Paul had a 25‐year career as professor of business at the Kelley School of Business,
Indiana University, Bloomimgton.
During 1987‐89, at George Soros’ request, he was involved in establishing the first business school in Central
and Eastern Europe, the International Management Center (IMC), that later became CEU Business School. Paul
moved to Hungary in 2000 to teach at CEU Business School, where he is full time faculty member, having
served three terms as Academic Dean. Paul is the author or editor of 24 books and 150 articles and chapters,
mainly on the changing economic and business situation in Hungary and in the other countries of CEE. He has
an honorary doctorate from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences (1999).
Zoltan Buzady, Ph.D. (buzadyz@business.ceu.edu)
Associate Professor of Management and Organizations, CEU Business School
Director, “Leadership & Flow” Global Research Program
Guided by the motto of "Learning, Leading, Leapfrogging", Zoltan has 25 years of experience with innovation
at the interface of Self‐development, Leadership, Cross‐cultural Management and Strategy. He holds a Ph.D. in
Strategic Management, an MBA from CASS Business School (UK), and a Law degree from the London School of
Economics. The author of several global award‐winning teaching case studies, Zoltan has extensive practical
experience as a team and executive coach. His research and teaching specialties include: Leadership and Flow,
Self‐development and Change, Design Thinking and Organizational Development, Transactional Analysis
Coaching, and World Class Leadership Development.
Zad Vecsey, MBA (zad@aleasgroup.com)
Co‐founder and CEO
ALEAS Simulations, Inc.
Zad received a master degree in organizational sociology from Corvinus University and an MBA from the
London Business School. He began his career in the legal and consulting unit of Coopers & Lybrand. Then he
became managing director of IQ Consulting, Ltd, introducing and representing in Hungary such international
brands as LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY as well as the CDP on‐line survey of European competitiveness]
Zad’s enthusiastic mission as founder and CEO of ALEAS Simulations is to find innovative ways to teach
leadership development via creative, “blended learning” video games. In this field he had earned the top prize
in Hungary and later, in the EU, even before he embarked on creating FLIGBY, which had garnered the globe’s
top award in its category. Zad is the author of On the Brink of Chaos.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Distinguished Prof of Psychology and Management
Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California
Chairman, Board of Directors, “Leadership and Flow Global Research Program”
Born in Fiume, Italy (now Rijeka, Croatia) before World War II, to a Hungarian family. His Father was a
Hungarian diplomat in Italy before, during, and after the War. His Dad first ran into serious trouble during the
War, when Hungary became fascist, because as consul, he issued false passports (or visas) to Jews to make it
possible for them to escape Nazi persecution. After the War he was named Hungary’s ambassador to Italy. But
when in 1948 the Communists, backed by the Red Army, took control of the country, the elder
Csikszentmihalyi and his family remained in Italy as refugees. This is how Mihaly grew up in Fiume, Florence,
and Rome, fluent in Hungarian, Italian, and German.

21. 21 | P a g e
Wanting to study psychology at the university level ‐‐ a field that in Europe was taught only in medical
schools ‐‐ he immigrated to the US at age 22. He was accepted by the prestigious University of Chicago, where
he earned his BA in 1959, married writer Isabella Selaga in 1960, and was awarded a Ph.D. in psychology in
1965.
After a brief climb of the academic ladder at Lake Forest College at the outskirts of Chicago, he joined the
psychology faculty of his alma mater, eventually becoming department head. At Chicago he had a chance to
pursue the kinds of large‐scale, survey‐based, multi‐year projects needed (the “Experience Sampling
Method”) to test his path‐breaking research hypotheses.
Best‐known for his theory of Flow, described in his seminal 1990 book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal
Experience. Quoting from it:
People are happy when they are in a state of Flow, a type of intrinsic motivation that involves being fully
focused and being ‘fully present’ in a situation or task. Flow is being completely involved in an activity for
its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from
the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost.
Csikszentmihalyi’s two dozen books and well over 100 articles have explored interconnections between
(among others) Flow, creativity, the meaning of life, individual happiness, societal well‐being, leadership and
social responsibility, peak performance in sports, organizational efficiency, early childhood education, and
how to maintain or regain Flow in old age.

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