Who has Influenced My Thinking on Flow

Who are your most influential people on a particular subject? I started thinking of this after interviewing Don Reinertsen Tuesday’s Podcast, on the subject of Flow.

In my mind, the founding father on this subject was Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (notice in the middle of his last name the word ZEN). I can remember first reading his book and later buying the tape series. I dangerously listened to it on a late night drive home. At one in the morning after driving 400 miles it was tough. That heavy Eastern European accent building a case for FLOW even though an eye opening subject it was not made to keep your eyes open. The secret of course was purchasing ice cream bars along the way!

This is not a resounding introduction to the video below but you may be quite surprised by the video it gives a good over view and if filled with background music from David Brubeck.

 

The subject of Flow is important to the marketing process. Understanding how your Customer flows through the decision making process in buying, becoming a loyal customer and recommending your product is essential. In fact, you lose the most customers when the flow stops or in between stages (Queue) of your marketing process. Understanding your Customer’s Flow should be at the root of all your marketing processes.

When I think of Flow, these our the people/books that have had the most influence on my thinking. Do you have any to add?

Amazon Links:

1. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
2. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
3. Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated
4. Managing the Design Factory
5. Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos
   
6. Value Stream Mapping for Lean Development: A How-To Guide for Streamlining Time to Market
7. The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development
8. Kanban
9. Personal Kanban(Release Date in November 2010).
   

Blog Posts:
Constant Feedback makes for Continuous Work Flow
Marketing Kanban Cadence
Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or is it just a Marketing Funnel?
Value Stream Mapping your Marketing
Flow