The Flow Game

The Flow Game is a unique opportunity, the purpose of which is to give and receive wisdom on questions that are important to us in a safe and supportive environment. The game invites strength and flow to life-affirming leadership and actions. It’s aim is to strengthen, and bring focus into an important area or question in one’s life; a project, a future direction of work, relationships or your personal growth. It is a process, designed as a board game, that generates space for individual and collective consciousness to emerge through reflection, dialogue and interactive learning.

History of The Flow Game

The Flow Game was developed in the mid-nineties by eight friends and colleagues in Denmark, all of whom have contributed to the “birth” of the Flow Game. The process was started by this group in 1997-98 and began with the question, “What would a good process, for people who wish to develop both their personal and professional leadership and entrepreneurship, look like?

The group met for a period of several months discussing and dialoguing around this question. They were clear that the process sought would be different from the entrepreneurial training they had experienced so far – they knew that awakening the “inner entrepreneur” was as important as gaining the entrepreneurial skills. They discovered that this was not just a tool and a training, but a personal leadership process. They also discovered the Flow Game was both an individual as well as a group process fuelled by dialogue and reflection.

The prototype of the visualization in these discussions consisted of a game board and cards with questions, pictures, rivers, boats, and rules of how to move through the game. They were inspired by the American Indian Medicine Wheel which offered Flow to the emerging structure. They also realized that the game needed a Flow Host – a person to host and guide the players through the game.

The first Flow Game took place in San Francisco in the fall of 1999. Since then it has been played in many different contexts - in prisons, in retreat centres, in schools, in SMEI’s, in corporations, in churches, in community formed NGOs, in therapeutic centres; e.g., in one bank in Denmark, the Flow Game has been used with groups of employees to explore and support their “work-life balance.” Or another recent example - group of students used the game to explore ambitions for a better world as they prepare to leave college. During the past 10 years a growing number of people have been trained as Flow Hosts, gradually spreading the practice and use of the Flow Game around the world.

Quotes From Past Participants

“Simple and profound, the flow game allowed me to explore a deeply personal question in a supportive and reciprocal environment. I was impressed by the insight and wisdom of my peers and surprised at my own capacity to offer reflections and ideas. Overall, our afternoon was joyful, thoughtful, productive and illuminating.” (America)

'Life can default to routines and small talk, but the flow game created space for us to harvest our collective wisdom and I have been given riches! Jools has a wonderfully warm way of sharing sharp insights and calling forth what is good and needful for an enriching flow game experience.” (Australia)

"Jools is the perfect host for the flow game - we had so much fun and deep wisdom in the same time. Being in the flow the time flew by and we wanted it newer to stop" (Germany)

Photos