https://www.mdu.se/

Detta kapitel behandlar hur social interaktion samverkar med och påverkas av organiserande strukturer – interaktion skapar strukturen relation samtidigt som denna relation påverkar interaktionen. Vi studerar inte interaktionen genom att beskriva enskilda samtal i detalj, utan genom att studera vilka mönster eller organiserande strukturer som växer fram i interaktioner. Det gäller både de temporära strukturer som organiserar interaktionen och arbetsorganisationens mer stabila strukturer, det vill säga sociala ordningsparametrar.

Radical change, or Kaikaku, is typically organized as a top-down change project based on a design process strategy. Creative processes are emergent and tend to refuse goal-steering. Still, group creativity and emergence could play an important part in Kaikaku projects. A vision formulated in a creative process, may be an order parameter in emergence and continuously direct, align and commit the actions of the people involved in the Kaikaku.

A new managerial task arises in today’s working life: to provide conditions for and influence interaction between actors and thus to enable the emergence of organizing structure in tune with a changing environment. We call this the enabling managerial task. The goal of this paper is to study whether training first line managers in the enabling managerial task could lead to changes in the work for the subordinates. This paper presents results from questionnaires answered by the subordinates of the managers before and after the training. The training was organized as a learning network and consisted of eight workshops carried out over a period of one year (September 2009 – June 2010), where the managers met with each other and the researchers once a month. Each workshop consisted of three parts, during three and a half hours. The first hour was devoted to joint reflection on a task that had been undertaken since the last workshop; some results were presented from the employee pre-assessments, followed by relevant theory and illuminating practices, finally the managers created new tasks for themselves to undertake during the following month. The subordinates’ answers show positive change in all of the seventeen scales used to assess it. The improvements are significant in scales measuring the relationship between the manager and the employees, as well as in those measuring interaction between employees. It is concluded that the result was a success for all managers that had the possibility of using the training in their management work.

Whether creativity is needed for the development of new products and services or for the creation of new jobs (Eliasson, 2006), it is stressed as a prerequisite for innovation and entrepreneurship (Johansson, 2010). Creativity is considered important for coping with the upcoming need to make full use of ecological and social resources. Taking Buber‘s view on creativity as a point of departure we propose that a post-industrial society should reconsider the view of creativity as something that is possessed by a person. With a Buberian understanding of creativity we aim to suggest in this chapter, a new agenda for research on creativity and for stimulating creativity in unexpected ways in industrial renewal processes.

The organization's culture is considered by several scholars to have significant importance for the organization's capacity for innovation. However, there is little known about the specific aspects of organizational culture that facilitates radical innovation. This research project investigates in what ways contemporary dancers creative processes may contribute to our understanding as well as to the development of radical innovation in business. By interviewing ten contemporary dancers and choreographers from different countries, we found in the analysis five elements that support their creative processes from idea to performance. These elements or categories are improvisation, reflection, personal commitment, divergence, emergent supportive structures. An interesting finding is the dancers approach to work, their mindset, which is characterized by improvisation and iteration, rather than pre-planned project goals. We argue that this approach imprint the working environment as the culture emerges through their way ofthinking, acting and relating. This study presents a systematic framework that will provide the basis for long-term strategic interventions between artists and businesses in order to enable cultural transformation towards radical innovation.

Organizational culture is considered by several scholars to have a significant impact on the organization's capacity for innovation. However, there is little known about the specific aspects of organizational culture that facilitates radical innovation. This article investigates in what ways contemporary dancers ́ creative practice may contribute to our understanding as well as to the development of radical innovation in business. By interviewing twenty contemporary dancers and choreographers from different countries, we found five key elements that support their creative processes from idea to performance. These elements or categories are improvisation, reflection, personal involvement, diversity, and emergent supportive structures.

An interesting finding is the dancers ́ approach to work and their mindset, characterized by iteration between improvisation and reflection, rather than working with pre-planned goals and structures. We argue that this approach imprints their working environment and the culture for radical innovation emerges through their way of thinking, acting and relating. This study presents a systematic framework that will provide the basis for long- term strategic artistic interventions in business in order to enable cultural transformation towards radical innovation. 

This paper aims to identify global digital trends across industries and to map emerging business areas by co-word analysis. As the industrial landscape has become complex and dynamic due to the rapid pace of technological changes and digital transformation, identifying industrial trends can be critical for strategic planning and investment policy at the ¯rm and regional level. For this purpose, the paper examines industry and technology pro¯les of top startups across four industries (i.e. education, ¯nance, healthcare, manufacturing) using CrunchBase metadata for the period 2016–2018 and studies in which subsector early-stage ¯rms bring digital technologies on a global level. In particular, we apply word co-occurrence analysis to reveal which subindustry and digital technology keywords/keyphrases appear together in startup company classification. We also use network analysis to visualize industry structure and to identify digitalization trends across sectors. The results obtained from the analysis show that gamification and personalization are emerging trends in the education sector. In the finance industry, digital technologies penetrate in a wide set of services such as financial transactions, payments, insurance, venture capital, stock exchange, asset and risk management. Moreover, the data analyses indicate that health diagnostics and elderly care areas are at the forefront of the healthcare industry digitalization. In the manufacturing sector, startup companies focus on automating industrial processes and creating smart interconnected manufacturing. Finally, we discuss the implications of the study for strategic planning and management.

Generating and developing ideas constitute centerpieces for innovations processes, idea creation methods and techniques most urgent in their initial phases processes, though the need is no less in subsequent phases. Those early phases, however, allow for more deviant ideas, characterized by more of ambiguity and uncertainty. This is an innovation process theme that is recognized as among those least understood.

Through comparative studies of seven groups from three different practices, their interactions in idea development and problem solving, a deeper understanding of descriptive languages and modus operandi has been acquired. The research was carried out in three settings: brainstorming in industrial design, musical improvisation and dialogue seminars with participants representing industrial design and music, respectively. The compilation of the three practices’ contributions results in a conceptual framework. It includes such concepts as, for example, ‘momentary formation’, ‘temporary epistemology’ and ‘the play with semantic key signature’. Those concepts give examples of the reconsidering of creative group processes, relative to previous frameworks, that is a result of these studies. From the perspective of group idea, individuals’ creative processes might be perceived as the searching for the different or the deviant while we suggest that group creativity is enhanced throughits members’ abilities to preserve their own perspectives and thought styles. Group creativity is based on a willingness to focus on the central group idea while simultaneously maintaining individual thought styles.

A creative group’s way of forming and mediating ideas, its modus operandi, is referred to as its description language. The importance of descriptive languages driving mechanism for creative group processes should be seen in the perspective of fundamental social cognition processes.

The problem area is mapped through the strategic use of different descriptive modus. Groups employ iteration as a strategy for stimulating collective reflection, that is, to think about the problem again but in other ways. We argue that critical thinking and the ability to make critical judgements is an important driving force in the creative groups’ iterative processes: criticism makes reconsideration meaningful. Different types of criticism are discussed, as is how they interact with groups’ idea development and creative processes.

This research project has resulted in a deeper understanding of the relay race of initiatives that characterizes the interactions in groups solving problems and developing ideas. The project has developed an awareness of which descriptions that stimulate group creativity.

This chapter is based on the author’s research on group creativity and educational initiatives in the private and public sectors as well as in higher education courses at an advanced level. The contribution is derived from both qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches to present in-depth knowledge of creative collaboration and competence as well as training of the necessary skills needed to activate both the prerequisites and predictors for creativity. Research shows correlations between experiences of flow in idea-generating group activities and group members’ integrative social behavior. In addition, it is shown that training for increased divergent thinking also develops broadened attention, openness, and flexibility for perspective shifts. A conceptual framework is presented to construct a model of research design on collaborative creativity with the purpose of enabling comparisons between study’s methodology and findings to continue developing this field of research with joint efforts. The chapter advances the view that the impact of activities training group-based creativity should be elevated in importance beyond individual brilliant ideas because creative collaboration develops abilities to take initiative, make decisions and interact constructively together

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of the relationships between personal characteristics, thinking preferences and learning activities on academic achievements in creativity studies for innovation management. Development of theory related reflexivity on creative experiences and competence as well as training of required skills in innovation processes needs to activate both the pre-requisites and predictors of creativity (OECD, 2019). Statistical analysis of quantitative data and qualitative data collected within the framework of a course aiming to develop competence and skills for creativity in innovation processes’ is presented. The results are related in the model for covarying creativity constructs based on the statistical correlation and regression analyzes. Based on this developed understanding consequences for developing creativity competences

The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the implementing an innovation work model in workplaces in regard to creativity. The main contribution is to discuss how creativity is understood in a commonplace innovation context today and to develop a deepened understanding of creativity and its constituents. In our case, it is the element of criticism that is underlined concerning the creative process. In order to enable sustainable and fruitful participatory innovation, in an everyday struggle for innovations, creativity needs to be practiced as the revitalizing potential and diversity-affirming force – sometimes not so pleasant – that is to be expected based on what definitions and descriptions suggests. With the support of examples from previous research and with reference to creative destruction that has been present in regard to change, in philosophy and national economics, since the nineteenth century, we argue that this rarely happens because of the way implementing participatory innovation processes is described, motivated and conducted. In short: In this presentation, we want to underline the importance of a critical element in creative processes aiming for innovations. We do this with support from voices withing contemporary projects and philosophy.

This paper deals with group creativity, i.e. production of originality through combination of differences, and suggests a model for assessment of innovation maturity, i.e. group maturity, in relation to work task characteristics vis-a-vi a shared content, i.e. group ideas. The process of generating original ideas and develop that kind of ideas in work group is defined as a complex activity, i.e. the co-operation of several mutually deviant factors such as combination of different knowledge areas, intensity of idea exchange and critical evaluation. This research is conducted from the perspective of a team paradigm which means that group creativity and group dynamics are studied in the team's day-to-day work setting in order to develop an understanding of the competence and abilities at group level in relation to the tasks characteristic. In line with that perspective we propose that the team’s innovation quality should be understood and described in relation to the shared content evolving from team member’s interaction, i.e. the group idea. Furthermore, by taking a complex systems perspective, the team can be understood as an entity that can develop certain traits as well as inter-subjective competences. Results from a questionnaire study, conducted in the framework of an ongoing evaluation and research project in the public sector in Sweden, with 80 respondents form the initial basis for the development and evaluation of a model for the assessment of maturity for team-based innovation. The analysis of questionnaire data confirms the positive relationship between group performance, i.e. the production and development of creative ideas on the one hand and the quest for originality combined with critical analysis and evaluation on the other hand. Analysis of data from two of the four working groups also show that encouraging climate and extrinsic motivation, often considered to have major importance for creative performance, do not necessarily have that effect on idea generation and idea development.

This report presents the evaluation of KINVO model itself and how efforts to implement the methods and procedures included in the model have been performed. This evaluation was conducted by Mälardalen University, MDH, in the context of follow-up research funded by Vinnova. The evaluation is based on the analysis of both qualitative data from observations of training and model practices, interviews with idécoacher and managers as well as the participants' personal reflections, and quantitative data from the two surveys. The analysis was made based on relevant theories of innovation and creativity, based on the research carried out at Mälardalen University.

This research study is trying to come to grips with creative activity in an intense group effort, such as when musicians improvise or when a group of industrial designers brainstorm to solve a client's problem. One might say that we are studying the handover of the creative spark from one person to the next, inspiration at best accelerating. This paper presents two observational studies of types of groups that are supposed to be creative on a collective level: brainstorming groups at two industrial design firms in Stockholm and two groups of temporarily assembled improvising professional musicians. In the theory of creativity the notion of variety is a fundamental one so that when people with different viewpoints interact, the outcome is potentially innovative. It is all about elaborating interactions where differences fertilize new ideas. But this creatively managed interaction could also lead to a stalemate and even to conflicts where differences and clashes of opinions become strengthened and ingrained. Each profession has developed its own specific language so that, for example, a designer has refined an ability to spontaneously make rough sketches and a musician uses her instruments to clarify a particular meaning or message. In this study the improvisational musicians had no sheet music, a condition that forced them to formulate their aesthetic intentions with sound, playing and singing. One aspect of verbal language limitations is articulated in the concept of “verbal overshadowing”. When subjects in a study were requested to describe a face, a smell or a taste, their words seemed to overshadow their experience. If words prevent thinking or recollection then we might have to be cautious with verbal descriptions. This also points to the importance of the choice of language for mediating ideas. This paper will be dealing with new approaches in the process of forming and mediating unfinished ideas.

This study brings up three different groups of students thinking on leadership as a phenomenon. By the use of concepts from other leadership studies in a questionnaire the study aims to verify or falsify our pre-conceived conceptions of leadership in three fields of work areas or practices. In the quantitative part of the questionnaire the three groups shows similar tendencies in their preferences and appraisals of leaders characteristics. In the qualitative part respondents’ describe what they see as admirable characteristics in role models as well as their own ideal leadership in action, all in their own words. The result is a more balanced and profound picture of similarities and differences between the three groups of respondents. Keywords: leadership, organizational behaviour, leadership research methodology.

Dagens arbetsliv beskrivs ofta i termer av haktiskt och anspant tempo. Varierat och fragmentariskt innehall. Reaktiva aktiviteter och informell planering. Ostrukturerad och politisk beslutsprocess. Verbal interaktion i motsats till skriven etc. (Barrett, 2000). Nar det som karaktariserar sadana miljoer kombineras med hoga krav pa effektivitet och produktion okar risken att misslyckas avsevart. Lagger man dartill den enskilde individens personliga engagemang och forvantningar okar insatsen ytterligare. En verksamhet som bedrivs under sadana omstandigheter kan beskrivas med begrepp som frustration, angest och kreativ depressivitet, (Koping, 2003). Exempel pa verksamheter som i nagon mening ringar in ovanstaende forhallanden kan vara en jazzensemble som under nagra intensiva repetitionspass ska forbereda och framfora en konsert infor betalande publik. Ett annat exempel kan vara en grupp designers som gemensamt arbetar fram ett varde. Forskningsprojektet inriktas pa att hitta, analysera och beskriva det specifika beskrivningssprak for avgorande processer i ovan beskrivna miljoer. Perspektivet kan sagas vara relationellt, socialkonstruktivistiskt. Den vetenskapsfilosofiska ansatsen bygger pa en pragmatisk uppfattning om kunskapens natur, (HammarEn, 1999 och Johannessen, 1997).

This review is based on 82 research studies that use physical activity intervention methodology, published between 2013-2023. In their critical analysis the authors found that few research studies (6%) address participants with exceptionality characteristics, which is interesting and in itself an argument for developing research methodology with a focus on this important and current topic.

The purpose of this study was to examine how perceptions of music and body movement respectively influence creative productivity, compared to a traditional learning situation. The main hypothesis was that there is a significant difference in creative output (ideational fluency) for people who listen to music or engage in physical body movement compared to passive listeners (traditional classroom or conference setting). The result gave no indication of any effect of music or physical movement on ideational fluency compared to the control group. In the aftermath, we realized that we used specialists as a control, which probably obscured the result.

The purpose of this study was to examine how shifting attention from the experience of music listening or body movement can work to overcome functional fixedness, i.e., to make people improve on ideational fluency - the ability to combine knowledge objects, or fragments of these, to form new concepts - compared to a traditional workplace meeting. The basic assumption was that music and body movement influence emotions to make people improve on ideational fluency compared to traditional meetings. The result, presented in this report, indicated that music listening suppressed functional fixedness to greater extent than a formal meeting, which in turn was a better choice compared to physical activity.

A basic condition for creative solutions and successful innovations is bringing together individuals that represent a diversity of experiences and notions regarding the particular problem situation. In the theory of creativity the notion of variety is a fundamental one so that when different viewpoints interact, the outcome has the potential of being innovative. In the initial phase in the processes of innovation there are various brainstorming techniques for collective creativity (Stein, 1974). One of the creative collective’s fundamental challenges is to maintain the vitality in cross-disciplinary meetings without getting caught up in endless negotiations never reaching any constructive solution or outcome. This paper points to the paradox between the aspects of ‘motley crew’ interaction and divergent thinking in the domain of creativity on the one hand and the striving for consensus in the process of decision-making on the other. The notion of consensus is often taken for granted, implying that collective activity must originate from mutual agreement. This paper presents two specific group activities that were supposed to be creative on a collective level: a brainstorming group at an industrial design firm in Stockholm and a group of temporarily assembled improvising professional musicians. A question that this report is dealing with is: How might we manage this motley crew of ‘creatives’ who represent variety in several dimensions, in order to make them interact constructively? Differences might often cause misunderstandings and a confusion of languages; the tension that is built-in in a diverse multitude might be both constructive and destructive. The tension in the intersection between different domains of knowledge might be managed constructively so as to eliciting energy, momentum and driving force in the mutual effort to reach productive and durable solutions. It is all about elaborating interactions where differences spur and fertilize new ideas. But this creatively managed interaction might also lead to a stalemate and even to conflicts where differences and clashes of opinions become reenforced and ingrained. Such a development is most likely destructive resulting in abrupt single-minded solutions. One possible key for facilitating and managing such a creative collective is the awareness and conscious utilization of the ambiguity of language. Tension or inertia might originate in the tendency of each member to take her or his own domain-specific concepts for granted. Such a naïve unproblematic view of language might constitute a trap but also provide an opportunity. Since our perception is a process of continuously interpreting and making sense hermeneutics maintain that we are intentional beings. Practising analogous thinking might provide a constructive way to the handling of variety and the productive maintenance of creative tension. Each profession has developed its own specific language so that, for example, a designer has refined an ability to spontaneously make rough sketches and a musician uses her instruments to clarify a particular meaning or message. In this study the improvisational musicians had no sheet music, a condition that forced them to formulate their aesthetic intentions with sound, playing and singing. One aspect of verbal language limitations is articulated in the concept of “verbal overshadowing” introduced by Schooler (1997). When subjects in a study were requested to describe a face, a smell or a taste, their words seemed to overshadow their experience. If words prevent thinking or recollection then we might have to be cautious with verbal descriptions. This also points to the importance of the choice of languages for mediating ideas. What kind of language, or depiction, facilitates constructive creative collectives?

Syftet med denna bilaga till lärarhandledningen ”Teknikcollege modell för innovation och entreprenörskap” är att presentera en process inklusive instruktioner för ledning och facilitering av fyra faser i gruppbaserad kreativ problemlösning och idéutveckling, dvs. att leda kreativa processer i grupp över tid. Teoribildningen som ligger till grund för denna metodik är baserad på forskning vid avdelningen för innovationsledning, Mälardalens högskola. Dessa instruktioner för pedagogiskt ledarskap av gruppers kreativa processer utgör även underlag, och legitimitet, för utveckling av en sammanhållen modell för innovationsarbete och entreprenörskap såsom det praktiseras i processer för Blixtlåset och UF-företagande. 

Kreativitet är mycket viktigt i alla typer av verksamheter inte minst inom utbildning eftersom den driver upptäckande därmed lärande generellt. Mer specifikt utvecklar idégenerering ett bredare tänkande vilket har visat sig bidra positivt till elevernas sociala interaktion och ökad förståelse för olikheter. Det innebär, förutom utveckling av affärsidéer och företagande att detta även är viktiga förmågor i elevernas övriga studier och skolgång. I ett större perspektiv är kreativitet och förmåga till kreativt samarbete viktigt för demokratisk samhällsutveckling och framtida möjligheter att klara globala utmaningar.För att fortsätta lyckas med att ta fram nya lösningar och tänka såväl självständigt som tillsammans behöver eleverna aktiviteter under sin skoldag som gör det möjligt för dem att minimera funktionell fixering (ex. hämmande vanor) och istället utveckla förhållningssätt som är öppet för olika typer av nya upplevelser och förändrande synsätt, vilket är centralt i kreativitet. Forskning visar samband mellan flödande idégenerering och integrativt socialt beteende, där träning i att tänka kreativt (divergent) även utvecklar breddad uppmärksamhet. Träning av kreativitet i grupper bör därför vara återkommande aktiviteter som del av övrig undervisning eftersom detta utvecklar elevernas förmågor att ta initiativ och fatta beslut såväl individuellt som tillsammans.

Creativity-stimulating leadership is necessary for successful innovation in groups and organizations. Such leadership requires deep and extensive knowledge and expertise in the field of creation, as well as general and specific leadership abilities and skills that promote creativity in a team. By applying the emergence perspective, social dynamics in leadership and in the creative team may be understood as the interplay between team members' interaction that organizes the work. This paper argues that the essential competencies for the team emerge in the interaction between all the members of the team, including the leader. Creative developmental phases demand other kinds of attitudes and qualities of interaction between group members than production on a daily basis. Team members need to develop creative thought styles and creative action patterns, combined with the ability to temporarily change those patterns.

It is a win-win situation when an organization is able to take advantages of employee´s creativity. We argue that creative developmental phases demands other kinds of patterns than production on daily basis, with maintained quality and efficiency. Thus collaborators need to develop creative thought styles and creative action patterns, combined with the ability to temporary change these patterns. For actualization of these new patterns we emphasize two essential supporting conditions: 1) the balance between autonomy and integration, 2) the capacity to deal with spontaneity. First, leaders has to assure that appropriate conditions for a balance between autonomy and integration in the group is established, so that each individuals' initiative relates appropriate to the mutuallly created group idea. The second essential condition for group creativity to be materialized is that collaborators' spontaneous responses has to be encouraged as well as their trust in the groups' capacity to deal with these responses constructively. In order to reach a comprehensive view on these complex phenomena we utilize an emergence based perspective in our research. This perspective focus on the interaction between two levels, i.e. the emerging higher level and the lower component level. Through the emergence perspective social dynamics in leadership and in the creative group may be understood as the interplay between group members interaction, i.e. low level, and emergent common patterns of ideas, actions and relationships, i.e. higher level, that organizes the work.

The topic of this paper is the use of sketching when exchanging shape visions. Attaining a shared understanding in a collaborative design project is examined. The interaction acts of an industrial design team at a renowned design firm in Stockholm are analyzed, as well as where the idea development session is situated. The interaction in itself could function as the prevalent means of describing and mediating creative idea development in groups. The basic intent of bringing together individuals who hold divergent notions is the creative tension this meeting may bring forth. There seems to be an inevitable gap between designers' ways of forming and expressing opinions concerning aesthetic ideas and their use of verbal language. The concepts 'verbal overshadowing' and 'figurative arguing' are considered, as well as 'the power of the board'. These phenomena influence the session's creative potential. The interpretation of the different types of sketches used by the team is focused on, as a means of understanding the significance of each type and the impact on idea development. Based on this study, several recommendations for establishing effective idea exchange and supporting evolving shared understanding (i.e., a group idea) are presented.

The topic of this paper is the use of sketching when exchanging shape visions. Attaining a shared understanding in a collaborative design project is examined. The interaction acts of an industrial design team at a renowned design firm in Stockholm are analyzed, as well as where the idea development session is situated. The interaction in itself could function as the prevalent means of describing and mediating creative idea development in groups. The basic intent of bringing together individuals who hold divergent notions is the creative tension this meeting may bring forth. There seems to be an inevitable gap between designers' ways of forming and expressing opinions concerning aesthetic ideas and their use of verbal language. The concepts 'verbal overshadowing' and ‘figurative arguing' are considered, as well as ‘the power of the board'. These phenomena influence the session's creative potential. The interpretation of the different types of sketches used by the team is focused on, as a means of understanding the significance of each type and the impact on idea development. Based on this study, several recommendations for establishing effective idea exchange and supporting evolving shared understanding (i.e., a group idea) are presented.

Research on group creativity needs to develop methods that capture data at a group level in different ways. This pilot study uses newly validated tools in an experimental design and primary statistical processing and analysis of data in order to investigate whether the design and the tools are appropriate for a full-scale experiment. The psychological experience called Flow is operationalized as an expression of creativity at the group level (Team flow) that may occur during the performance of challenging activities in which all participating team members are completely involved in their common activity, and are working together intuitively and synergistically towards the common purpose and enhance team’s effectiveness, productivity and performance. This paper focuses on team members’ motivation and learning, engagement, concentration, experience of synchronization and coordination during a group based problem solving task and also test how these dimensions of the group flow experiences relates to individual state flow experiences.

This paper explores collectively shared and sustained craftsmanship, worker agency instantiated by physical fixtures and collective creativity in work processes and contrasts this practice with a pilot test of extended digitisation of tools, i.e. the application of augmented reality. The ability of the collective to establish, maintain and recover meaningful activities, procedures and processes is important in most workplaces and in collaboration in social groups. Collective know-how, i.e. procedural memory. The unit of study is an industrial team creative practice developing fixtures to support the assembly procedures of lever tumbler locks. Collective practices establish the skills needed to carry out a particular set of procedures. In summary, craft skills exist relationally - in the relationships between materials, objects, technologies, memory, feeling, different human actors and the chains of associations between them.

Positive psychology aims to study positive subjective experiences and traits and institutes to support flourishing, but beyond individual research, more studies are needed at the interpersonal level also.

Optimal experience (flow) is a subjective experience; when the person is totally immersing in an activity, attention is absorbed in the challenges which are in balance with the person's skills. Although it is a subjective experience, social interactions can be its source.

Theories which may explain flow in social interactions – e.g. emotional contagion, crossover of states/experiences and social coordination – emphasise the automatic synchronisation of emotional, behavioural and psychophysiological patterns and the increased value of interpersonal experiences.

Coordination effect of interactional functioning was highlighted in the studies of group flow. Based on the descriptions of flow in social interactions, the partners' optimal experience may be synchronised with each other through a cooperative, challenging activity.

The experience of flow in a shared, cooperative activity can contribute to the fulfilment of the basic human needs, supporting the person to develop competences, to use social skills, to improve the quality of the relationships and well-being factors also, in both short and long terms, to promote the flourishing of individuals and social relationships. The chapter further elaborates on the association between state flow experience and flow synchronisation in relation to creativity and group performance.

The aim of this article is to discuss the potential of an educative research intervention to influence the quality of the learning outcome in theworkplace as interpreted from the perspectives of adult learning theory. The research project was designed as a quasi-experimental, mixed-methods study. In this article, quantitative survey data were taken as the point of departure, and qualitative data were used for the purpose of analyzing aspects of learning. An educative research intervention may support a transformative learning quality when the manager and employees have to deal with severe difficulties, and they succeed in doing so by sharing responsibilities and having the strength to engage in thedevelopment process in the workplace. It is possible to support transformative learning in the workplace through an educative research intervention that encourages managers to educate themselves and their employees to think and act in new ways, aiming at integrated autonomy, increased interaction, and learning.

Schools are institutions responsible for teaching children new skills and knowledge, the ability to think about future targets, and, when problems become complex, how to apply explorative thinking and inborn creativity to solve them. Even so, scholars point to the fact that school curriculums do not support ways to facilitate explorative learning or creativity for problem-solving. To successfully devise solutions never considered before, children need support with programs enabling them to facilitate openness for experience intellectually. This study suggests that dance activities should become regular in the curriculum as a strategy for maintaining schoolchildren’s cognitive flexibility.