Flow
Personal flow, information flow, delivery flow.
Design work so people can finish it. Design information so it reaches the right level. Design decisions so they do not block delivery.
Inside the letter F
Flow inside FLAIMS is not one thing. It works on three layers at once. Personal flow is the cognitive state where a skilled person loses themselves in a hard task. Information and communication flow is the way knowledge actually moves through the company, modelled on Conway's Law: the org chart you draw shapes the systems you ship. Delivery flow is the throughput of finished work in small Flow Crews. Above them sit time-boxed decision rooms that open when a question gets stuck, escalate to the level that can decide, then dissolve again so the crews can deliver.
The trap
Most companies are optimised for being busy, not for getting things done. Knowledge ends up trapped in private channels, decisions stall in unclear forums, and Flow Crews drown in side-quests.
Mechanics
- 01Three layers of flow: personal cognitive flow, information flow across the organisation, and delivery flow inside Flow Crews.
- 02Fractal organisation: the same flow logic at individual, crew, tribe and company level — sized along Dunbar's numbers (≈5, 15, 50, 150).
- 03Time-boxed decision rooms: when a question blocks delivery, it escalates to the level that can decide, gets answered, then the room dissolves.
- 04WIP-limits and CoreJobs / Joblets give every Flow Crew a clear definition of done.
Rooted in research
Each source with a short, plain-language summary of what their work actually says.
- Csikszentmihalyi (1990) — Flow
Mapped the psychological state in which attention, skill and challenge align. People work at the edge of their ability and lose track of time. Productivity and wellbeing rise together.
- Conway (1968) — Conway's Law
Systems that an organisation builds mirror its communication structure. If you want a clean product, you need clean information flow between teams.
- Dunbar (1992) — Dunbar's Number
Human groups have natural size thresholds (around 5, 15, 50, 150) at which trust and coordination break down. FLAIMS uses these as the sizes for crews, tribes and units.
- Goldratt — Theory of Constraints
Throughput of any system is set by its slowest step. Optimising anywhere else is busywork. FLAIMS makes the constraint visible before it explodes.
- DeMarco — Slack
100% utilisation kills throughput. A system without slack cannot absorb change, learn or improve. WIP-limits protect that slack on purpose.
In practice
Meetings end with a name, a result and a date. WIP is visible. Information has a route, decisions have a room, and crews can stay in delivery.
Ready to ignite your organization?
Book a free 30-minute structural audit. We will tell you, straight, whether FLAIMS is a fit before you invest a single hour.