Not all emergency calls trigger flow states. Paige Colwell said she had considered why this is and “would love to know how to be able to reproduce them.” She didn’t believe it was the adrenaline rush. She has run many calls over the years; most are routine.
Critical events in the fire service are emergent in nature. That means that decisions need to be made concurrently, rather than sequentially. In the following story, Fire Chief Richard Kline didn’t feel “on,” either physically or psychologically. While he expressed some of the elements of flow, such as “I felt like I was in a slow-motion movie,” he didn’t feel that he was tuned in. He did a size-up, but it took him a while to recognize what was on fire. His instructions to the first trucks were not clear. He told them, “I want you to establish a water supply,” rather than, “Here’s your hydrant; I want you...