Flow-Based Management:Facilitating Optimal Experience

Judith L. Glick-Smith, Ph.D.MentorFactor, Inc.

770-633-5582www.mentorfactorinc.comjudy@mentorfactorinc.com

© 2013

What is Flow?

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O Clear goals and feedbackO Opportunities for acting

decisivelyO Awareness and action mergeO Concentration on the task at

handO Confidence: The sense of

controlO Loss of self-consciousnessO Temporal distortionO Autotelic experience

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The Impact of Flow

Increased HappinessIncreased ProductivityBetter Decision Making

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Traditional vs. Recognition-Primed Decision Making

O Traditional DM modelO Boyd’s OODA LoopO “Thin-slicing” (Gladwell,

2005)O Depends on recognizing

familiar situations and patterns

O Action is based on experience and training

O Intuition grows out of experience

Observe

Orient

Decide

Act

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Flow-based Decision Making

O Importance of awarenessO Of selfO Of othersO Of the situation

O Importance of presenceO To be in the momentO To attend to goals

O Importance of confidence as facilitated by O TrainingO Experience

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Consider ThisWhat is your personal flow state?

What are your employees’ flow states?

What is your team’s flow state?

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Steps to Facilitate FlowO Take the time to

discover what your employees’ flow states are

O Pay attention to what constitutes team flow in your environment

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Facilitating Team FlowO When are your folks most

productive?O When do they make the best

decisions?O How can you replicate the

conditions when this happens?O How can you provide your

people with more experiences over time?

O What kind of training will hyper-jump them into a high-functioning team?

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ReferencesO Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Finding flow: The

psychology of engagement with everyday life. New York, NY: Basic Books.

O Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

O Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1988). Introduction. In M. Csikszentmihalyi, & I. S. Csikszentmihalyi (Eds.), Optimal experience: Psychological studies of flow in consciousness. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

O Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1993). The evolving self: A psychology for the third millennium. New York, NY: HarperPerennial.

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ReferencesO Gladwell, M. (2005). Blink: The power of thinking

without thinking. New York, NY: Back Bay Books.O Klein, G. (1999). Sources of power: How people

make decisions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.O Klein, G. (2009). Streetlights and shadows:

Searching for the keys to adaptive decision making. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

O Weick, K. E., & Sutcliffe, K. M. (2007). Managing the unexpected: Resilient performance in an age of uncertainty. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley.

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Questions?