This is a presentation for the Second Annual Conference of the Society for Consciousness Studies.

1. Consciousness in
Firefighting
Judith L. Glick-Smith, Ph.D.
770-633-5582
www.mentorfactorinc.com
judy@mentorfactorinc.com
Twitter: @jglicksmith
© 2015

2. Spirituality
2
“The sense of connectedness with
something that transcends the
individual self” ~Larry Dossey

3. How I Got Here
3

4. Flow
4
O Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
O Flow promotes
O Happiness
O Productivity
O Connectedness
O Well-being
O Love

5. Think of an Activity…
5
O Clear goals and feedback
O Opportunities for acting
decisively
O Awareness and action merge
O Concentration on the task at
hand
O Confidence: The sense of
control
O Loss of self-consciousness
O Temporal distortion
O Autotelic experience

6. Csikszentmihalyi’s
Transformation into Flow
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O Unselfconscious self-
assurance
O Focusing attention on the
world
O The discovery of new
solutions while focusing
attention on obstacles to
reaching goals

7. Traditional vs. Recognition-
Primed Decision Making
O Traditional DM model
O Boyd’s OODA Loop
O “Thin-slicing” (Gladwell, 2005)
O Depends on recognizing familiar
situations and patterns (Klein, 1999)
O Action is based on experience and
training
O Intuition grows out of experience
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Observe
Orient
Decide
Act

8. Flow-based Decision Making
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O Awareness
O Of self
O Of others
O Of the situation
O Presence
O Living in the moment
O Attending to goals
O Confidence as facilitated by
O Training
O Experience

9. Georgia Smoke Diver
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10. Flat Organizational Structure
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11. “Fractal” Construction of
Training
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12. Smoke Daddy Designation
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13. Continuous Transformation
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14. Ritual and Meaning-Making:
“What’s Your Number?”
14

15. Honoring Those Who Came
Before
15

16. Mission, Creed, and “Nuts and
Bolts”
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To prevent death and injury by training
firefighters to be adaptable and to
develop critical decision making skills in
high stress environments.

17. Nuts and Bolts: Smoke Diver
Core Values
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O Competence
O Honor
O Integrity
O Excellence
O Mental Toughness
O Passion
O Commitment

18. The Mo Squad
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19. Building Cathedrals
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20. Commitment to Infrastructure
20

21. Servant Leader Orientation
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22. Outward Focus
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23. These are happy
people
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24. They work
hard and
have fun 24

25. They are prepared.
They practice their
craft. They take care of
themselves, so they
can take care of you.
25

26. They rest when they get tired
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27. They take time to meditate
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28. They teach and mentor others
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29. They foster community and
connectedness
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30. They celebrate
success!
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31. They love one another and the
work they do
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32. Georgia Smoke Divers
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O Conscious leadership
by example
O Mindful management
O Using history and ritual
to bind the group
O Facilitating individual
and team success

33. References
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O Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2003). Good business: Leadership, flow,
and the making of meaning. New York, NY: Penguin Group.
O 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: Harper Perennial.

34. References
O 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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35. 35
Questions?