Through research-based concepts explore how managers can facilitate environments where employees do their best work. Managers who take a service-oriented approach to leadership proactively coach, encourage, and create targeted opportunities for employees.When people are able to work in a flow state environment, they are happier, more productive, and make better decisions.

1. Service-Oriented Management:
Facilitating a Flow-based Work
Environment
Judith L. Glick-Smith, Ph.D.
MentorFactor, Inc.
770-633-5582
www.mentorfactorinc.com
judy@mentorfactorinc.com
© 2013

2. Introduction
2
O Background
O Definitions
O Facilitating a flow-
based work
environment
O Connecting the dots

3. Georgia Smoke Divers
3

4. Management vs. Leadership
4

5. Traditional Definitions
5
Management: The process of dealing
with, directing, and/or controlling things
or people.
Leadership: The act of establishing
direction and influencing others to follow
that direction.

6. Servant Leadership
6
“A philosophy and set of practices that
enrich organizations and ultimately
creates a more just and caring world”
Robert Greenleaf

7. Characteristics of a Servant
Leader
7
O Conscious choice to
serve first
O Low need for power
O Low need for ownership
O Driven by the need to
ensure that others’
highest priority needs
are being met

8. Service-Oriented Management
8
O Combination of
leadership and
management
O A conscious, mindful way
of facilitating and
empowering others to
achieve a collective
vision, maximizing team
flow
O Enabling others to
achieve their own
personal visions,
maximizing personal flow

9. What is Flow?
9
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

10. Flow-based Decision Making
10
O Importance of awareness
O Of self
O Of others
O Of the situation
O Importance of presence
O To be in the moment
O To attend to goals
O Importance of confidence as
facilitated by
O Training
O Experience

11. 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
O Action is based on
experience and training
O Intuition grows out of
experience
11
Observe
Orient
Decide
Act

12. Moving toward a High
Reliability Organization
12
O Capacity to anticipate
“unexpected” problems
O Capacity to contain
“unexpected” problems
O Uses a mindful
approach to responding
to events

13. Principles of Anticipation
13
O Principle 1:
Preoccupation with
failure
O Principle 2:
Reluctance to
simplify
O Principle 3:
Sensitivity to
operations

14. Principles of Containment
14
O Principle 4:
Commitment to
resilience
O Principle 5:
Deference to
expertise

15. Operationalizing an HRO
Culture
15
O Individual choice
begins with
leadership
O Individual
mindfulness
champions mindful
behavior

16. Steps to Facilitate Flow
16
O Take the time to
discover what your
employees’ flow
states are
O Pay attention to
what constitutes
team flow in your
environment

17. Facilitating Team Flow
17
O 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?

18. Example: Georgia Smoke
Divers
18
O Conscious leadership
by example
O Mindful management
O Using history and
ritual to bind the group
O Facilitating individual
and team success

19. Connecting the Dots
19
O Choose to serve vs.
“control and direct”
O Mindfully attend to
the needs of the
team
O Create an
environment that
fosters optimal
experience

20. References
20
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:
HarperPerennial.

21. 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.
21

22. 22
Questions?