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.
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
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
p. 21Many firefighters talked about knowing from their gut, having a gut feeling.F7’s church fire size-up (p. 73-74)
High Reliability Organizations (HROs) are organizations that are able to perform at maximum capacity in situations and environments where there is extreme potential for error and disaster. Examples of HROs are the fire service, the police, the military, hospital emergency rooms, and air traffic control systems. Most business organizations, with a few exceptions, do not have the same level of potential for error and disaster. However, in recent years, we have witnessed negative corporate transformation at a magnitude that actually has resulted in disaster in the form of a tanked economy and a rapidly shrinking middle-class.There is hope, however. It comes in the form of a model extracted from existing HROs. This model is driven by setting expectations, communicating those expectations, setting up systems that support the work of contributing individuals, and fostering a culture of mindful decision making and critical thinking. Once again, technical communicators find themselves in a position to be change agents in our organizations. This presentation discusses the ways that technical communicators can contribute to positive organizational transformation through our core competencies in message development and information design and organization; our service-orientation; and our ability to attend to detail while retaining our 40,000 foot vision. What is a High Reliability OrganizationThere are five principles HROs adhere to. These are broken into two categories:Capacity to anticipate “unexpected” problemsCapacity to contain “unexpected” problems
Principles of AnticipationRefers to the ability to track the development of unexpected events.Principle 1: Preoccupation with failure There is an assumption that events will unfold gradually and will send out weak signals. A presumption of failure alerts mindful organizations so that they catch these signals early then the problems are easy to correct.Principle 2: Reluctance to simplify The ability to diagnose problems is diminished when details of the weak signals are categorized and generalizedPrinciple 3: Sensitivity to operations Plans are only as good as the context in which they are applied.Principles of anticipation focus on the prevention of disruptive unexpected events.
Principles of Containment Even with mindful attention to anticipation, events still develop. When this happens, the attention shifts to containment.Principle 4: Commitment to resilienceThe ability of a system to stretch and return to something resembling its former shapeResource slack is an asset rather than a liabilityPrinciple 5: Deference to expertiseExpert reacting occurs with authority and expertise are decoupledDecision making migrates to expertise rather than rankExpertise lies in relationships, as well as individuals
Change begins with individual choiceLeadership must serve as the modelIndividual mindfulness champions mindful behavior, setting the example for othersCulture is more than content: it is also knowing and sense-makingCulture change is often born out of tragedyStart with the organizational issue to be addressedBuild on existing cultural strengths rather than attempting to change those elements that may be weaknesses
Culture change is initiated through symbols and “artifacts”People act their way into new valuesContent is about the specifics that are loosely shared. These bind people together:Specific approachesPrioritiesAssumptionsExpectationsValuesPracticesRitual