Studies have shown that people tend to be happier, more productive, and better decision makers when they maximize their flow experiences. How can you as a manager help facilitate your employees' ability to do their best work? In this progression examimes the concept of flow and provides background in flow research.

1. Flow-Based Management:
Facilitating Optimal Experience
Judith L. Glick-Smith, Ph.D.
MentorFactor, Inc.
770-633-5582
www.mentorfactorinc.com
judy@mentorfactorinc.com
© 2013

2. What is Flow?
2
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

3. The Impact of Flow
3
Increased Happiness
Increased Productivity
Better Decision Making

4. 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
4
Observe
Orient
Decide
Act

5. Flow-based Decision Making
5
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

6. Consider This
6
What is your personal flow state?
What are your employees’ flow states?
What is your team’s flow state?

7. Steps to Facilitate Flow
7
O Take the time to
discover what your
employees’ flow
states are
O Pay attention to
what constitutes
team flow in your
environment

8. Facilitating Team Flow
8
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?

9. References
9
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.

10. 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.
10

11. Questions?
11