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System Transformation, Workshops

A workshop on cybersecurity and the usefulness of ACT

April 29, 2018
-
Posted by Mark

Back in the fall of last year I was facilitating a workshop with Syntegrity Group and IEEE that brought together machine learning, artificial intelligence, public policy, and cyber security experts to write a white paper on the current and near future state of how AI is transforming cybersecurity. You can download the white paper and learn more about the process on IEEE’s website, by clicking here. This post is not really about those topics because, as you may already know, I’m not an expert in any of those. This post is about how I could facilitate a workshop on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, or designing a new cancer treatment center, or adapting logistics for the future of manufacturing, or working with people on recovery from any mental illness symptoms.

Change is change. How we collaborate in large groups or individually design solutions to change and complex problems is something we can systematize. If you want to work as a facilitator in business strategy or work with individuals on innovation in their personal lives, it’s important to have a consistent process you can adapt to any complex problem. If the model we use to understand and solve problems isn’t robust enough to handle dynamic variables, then it’s not a very useful model.

This is something I’d say the business world has become very skilled at. Modalities like design thinking and human centered design offer methods for working with any problem and developing solutions. In mental health, we’ve been slower to recognize the importance of modalities that work for recovery across any challenges. That’s one of the reasons I’m a fan of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy.

ACT is trans-diagnostic, meaning you can use it for any diagnosis. Not just mental illness diagnoses, either. It’s also proving very useful when people are running into physical health issues that involve uncomfortable experiences like pain. And that’s what ACT is: a way of interacting with experiences and shifting the focus to what matters. It’s about understanding our context and where we want to go. Although we might feel the urge to go searching online for the “right” therapy for a particular mental illness symptom, it might be useful to recognize that healthy ways of interacting with brain stuff remain consistent with any brain stuff.

With any business challenge or mental health challenge, we can look at our context, understand what we don’t know, identify where we want to go, and then bring in supports (like expertise, a map of the territory ahead, a structured plan of valued actions, etc), and take action.

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This also applies if it did happen. You can do stu This also applies if it did happen. You can do stuff differently up there!

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From last night's Twitch stream exploring examples From last night's Twitch stream exploring examples of Exposure Therapy vs ERP vs ACT. No actual cookies were harmed in the making of this theoretical example. Obviously, in reality, you would gather up every crumb of that cookie and eat it (while contacting the closeness of death and the wonders of life in that moment).

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Don't turn into a ruminating centipede. It'll feel Don't turn into a ruminating centipede. It'll feel like you're going somewhere. If you just think a little more about it, you'll finally solve it! But not really...

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Don't get stuck on the smelly pile of crap this we Don't get stuck on the smelly pile of crap this week. Yes, it smells. Yes, it's a crap disorder. Yes, you hate it and want to chase solutions to make it go away. But focus on changing the big systems producing the pile of crap symptoms you hate. What's feeding that system?

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Closure smosure. We have experiences that are pain Closure smosure. We have experiences that are painful. We can touch that pain, be honest about it. It can be painful and we can do things in the present that matter to us. It can be painful and we can make choices in the present that align with what we value, that create and build the things we want to see in the world.

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All of the stuff you're doing in your head: that's All of the stuff you're doing in your head: that's practice. Whatever you're doing up there, you're getting skilled at that. What do you want to get skilled at today?

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You don't wait to feel strong before lifting weigh You don't wait to feel strong before lifting weights. The strength comes after, and even then, you'll just keep on pursuing more exercises that make you feel weak, that make you sweat and gasp for breath. You go towards the difficult experience. You fuel that and support that. So why would you take the opposite approach with emotions?

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If I’m trying to be optimistic that good things If I’m trying to be optimistic that good things will happen, I’ve actually thrown away any power I have. I’ll need things I don’t control to magically turn out in my favor. It’s a lottery mentality.

So I bring power back to me. I’m optimistic that I will learn and build skills to handle the dumpster fire in a shit storm that is this world. I will practice skills and nourish my needs so I’m prepared for whatever happens. I want challenging situations that don’t go “right” so I can learn to handle them. I’m optimistic about my capacity to try new things, to discover limits, to enforce boundaries, and make difficult changes that help me thrive in any situation.

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It is so useful to recognize how seemingly "normal It is so useful to recognize how seemingly "normal" checking and controlling fuels the symptoms we hate. If you're struggling with things like derealization / depersonalization, or fears around sexuality, losing your mind, developing psychosis, and anything else that involves losing control of you and your identity, look broadly at how you interact with uncertainty in your life. The brain is simply being logical. If I react to uncertainty about a door lock, or an email, how can I not react to an uncertainty about my existence?! The time we spend on uncertainties that don't trouble us much is what causes the uncertainties that do trouble us.

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