This is a close up look at the beginning steps of the Matrix. Here I discuss how you can set things up to help learners to quickly get on board and moving toward their important stuff!

https://youtu.be/9oYMv-8jknM

When you hear phrases like “We will be having a meeting,” or “You are invited to a meeting” what shows up on the inside of you?  How about when you walk into a room like this one for the purposes of getting together to discuss something?

You may begin to experience internally some form of anticipation, mixed with discomfort. Tension is likely to show up in your body, along with words like “difficult” or phrases like, “I’d rather not”, “here we go again”, etc.  Our minds have a lot of different associations to the word and experience of “meeting” and we know meetings will continue to happen and be a part of what we do.

Whether we are educators, parents/guardians, or groups/organizations we need to get together from time to time. We can approach meetings with feelings of dread, or we can adopt a psychologically flexible point of view and work toward cooperation and collaboration so that all “stakeholders” can make valuable contributions.

The Matrix works great for promoting cooperative gatherings at all levels and sets groups up for more successful experiences. A little matrix perspective injected into a meeting helps to loosen participants up for creative problem solving.

Here is one way to play it:

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When challenging behaviors show up we can use the ACT Matrix to help students develop more workable moves and “build” their behavioral vocabularies!

The matrix diagram acts as the shared common ground for noticing what’s going on “In the Moment”. It also leads to increased choices and actions since teacher or student can make a “matrix move” anytime, especially when the matrix is already up and running.