Part 1: Autopilot internals

Each participant identifies an autopilot (reactive patterns of thoughts, emotions and behavior) in his/her life.

Triggers. Events, situations and circumstances that cause us to run our autopilot.

Stories. A story is an interpretation of the event that triggers us. What we think, feel and do depends on a story that we come up with for what’s going on. Each participant identifies the stories associated with their autopilot.

Beliefs. Why do different people have different stories for the same circumstances? We look at how our beliefs frame and filter our stories, and how our stories support our beliefs even more, creating a feedback loop which makes it hard to change our beliefs.

The participants try to get to the bottom of their stories, to understand which beliefs frame their stories.

Character. To easily "catch" our autopilot we try to identify the character behind it - what character would symbolize our autopilot with its beliefs, stories, emotions and actions.

Part 2. Upgrading autopilots

Cost/benefit analysis. In this section we look at what we are getting from our autopilot and what it costs us.  This is based on a simple premise: our autopilot runs only if its benefit exceeds the costs. 

Understanding the benefit, the "reasoning" of running an autopilot may allow us to have a more thoughtful approach to our autopilot instead of just trying to stop it.

Upgrading autopilots. In this section we look at how we can alter different parts of our autopilot: pick a role model, question our beliefs, come up with a more empowering story, change behaviors, remove triggers. Each participant comes up with various ways their autopilot can be altered.

Visualization. In this section we imagine that our autopilot is no longer an issue. We got it all handled in the best possible way. This process starts rewiring our brains towards a better response. 

Positive feedback loop. In order for a new autopilot to continuously run, we need to provide a positive feedback loop - the result produced by the new autopilot should increase the benefits of running it. During this part we look at what can provide a positive feedback loop for our autopilot, what actions we could take, what structures we can create to support our new autopilot.

Conclusion. As a result of the workshop the participants not only get unstuck in an area that hasn’t been working for them, they also acquire the tools to produce new results in any area of their lives.