From L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.
After London, I went to Italy and had the privilege of working with two passionate, intelligent, and truly professional Neuro-Semantic trainers and Meta-coaches, Nicola Riva and Lucia Giovannini. The Training was in Imola, a city near Bologna and we were in a beautiful hotel, the Hotel Donatello.
From there my journey took me to Italy, to the Bologna airport and then to Imola where Nicola Riva and Lucia Giovannini live and from where they have been introducing Neuro-Semantics to Italy. There we did the “Creativity and Innovation” Workshop. This was only the second time for the Workshop, the first was in the Gold Coast of Australia back in June.
But before that, Nicola and Lucia set up some presentations for me in Milan, Italy. At the first University was IULM University, the subject was Enhancing Learning Strategy when Facing Exams. This was hosted by Prof. Luca Barbarito who teaches Communication and Marketing there. The young students (all in their 20s) were interested, but also timid about asking questions. Well all were but one, and she asked questions for the rest of them and because she did, she received a focused conversation that I did with her about how to release her anxiety, which she did within a couple of minutes of the conversation. Professor Luca was impressed and delighted, and yet he did not fully catch the structure of the exploration of the meaning frames, not until Nicola debriefed him on the process which had looked like a simple conversation on the surface.
The second University was the State University of Milan Universita and DEAS (Department of Economical, Business and Statistics), and the subject was Self-Actualization Creativity and Innovation and it was only before Professors and Scholars in a small conference room— like a Board Room. This was hosted by resident Prof. Mario Benassi who teaches Economics and Innovation management. The scholar who organized the lecture was Dr. Gianluca Fiscato, who studied the NLP Practitioner with Nicola and Lucia. And as with that culture, the atmosphere promote the “sorting for differences” and seeing how something is not so! Not exactly the atmosphere for learning in an Institution of Higher Learning! So all of the questions were questions to the effect “Well, how would this fit into X or Y or Z model?” “Do you know A or B or C model or problems and what about that?” It was a lot of fun and we had some good laughs on the way home.
Nicola and Lucia also set up a presentation at a book store where Lucia had made a presentation the month before on her new book. Did I mention that? During the last year Lucia wrote a book that was published in September—a Neuro-Semantic book! The title of the book is — A Completely New Life — Tutta Un’ Altra Vita.
Within A Completely New Life Lucia writes simply and directly about goals and desired outcomes, change processes (she even outlines the Axes of Change model), she talks in the book about the processes and mechanisms of change, she overviews the Matrix model, and then wraps up with practical advice about health, eating, exercising, etc. And in just two months the first edition sold out! How about that!
So at the Bookstore, it was a delight to make a presentation, Introducing Neuro-Semantics and to see Lucia’s book and to talk refer to the book as a Neuro-Semantic book. The book, of course, is in Italian so if you have friends or family who speak and read Italian, it is an excellent gift book for Christmas and birthdays.
Then came the Training: Creative Conversations or “Creativity and Innovation” with Neuro-Semantics. The focus of the training is on the creation and delivery of creative innovations for problems to enable and actualize our visions, dreams, and desired outcomes. And we had a truly passionate group of people from all sorts of areas of life—36 participants who were a mix of entrepreneurs, public officers, brokers, marketing people, real estate entrepreneurs, one layer, a medical doctor, and “a bunch of trainers and coaches.”
To create you have to tap into the power of your innate creativity so that as you actualize and unleash your creativity— then loving problems to work on, challenges to rise up to, then becomes fun, exciting, and delightful. It becomes a meaningful aspect of being human. Then “problems” are seen in a whole new light. Then what we call “problems” are but the gaps, the needs, the obstacles, the challenges inviting us to step forward to apply our resources.
I again enjoyed presenting the Well-formed Problem pattern and demonstrating that … it still absolutely amazes me at how “presenting” problems vanish away and we get deeper inside to the core problems, those hiding away at the meta-levels as frames and assumptions and limiting beliefs. Others were equally amazed and learned perhaps the most basic problem-solving skill of not immediately responding to the-problem-as-stated. This pattern really does provide a way to get past pseudo-problems to the real problems that need solving.
Equally the solution process and conversation was full of some new surprises. Solutions too need to be well-formed and understanding “solutions” from a systemic point of view— of the forces, the driving and restraining forces enables us to see how it works and how to effectively intervene. I was really impressed by how open and willing to play with the processes the people were.
I commend Nicola and Lucia for their commitment to Neuro-Semantics and to bringing Neuro-Semantics to Italy. They now teach a “Neuro-Semantic University” that includes APG (Accessing Personal Genius) and LPG (Living Personal Genius), NLP Prac. (Meta-NLP), and NLP Master Prac. (Meta Masters). And they are now preparing for the third year of their University, and Nicola (a former attorney) now has a powerful training on Negotiation.
Interesting enough a Bandler Group of Trainers in Italy have adopted a new marketing strategy, they are translating and printing NLP books from various people (Dilts, McDermott, O’Connor) and putting all of their advertisements in the back of it. To date they have done that with three of my books. But as Nicola noted, “They dare not print User’s Manual of the Brain, Volume I or II. They are afraid of those books!” And so they should be afraid, be very afraid!
If you like to contact them for the new book by Lucia or the Negotiation trainings or Living Personal Genius by Nicola, here are their emails: nicola@blessyouitalia.eu — lucia@blessyouitalia.eu
L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.
International Society of Neuro-Semantics
Meta-Coach Training System
P.O. Box 8
Clifton, CO. 81520 USA
1 970-523-7877
1 970-523-5790 fax
www.neurosemantics.com
www.neuro-semantics-trainings.
www.self-actualizing.org
www.meta-coaching.org
www.ns-video.com
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