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Julio Olalla (1945 – ) was a lawyer in Chile for the Allende government before he was exiled and emigrated to the United States with his family in 1978. In California he met and worked with Fernando Flores, the founder of ontological coaching.
In 1990, Olalla co-founded the Newfield Group with Rafael Echevarria for the purpose of using coaches to assist individuals in their quest for their personal growth. According to Olalla, their “philosophical approach to coaching was based on the principle that emotions compel human beings to act, and thus language is incomprehensible if you don’t consider its emotional dimensions.”
In 1996 Echevarria and Olalla went their separate ways.
Olalla’s company became Newfield Network which focused on delivering the public transformation programs. This training was grounded in the philosophical traditions of the biology of cognition, the philosophy and ontology of language, and body movement studies.
A key concept is that human beings constitute themselves in and through language, moods and emotions and the body. In 1998 when Terrie Lupberger became Olalla’s business partner, Newfield had trained over 35,000 individuals in advanced communication skills throughout the United States, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Venezuela.
Many of those I interviewed credited Olalla with introducing coaching to South America. DJ Mitsch, to quote one, felt that Olalla advanced the global reach of the field by adopting “some philosophies of Carolyn Myss, especially regarding archetypical behavior, as well as Wilber’s levels of consciousness.” Meryl Moritz also noted Olalla’s connections to “Margaret Wheatley [and her] applied systems theory to organizations.”
How has Julio Olalla influenced you as a coach and human being?
Vikki G. Brock, Ph.D., MCC
Director, History and Archive Division
The Coaching Commons
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There are 5 Responses so far...
I saw Julio give a keynote on trust at our Organizational Conflict Management conference in Denver in 2005. I have been studying his teachings every since. Julio is a master at the art of creating transformation through conversation. We are fortunate to have such a teacher and coach among us. If you get a chance to see him live, you will not be dissappointed. I cannot recommend this highly enough!
Julio and his work has greatly influenced my life and my coaching. The whole idea of ontology – our way of being – has impacted how I not only live my life, but how I work with clients. When we can shift our way of being, we really can be all that we dream. Acknowledging that our experiences are different for each of us, and honoring that allows us to connect in ways that humanity has struggled to connect. He is a remarkable man, or as he says, “A short, bald, Chilean.”
I have seen Julio speak a dozen times in the last few years. Each and every time, I am inspired, I learn something, and I continue to marvel at his dedication to teaching, coaching, and opening our eyes to a new way of experiencing our world. Thank you for shining the spotlight on him…he surely deserves it!
There have been few times in my life where I have known the honor of being with a master. That is how I felt when I first heard and saw Julio coaching. His commitment to creating the space for those of us he has taught to become better coaches is a gift I will always hold in gratitude. Today I am not only a better coach, but a much more effective participant in my life and a better servant to my community. His passion for his students is only superseded by his passion for his planet and creating a sustainable life for our children. I am thrilled that he is being recognized for his role as a leader among coaches.
I have the honour of belonging to the very first batch of coaches certified by Julio and Rafael Echeverría in 1992. To say that the process of becoming a coach changed my whole life, would be an understatement. Julio is exceptional at what he does and he has an amazing capacity for creating the context for transformation to occur.
That “Short, bald, Chilean” lives up to his own words the day we finished our course “We aim at changing the world”. And we will, step by step, little by little.