During TIAS Alumni Exchange, TIAS alumni share their knowledge, expertise, and practical experience with the alumni community. By alumni, for alumni. These interactive sessions offer fresh perspectives, practical insights, and tools that can be applied directly in both professional and personal contexts.
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TIAS Alumni Exchange: Master Your Mindset with Positive Intelligence
18 November 2026
12.30 17.00 hour
Tilburg CampusWarandelaan 2, Tias Building5037 ABTilburgDirections
TIAS Alumni Exchange: Master Your Mindset with Positive Intelligence
From Saboteur to Sage: how to stay mentally fit in leading positions
In this edition, TIAS alumnus Davide Iannuzzi (EMBA 2015) introduces you to mental fitness and Positive Intelligence. How can you recognize the mental patterns that may hold you back under pressure? And how can you stay clear-headed, resilient, and effective when it matters most?
In short
Date: Wednesday 18 November
Time: 12.30 - 17.00
Location: Tilburg University, TIAS (T) building
Facilitator: Davide Iannuzzi, PhD, MBA, ICF-ACC, CPQC
Language: English
Registration fee: €25
Registration: via this registration form.
About this TIAS Alumni Exchange
In high-pressure professional environments, challenges do not only come from the outside. Our own automatic thought patterns can also influence how we make decisions, respond to setbacks, and lead others.
During this four-hour interactive workshop, you will be introduced to Positive Intelligence (PQ).¹ Davide Iannuzzi combines insights from cognitive science and neuroscience with practical mental fitness techniques.
You will explore the mental patterns that tend to emerge when pressure increases. Within Positive Intelligence, these patterns are referred to as Saboteurs.¹ Examples include the Hyper-Achiever, Controller, Restless, and Pleaser. These patterns can influence your behavior and choices without you always being aware of them.
You will then learn how to recognize and interrupt these automatic responses. Through practical exercises, you will work on shifting from a Saboteur response to the Sage perspective:¹ an approach that helps you respond to challenges with greater curiosity, clarity, and focus.
The workshop is highly practical and interactive. Expect self-reflection, exercises, discussions with fellow alumni, and techniques you can apply directly in stressful meetings, negotiations, complex decision-making, and other demanding situations.
Why participate?
After this workshop, you will have greater insight into:
which mental Saboteurs influence you and how they may affect your performance, well-being, and relationships;
how automatic mental patterns develop and why they can sometimes feel like useful motivation;
how practical techniques can help you regain focus and emotional balance more quickly;
how to use the Sage perspective and five Sage Powers when facing challenges, uncertainty, and setbacks;
how to apply these insights to your daily work, decision-making, and leadership.
You will also leave with concrete techniques that can help you respond more intentionally and act with greater clarity under pressure.
Program
12.30 - 13.00 hour
Walk-in with coffee, tea, and a light snack
13.00 - 17.00 hour
Workshop, including a break with refreshments
Workshop roadmap
1. The neuroscience of emotional pain
Understand how the brain's survival mechanisms can create repetitive mental habits that may no longer serve you in a modern professional environment.
You will also explore the role of the Judge,¹ described within Positive Intelligence as a central mental pattern linked to stress, anxiety, and self-limiting beliefs.
2. Deconstructing your Saboteurs
Identify the secondary Saboteurs¹ that may drive your personal stress patterns, such as the Hyper-Achiever, Controller, Restless, or Pleaser.
You will explore where these patterns originate, why they develop, and how they can sometimes disguise themselves as useful motivation.
3. Intercepting the habit loop
Learn how to move from automatic reactions to more intentional responses.
Using practical PQ Reps,¹ you will practice techniques designed to interrupt unhelpful mental patterns and regain focus in the moment.
4. The Sage perspective and powers
Explore the Sage perspective,¹ which focuses on responding to challenges with greater clarity, curiosity, and constructive action.
You will also work with five Sage Powers¹ that can help you navigate complexity, innovate
Preparation
Before joining the workshop, participants are invited to complete the Saboteur Assessment and bring their results with them on the day of the workshop.
¹ Positive Intelligence, PQ, PQ Rep, Saboteurs, Sage, Judge, Hyper-Achiever, Controller, Restless, Pleaser, as well as the whole PQ approach, are registered trademarks of Positive Intelligence LLC. Davide Iannuzzi is a Certified Positive Intelligence Coach (CPQC), but is not affiliated with and does not act on behalf of Positive Intelligence LLC. This workshop has been designed by Davide Iannuzzi without the support or mandate of Positive Intelligence LLC.
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Davide Iannuzzi
Davide Iannuzzi (EMBA 2015) is an ICF-certified coach who supports individuals and teams in achieving high performance while staying deeply aligned with their core values.
His approach combines solution-focused coaching with mental fitness training. He focuses on strengthening clarity, resilience, and emotional self-regulation, particularly when people are navigating complex decisions, uncertainty, and high-pressure situations.
Alongside his coaching practice, Davide is an academic and entrepreneur. He is Professor of Experimental Physics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where he previously served as Chief Impact Officer and currently serves as Vice Dean of Research.
As an entrepreneur, he co-founded Optics11, which he successfully exited, as well as Optics11Life. He also founded DLAB Amsterdam, a university incubator through which he has mentored and coached hundreds of students and researchers during the startup process.
This combination of coaching, academia, entrepreneurship, and leadership experience allows him to bring a grounded and empathetic perspective to every workshop.