BOOK REVIEW:

The Art of Possibility:
Transforming Professional
and Personal Life

by
Rosamund Stone Zander
and Benjamin Zander

Publisher:
Harvard Business School Press

Reviewed by: Marcia Horn Noyes   

Concepts are often grasped more easily when viewed through a different lens. "The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life" offers some of the same familiar concepts, but delivers them in a different way.

When caught up in our own drama, we often characterize those events as an "illusion" or "just another movie". Rosamund Stone Zander, along with her husband and co-author Benjamin Zander give us a new term to use – "it’s all invented". In this book, which provides tools for transformation, the Zander’s provide a question to ask when caught in a downward spiral.

"What assumption am I making, that I’m not aware I’m making, that gives me what I see?"

The authors say that once we have the answer to that question, we should ask ourselves the following:

"What might I now invent, that I haven’t yet invented, that would give me other choices?"

Rosamund Stone Zander is an executive coach and family systems therapist and as such, she develops models for leadership, relationship, and effective action. Benjamin Zander has taken the concepts outlined in the book and applied them in his work as the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.

He says that after conducting for nearly twenty years he suddenly made a powerful observation -- that a conductor of an orchestra never makes a sound. The conductor’s true power derives from his ability to make other people powerful. Zander’s concert hall insight becomes instrumental in our own lives, when we apply some of the knowledge he shares.

Zander says that it’s only when we make mistakes in performance that we can really begin to notice what needs attention. As a conductor, he often trains his students to lift their arms in the air, smile, and say, "How fascinating!" when a mistake is made.

It sure takes the pressure off my life, knowing my mistakes don’t leave me doomed, but provide me with valuable insight -- "How fascinating!"