The Art of Possibilility

Rosamund Stone Zander is a family therapist and coach. Benjamin Zander is an orchestra conductor. They joined forces to write this book in which they draw upon their respective experiences to share twelve principles for making changes in personal and professional life. This book is rather atypical, falling somewhere between self-help, autobiography, positive psychology and systemic analysis, but is also a change management guide!

These twelve principles are designed to help us explore new behaviors and new possibilities that our habitual practices prevent us from seeing. In a sense, it involves rehabilitating our perceptions to further identify opportunities sometimes hidden behind difficulties. Benjamin Zander recounts that he went to Brazil with a youth orchestra. The first performance was splendid; but that night, several young people left their rooms and climbed up on the roof of the hotel to celebrate. The next day, Zander summoned the whole orchestra to a meeting. The young people seemed sheepish. Zander could have chosen to remind them of the curfew cited in the rules. He preferred to congratulate them for their performance the evening before and asked them, “What else would you like to bring to the Brazilians?” This question put them back into a positive dynamic, whereas they were expecting to be admonished, while also sensitizing them to the image they would leave behind. The change was immediate; they wrote a letter of apology and concentrated on that night’s performance. The incident was closed.

This example illustrates the state of mind advocated by Zander, i.e., to try to find creative and positive responses to situations that could be unsatisfactory for everyone if we stuck with our habitual reflexes. The demanding world of the orchestra and its collective dimension teaches us best practices which are easily transposable to companies. This book will appeal to those readers who like to explore new ways of doing things.