The Art of Possibility The Zanders,

The Zanders, Rosamund (a leadership and relationship therapist) and Benjamin (the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra), wrote The Art of Possibility at the suggestion of the Harvard Business School Press (Zander and Zander 2). The book, written for both a business and lay audience, provides strategies for successfully coping with life's conflicts and changes. But the book is more than a mere how to succeed manual. Rather, the authors seek to teach its readers how to transform their perceptions of their worlds.

The Zanders argue that what we see of the world is pre-programmed by what we believe we will see of the world. They note, for example, Pablo Picasso's failure to see a woman in a photograph. He saw only a photograph. They also argue that studies have shown that the left side of our brains generate rationales for instinctive actions performed at the order of the right side of our brains. Thus, they contend that we interpret what we see based entirely on the assumptions and beliefs that we carry around in our heads. Or, as they put it,it's all invented (Zander and Zander 12-15). Consequently, they argue that if we change the assumptions and beliefs that form the basis of these inventions, we can change the reality that we perceive.

The Zanders call this new reality our "universe of invention" (17). In this universe, we must move away from thought patterns guided by measurement and scarcity-thinking. Measurement

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possible for you to speak freely about your own thoughts and feelings while, at the same time, you support others to be all they dream of being. The practice of giving an A transports your relationships from the world of measurement into the universe of possibility" (Zander and Zander 26). They demonstrate throughout the chapter the various ways they believe giving an A can transform our perspectives of what we expect from others and from ourselves. For example, Benjamin describes how approaching a seemingly disinterested violinist with an open mind improved his conducting of the Philharmonic (37-39). Rosamund, too, describes how the technique transformed her understanding of her relationship with her father (47-50). Next, to change our tendency toward scarcity-thinking, the Zanders encourage a technique in which the readers think to themselves "I am a contribution" (97). Rather than considering our lives as arenas for success or failure, the contribution technique encourages us to view ourselves as part of a larger whole: "[n]aming ourself and others as a contribution produces a shift away from self-concern and engages us in a relationship with others that is an area for making a difference" (63). When we see everyone as a

Category: Psychology - T