National Learning Institute

The Art of Possibility

Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander

Reviewed by bselden Wed 7 Dec 11

Bob's Rating:

Everything is possible.  Everything is invented.  Two phrases that resonate from “The Art of Possibility”.  The authors, Ros and ben Zander have put together a “must read” book for all those wishing to see a better world for themselves and others.

The book is full of stories from Ben’s experience as a world renowned orchestra (e.g. The Boston Philharmonic) conductor and Ros’ case histories from psychotherapy.

It is indeed an inspiring book.  The authors take us on a journey of possibility, in fact an invitation to join them in a “Universe of Possibility”.  I was particularly impressed with their discussion about assumptions – how we can work with them, and the concept of “Giving an A” – awarding an “Ä” to people in advance, not as an expectation to live up to, but a possibility to live into.

The Zanders take us through a range of other strategies to ignite possibilities, such as “Being a contribution” (rather than a contributor), “Leading from any chair” (akin to Hardy’s “Distributed Leadership”), “Rule Number 6” (You’ll need to read the book for this one!) and many more.  All are worthy contributions to the field of leadership development.

This is my second reading of “The Art of Possibility”.  The first time I got about half-way through and put it down.  Although the book has been well written and well edited, I found it a little hard-going, particularly in the descriptive sections where paragraphs are sometimes long.  On my second reading, I was transfixed – the messages and stories got to me and I could not put the book down until it was finished.

If I had one small criticism it would be with the “The Practice” sections.  These are where the authors summarise the idea or concept in a way that one can put them into practise.  These sections were evident in early chapters, but seemed to disappear in later ones.

This is a book I will recommend to anyone wishing to develop their leadership skills or in fact just became a better person.