Give your student, yourself an ‘A’ to unlock vast growth possibilities

“The Art of Possibility”
by Rosamund Stone Zander
& Benjamin Zander
Harvard Business School Press, 2001


We have had books on unleashing our individual or group creativity – like “Let Sparks Fly” (Executive Read, December 3, 2000), recommending “creative abrasion” in order to ignite the group’s creative fire, and “Six Thinking Hats” (Executive Read, February 18, 2001), which suggests liberating the thinking process from premature use of judgment that hinders the flow of creative juices.

The authors of these two books are serious and enthusiastic mentors cum authors on creativity and the thinking process, and have therefore applied scientific concepts on this very valuable human effort. Certainly, their views have been very useful to countless students and readers who have rediscovered the powers of an untrammeled brainstorming process, resulting in various workable concepts and ideas without fail.

From scientists, we thought, wouldn’t it be a good idea for a change to find out how artists themselves unlock their possibilities – be they poets, fictionists, painters or musicians? Lo and behold! We have such artists in the book titled “The Art of Possibility.” Co-authored by a husband-and-wife team – Rosamund and Benjamin Zander – the books ushers us into the lesser known but by no means magical world of the arts – landscape painting for wife and orchestra conducting for husband.

First of all, the book begins and ends with artists. It starts off with a poem by Emily Dickinson which begins: “I dwell in Possibility” and ends on page 197 with a quote from noted author William James which runs: “I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big successes. I am for those tiny, invisible loving human forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, yet which, if given time, will rend the hardest monuments of human pride.”

The intention of the writers is to deliver the central truth that every individual, even the most ordinary one, is a marvelous creation – and, if only we can unlock their possibilities, such creation will emerge in dazzling reality. All through the book, a great quote from Michelangelo provides the underlying theme about the marvel that is the human person. The authors say: “Michelangelo is often quoted as having said that inside every block of stone or marble dwells a beautiful statue; one need only remove the excess material to reveal the work of art within.”

The authors discuss the heartwarming results of their daring experiment to give an “A” to every student at the very start of a music class. Taking off from the point of the magnificent painter of the Sistine Chapel, they dared walk the path where angels fear to thread, saying: “If we were to apply this (Michelangelo’s) visionary concept to education, it would be pointless to compare one child to another. Instead, all the energy would be focused on chipping away at the stone, getting rid of whatever is in the way of each child’s developing skills, mastery and self-expression.”

An A, according to the authors, can be given to anyone in any walk of life – to a waitress, to your employer, to your mother-in-law, to the members of the opposite team, and to the other drivers in traffic (!?) When you give an A, you find yourself speaking to people not from a place of measuring how they stack up against your standards, but from a place of respect that gives them room to realize themselves.

“Your eye is on the statue within the roughness of the uncut stone,” they say with unmistakable lyricism, reminiscent of the beautiful tale of Pygmalion and Galatea – or “My Fair Lady” in modern garb.

This revolutionary concept – surprise! – succeeded in the most exacting environments the musicians found themselves in – the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and the New England Conservatory of Music. Every musician played with passion, intensity and perfection – driven by the conviction that they were all A students.

More to the point, the book is telling its readers to move from “survival thinking” and “scarcity thinking” – a legacy from Charles Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” theory – to the “universe of possibility.”

For example, the authors point out: “On the whole , you are more likely to extend your business and have a fulfilled life if you have the attitude that there are always new customers out there waiting to be enrolled rather than that money, customers, and ideas are in short supply.”

You will say that the authors, artists that they are, view the world with pink spectacles and are thus not oriented to the harsh realities of life. And yet you also know that many more leaders and thinkers are saying this – from Jesus Christ who says, “Take my yoke ... because it is easy” to Brian Tracy who points out that “the true leader radiates the confidence that all difficulties can be overcome and all goals can be attained.”

The authors also contend that many standards have all been “invented” – and, therefore, if these standards hinder our realization of possibilities, we should “invent” something else. They are actually recommending overhauling our view of limitations and possibilities. If they are a bit too optimistic, that’s because they have found success in every endeavor and experiment.

Those who take themselves too seriously are also told to lighten up. “When you are oriented to abundance, you care less about being in control, and you take more risks. You give away short-term profits in pursuit of a bigger dream; you may take a long view without being able to predict the outcome. In the measurement world, you set a goal and strive for it. In the universe of possibility, you set the context and let life unfold.” That sounds like a crescendo in a symphony.
But, perhaps, there is really much to learn from Ben the orchestra conductor and Roz the painter. They know a lot more about harmony and color. It’s time we viewed our lives as a beautiful symphony.