Response to Berengaria's Reading Post

Week 2 MAC Reading Post – The Art of Possibility

Posted on March 9, 2012 by berengarian

I started reading The Art of Possibility by Roz and Ben Zander last night. Originally, I intended to get through the assignment or as much of it as I could which was the first four chapters. I started late after the Wimba session and ended up finishing the book at 2am. I enjoyed the light and often amusing tone of the book as well as the change of voice between husband and wife. Each one’s style was very distinctive and enriched the other. I would not call this a self-help book but rather a different way of looking at leadership, mentorship, and life both personally and professionally.
Don’t get me wrong, this was not a Pollyanna vision of sweetness and light and there are some heart-wrenching points in the narratives. Both Ben and Roz are very human and very honest about some of their own actions and motivations. The book is about recognizing your own assumptions and constructions, about seeing more clearly your own underlying motivations, and choosing to sweep away your imagined view of people and events. By doing this you open up possibilities for yourself and others to construct strong healthy relationships and be contributions.
The chapter on the way things are had me saying, “Yes, absolutely.” It rang true on many levels but was particularly relevant because my director and I are writing our progress report to the federal government for our grant. It starts out with objectives and accomplishments and then moves to barriers and how you overcame them. A year ago when we were just starting out and had to do the report based on almost no concrete activities, we were saying, “What barriers, we only have possibilities.” We had to brainstorm for potential obstacles that we could build into barriers just to put something in the report. This year we again struggled because our viewpoint is that ‘this’ is the landscape we work within; we want to get to this point here; what do we do, who do we work with to get there. We don’t really see barriers but rather the way things are and where we want to be. It’s worked very well for us.
At that point, I was hooked and couldn’t put the book down. I also saw the negative in some of my personal and professional behaviors. Some of these are situations I viewed as probably unchangeable and have now been forced to recognize my own conceit. The ideas and practices in the book are practical, make good sense, and are very doable. They also take practice and thoughtfulness and I mean thoughtfulness in the sense of being aware of one’s actions and behaviors, and thinking before responding. Despite being a little tired, I was in excellent spirits this morning and am buying several copies of the book for colleagues. I have read several good books on change but this is the first one that really resonated all the way through for me.

MY RESPONSE:

Tee hee, I thought I was the only one that finished the book off in the first sitting. I too really enjoyed the airy, playful tone of the book. The author did such a great job making it enjoyable to read, as you said amusing. Thought was interesting how you saw it as a different perspective on leadership, etc. verses a self help book. I could see how some people would see it as a self help. I thought it was interesting that you came to some realizations about your professional behaviors. Seeing unchangeable situations as resolvable now. I always love when you can step outside of yourself and see things differently and really learn from reading and others perspective. This book does make it seem possible to make the changes that it speaks of. I agree with you that they are posed in a very practical manner. Glad to see that others enjoyed the reading as much as I did.

 

Kimberly