Getting Unstuck #137: Creating a Life of Possibility: "How Fascinating!"
This is the second of two episodes that we’re offering to help us step bravely and purposefully into 2021. And it doesn’t matter what role you currently play in life, there is are pearls of wisdom here for you.
In this episode of Getting Unstuck
Today we are deeply fortunate to sit down with two amazing guests: Benjamin Zander and Rosamund Stone Zander. Ben is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. Rosamund (Roz) is a therapist and an accomplished painter. They are the authors of The Art of Possibility, a life-change book if you practice its twelve practices. Roz is the author of a follow-up volume, Pathways to Possibility.
Why this conversation matters
Some readers and listeners may have the tendency to place these two books in the category of “self-help.” But as the authors point out early on in The Art of Possibility, “the practices presented in this book are not about making incremental changes that lead to new ways of doing things based on old belief, and they are not about self-improvement.” The practices are more transformational. This is not about playing better in old constructs, it’s about playing in new constructs of our own making.
How you can put this podcast message to work
Read the opening quote above again. Where do you fall on the idea that what you think about or believe to be true is a story of your invention rather than “reality”?
Regarding one of the practices, “The giving of an A,” Ben and Roz write, “This A is not an expectation to live up to, but a possibility to live into.” The ownership of the “A” shifts from the traditional bestower, the teacher, to a co-created relationship with the student. Where might you experiment with this practice in your school or district?
Where is the practice of “Lead from any chair” evident in your school or district? If it’s not there, why do you suspect it’s missing?
“There’s that moment before you speak or before you react when you get a chance to recalibrate because the downward spiral, the habit, the thing that we do automatically, that is a reflex. It’s always there – you don’t have to create it each time. The possibility model, the idea of radiating possibility, stepping into power is something we have to actually activate each time. You have to create it. And the reason we use the word “practice” is because it’s just like practicing. It’s like learning an instrument, or like religious practice or any kind of practice. You develop an ability and a mastery of that moment of choice. ‘it’s entirely up to you’ is not a bad mantra for life.”
Connect with Ben and Roz
Book: The Art of Possibility
Video: Ben’s TED Talk
Video: Ben on “Giving an A”
Book: Pathways to Possibility
Could a book on how to effectively lead change in schools be any more timely?
We’re pleased to announce …
…that our book Shifting: How School Leaders Can Create a Culture of Change is now available from Corwin Press or Amazon. If you purchase from Amazon, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Thank you!
From our publisher:
In Shifting, educators and leadership experts Kirsten Richert, Jeff Ikler and Margaret Zacchei empower educational change leaders to proactively and coherently navigate complex change in schools to achieve the desired outcomes.
Using a three-part framework—Assess, Ready, Change—this book leads educators to examine a school’s imperatives and readiness for change, identity the tools and abilities required to manifest change, and take action by defining the roles and processes necessary to effectively implement both sweeping change and smaller day-to-day adjustments.
Download the Preface and Chapter 1 : https://www.queticocoaching.com/