Art of Possibilty

Benjamin Zander, who has passed for Portugal, in 2010, when Belmiro de Azevedo, big Portuguese boss, bought the front places of the Casa da Música in Oporto, said he wanted the Portuguese ' eyes shine. In other words, he wanted to see the eyes of the Portuguese to shine. A 71 years old man, orchestra director and lecturer for pleasure, used the brightness, in his speech, to drive the skeptics and cynics. The maestro has built a "leadership model", based on a simple phrase, which incidentally is the title of the book that he wrote with the psychotherapist Rosamund Stone, his second wife: ' The Art of Possibility ' (Harvard Business School Press, 2000). Speaks of the possibility, not of the possible - because he considers that possible is political. Its concept is more open. To him, whatever the circumstances, even the most cruel and terrible, what is decisive is not focusing on the reasons for the situation; cultivate the lamentation, but turn around to see what possibilities open. What counts is to generate possibilities. An attitude that implies multiple several collateral effects: is not enough explore opportunities, we must generate them as well. And it is not a question of "positive thinking" – often artificial and wrapped in plastic optimism. His leadership approach is not based on wasting time with value judgments but that can make it happen.