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May 07, 2008

The Ben Zander Series - Creating Distinction

Blogging live from the Response Expo in San Diego... we were treated to an uplifted and uplifting keynote address last evening. Benjamin Zander is "many things" - conductor, teacher, speaker and author - and he brought each one of those to his talk.

Speaking on the Art of Possibility, which is also the title of his book, Mr. Zander offered many lessons and valuable insights which we'll highlight throughout the coming days in this series.

Creating Distinction

Mr. Zander brilliantly illustrated a topic that's vital to understand. So often we feel that learning, or becoming more knowledgeable, requires taking in more information.

Not true, says Zander. What's more important is creating new distinctions for what we already see and "know". Remember our post about Einstein's quote? How do we evolve, achieve "growth"? Mr. Zander provided new ground for us to walk on. Seek distinctions that don't yet exist, and do this by looking at where you are making assumptions ... that you aren't aware of making. By looking. (that's worth repeating).

Zander illustrated "creating distinction" musically, of course. He asked the audience to sing the song "happy birthday". We all sang it just the way everyone always does. Then he proceeded to show us the art of possibility - how this age-old song could be sung in a completely new way just by emphasizing different words. It's safe to say that nobody there will never sing "Happy Birthday" the same old way again, at least not without remembering what's possible.

Posted by Jeff Small & Brett Astor at 01:02 PM | Permalink