Moving to Zander's Beat

The conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Benjamin Zander, introduced the State of the World Forum audience to "the world of possibility." He discussed what is possible as we enter the new millennium, with the emphasis not on technology but on people. All people. All people, he said, are leaders because they affect everyone around them. The question as we enter this new millennium is: How do we want to affect the people around us?

	Boston Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor Benjamin Zander

Zander uses his musical talents and knowledge to illustrate the art of possibility. Tom Rautenberg, Director for Strategy and Business Development for the State of the World Forum, says: "Ben uses his magic to bring people out of their comfort zone. He gets them to open up and to become passionately involved in a creative dialogue where anything is possible, which is at the heart of the Forum's mission."

The person who lives in the world of win/lose or success/failure looks at the fact that only 3% of the population loves classical music and says, "If only we could make it 4%." But in the world of possibility, says Zander, the response would be, "I believe everybody loves classical music, they just don't know it yet."

Do we want leaders who use violence as a tool because they are motivated by fear? Or do we want leaders who replace our narrow world of assumptions with a world of possibility?" A leader should never doubt for one moment the capacity of the people he's leading," says Zander. "Imagine if Martin Luther King Jr. had said, 'I have a dream! Hmmm, I wonder if they're up for it?'" He didn't because he never doubted the capacity of the people he was leading: he showed them a world of possibility and they entered into it. Zander's message is that, in the new millennium, we can all be leaders, we just don't know it yet.

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