World Renowned Speaker on Leadership is coming to Los Gatos on October 7th

Before the summer, I took a Coursera course on Emotional Intelligence and Leadership. One of the assignments was to view Benjamin Zander's Youtube video "How to Give an A": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTKEBygQic0. I really liked what he shared and got the book he co-authored with his partner, a family therapist, "The Art of Possibility".  I read this book from cover to cover. My husband did the same.

Benjamin Zander is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and a teacher at the local conservatory.  He starts the class at the beginning of the year by giving everyone an A so they can forget about not doing well.  However, he asks his students to write him an essay on how they got their A.  The essays of these students  are heart warming because they write about their strengths and their path of arriving at their A.  When our  brains are in this place, we are more open to learning and finding creative ways to solve problems.  I love the first chapter of his book "It's All Invented".  The idea is we all get trapped inside the stories in our heads and start believing them to be true; creating a reality for ourselves that is all invented.  Because we think these stories (perceptions) are true, then we start taking actions on them, and get results that do not serve us.

There are many life serving / transformational ideas in "The Art of Possibility". He is a very energetic and inspirational speaker and I wanted him to share his messages with our parents, because after all, parents are leaders of their families. I went onto his website and noticed he will be in SF on Oct 7th.  After many emails and a few phone calls, I cannot believe he is coming to Los Gatos High School.

This is one response from one of our parents who received the flyer:

"Zander is without a doubt one of the top 5 presenters I've ever seen in person in my entire life - and I've seen hundreds.  How in the world did you get him to Los Gatos?? I'm so (majorly) bummed that I will be out of town on 10/7. "

There are many ideas in “The Art of Possibility” that opens our eyes to a different way of being. This book is really about leadership and communication. CASSY (a group of onsite therapists at our local schools) have found that communication is the number one challenge our families face. This is why Benjamin Zander’s messages are so important. My hope is the audience will recognize how they can translate what he will be sharing with us through the metaphor of music into what we can do to start shifting towards more connection within our families and within our communities.  You can find out more about his upcoming presentation: http://www.parentingcontinuum.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/flyer.pdf