One of the biggest challenges for an organization transitioning to Lean is to formulate a bold and inspiring vision that provides a clear direction and motivation for continuous learning and innovation. Organizations that fail to this will mostly be tweaking existing operations to achieve short-term objectives, and they won’t be very exciting places to work.
We can’t think of a more interesting person to have this conversation with than Michael Bungay Stanier. Originally from Australia, Michael founded Toronto-based Box of Crayons in 2001. We spoke with Michael about how to improve creativity and perspective, how to transition from ho-hum “good enough” work to the sort of GREAT change-the-world work that gets customers and employees fired up, and how to ask better questions. Having Michael on our show is a special treat; see his bio below!
Listen to this interview (mp3) (64 minutes)
Watch the Box of Crayons movies on YouTube
Guest biography: Michael Bungay Stanier
Michael Bungay Stanier was the 2006 Canadian Coach of the Year. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and holds a Masters of Philosophy from Oxford, and law and arts degrees with highest honors from the Australian National University.
He created Get Unstuck & Get Going on the stuff that matters, a multi-award-winning coaching program and tool that’s being used in organizations around the world. Leading management thinker Peter Block says it has “a quiet political message in it that coaching is available to all of us and is not a profession but a way of being with each other.”
Michael also created The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun, The 5 3/4 Questions You’ve Been Avoiding, The Great Work Movie, and The Alchemy of Great Work short internet movies that have been seen by well over a million people in at least 175 countries around the world. They can all be viewed for free at www.BoxofCrayonsMovies.com or on YouTube.
Michael’s latest book is Do More Great Work (Workman Press, 2010). Recently he has spoken at the SHRM, the OD Network, and the International Coaching Federation conferences.
Prior to founding Box of Crayons, Michael held senior positions in the corporate, consultancy and agency worlds in the UK, the United States and Canada. He resides in Toronto.
Michael is active on Twitter as @boxofcrayons.
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