Chapter 48: Michael Bungay Stanier on massive moons and the magic of metaphor

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Welcome to chapter 48!

I am so excited to sit down with the one and only Michael Bungay Stanier on a pair of folding lawn chairs on his front porch in the Roncesvalles neighborhood of Toronto.

Michael’s mind is like a box that you open and a whole bunch of springs suddenly fly out in all directions.

Here’s his Amazon biography to give you a taste of this guy: “Michael was banned from his high school graduation for the ‘balloon incident’, he was sued by one of his law school lecturers for defamation, he gave himself a concussion digging a hole one day as a laborer, he was fired on his first shift as a garage attendant and he’s held a number of jobs where he had little to no impact.”

Should we stop there?

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No, I’ll keep going. Michael is an Australian who goes to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He meets a beautiful Canadian woman who he falls in love with and follows back to Canada. He founds company called Box of Crayons which teaches 10-minute coaching strategies so busy managers can build stronger teams. He wins numerous awards for Coach of the Year and writes a book called The Coaching Habit which turns into a huge phenomenon with (in only 3+ years) sold over 700,000 copies and scored over 2000 Amazon reviews. (Sidenote: The book was published by Jesse Finklestein of Page Two Publishing, our guest in Chapter 23)

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Never one to rest on his laurels, as this chapter drops Michael is just about to release the follow up to The Coaching Habit which is called The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever.

I love Michael Bungay Stanier. He’s one of the most fascinating minds in my life, and I feel so grateful and honored to call him a friend. I hope you fall in love with him too.

In this chapter, we talk about making complex things simple, finding And of course, his three most formative books.

Let's go!

Listen to Chapter 48 of 3 Books:

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What You'll Learn:

What surprising thing actually gave us civilisation on the planet?
In a world of endless everything, how do we develop the critical skills to be filterers and translators?
From that, how do we go about making complex things simple? (Michael is a virtuoso at this.)
How do we actually think about maximizing our tiny, short lives?
When should you zig when others zag?
When should you think about provoking curiosity rather than create certainty?
And, of course, what are the incredible Michael Bungay Stanier’s 3 most formative books?