About MBS Works | The Platform for Possibility
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Hey there,
I’m Michael Bungay Stanier
AKA MBS.

MBS Works is my digital home. It’s where I bring everything together: books, courses, keynotes, provocations, tools, and companies. It’s more than a website. It’s a platform for change – powered by curiosity, built for possibility.  

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MBS
BEST-SELLING AUTHOR HUSBAND SPEAKER THOUGHT-LEADER BROTHER TEACHER UKULELE PLAYER STUDENT PODCASTER COACH UNCLE FOUNDER FRIEND

A few things to know about me…

I’ve always been more interested in asking better questions than having perfect answers. I get a kick out of nudging people toward their best work. I’m drawn to big questions, tiny shifts, and the thrilling awkwardness of figuring things out in public. I take the work seriously, but not myself. I’ve written some books, built some tools, and started a few conversations that seem to have stuck. If any of that helps you get clearer, braver, or just a little more yourself, then I’m doing my job.

Poke around. Follow your curiosity. Let’s see where it takes us.

DOWNLOAD PHOTOS & BIOS SPEAKING INFO My Current Projects

I love combining things — like writing books and then founding companies — to do something with them. I started doing that with The Coaching Habit and Box of Crayons.The Coaching Habit is the best-selling book on coaching this century, which still surprises me (in the best way). It’s helped millions of people be a little more coach-like, every day. We’ll be celebrating its 10-year anniversary in 2026, which feels wild and wonderful.

Box of Crayons uses The Coaching Habit to help organizations implement the skill of coach-like curiosity. One of the things I’m most proud of is how much the company has grown without me. BOC has an exceptional team designing and delivering practical, easy-to-apply learning experiences for large organizations. If that sounds like you, check out the latest way they’re bringing The Coaching Habit to life with Learning Journeys. You can also read about our successful succession process in How to Begin.

After I left BOC, I started MBS.works to focus on individuals — curious, ambitious people who want to make the most of their time on this planet. That’s where How to Begin became a course, and where The Conspiracy took shape: a private community for generous humans doing their best work and becoming their best selves. I’ve been steadily adding more books, courses, tools, and resources. Sign up for the emails and check back often; I’m an inveterate creator, and there’s always something new on the way.

How's It Going?

This body of work — the books, the companies, the communities — is how I’ve tried to make space for different ways of thinking, leading, and growing. That impulse has deep roots.

In my early 20’s I became a Rhodes Scholar. It’s a prestigious scholarship and one that sets you amongst the world’s elite. Here’s our class photo where everyone looks like they’re auditioning to run a country. And then there’s me. I’ve never quite fit the traditional mold, and honestly, I think that’s been the advantage that has shaped my life. Smart and successful don’t have to look one way. But making space for that – for different voices, different ambitions, different ways of moving through the world – takes real work. That’s my work. That’s the mark I want to make on the world: helping people figure out what matters most to them and how to get more of that.    

MBS School Photo MBS School Photo

Prestigious scholarship aside, my path’s been more zigzag than straight. I graduated law school while facing a defamation lawsuit from one of my professors — an early sign I might not be built for convention. Since then, I’ve kept nudging at the edges: rethinking publishing models, challenging old-school leadership, and opening up coaching to more people in more human ways.

Along the way, I’ve spoken to packed rooms, hosted a couple of podcasts, and been called things like the “#1 Thought Leader in Coaching” — flattering, and honestly, kind of funny. Mostly, I think of myself as a teacher who’s still learning: how to use power wisely, how to ask questions that matter, how to do work that might help, even just a little.

And maybe most telling of all: I’ve been married for over 30 years. That probably says the most about who I am and how I try to show up in the world — with commitment, curiosity, and a willingness to keep figuring it out.

Here are some ideas that keep me headed in the best direction…

“What can you do with the rest of today, and the rest of your life to give back more to the world than you take?”
-Jacqueline Novogratz,
Founder and CEO of Acumen, author, & social impact leader
“A life lived in fear is a life half-lived.
-Strictly Ballroom
“Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form”
-Vladimir Nabokov
“You’re awesome and you’re doing great”
-Michael Bungay Stanier
“Winning does not tempt him./ His growth is: to be deeply defeated/by ever greater things.”
-Rainer Maria Rilke

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(It doesn’t matter, just so long as you start somewhere.)

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Check out my books

They’re short, funny, and practical. >1M copies sold, thousands of 5-star reviews.

 

 

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