📚Michael Bungay Stanier's Recent LinkedIn Posts

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Faculty at MasterClass!

Ten years ago, I had a modest ambition to write the most practical coaching book I could. The goal was to create something that would slip easily into busy lives. The Coaching Habit didn’t sell over a million copies because it’s just a book. It’s become a practice that helps people lead, parent, and show up (so I’ve been told). Who knew?! To celebrate the 10th anniversary, we created Power Ups to well, power up your coaching habit. These are different ways to go deeper into the work. New tools. New ideas. New ways to practice staying curious a little longer (like all year long). But they’re only available until March 23. If The Coaching Habit has been part of your journey, you might enjoy exploring what we’ve put together. https://mbsworks.shop

Excited to be on the cover of TCC ... and for the release of the interview on March 1st. Thanks Jonathan Carroll and happy first birthday!

What an exciting moment ... I'm joining MasterClass as part of its MasterClass Executive faculty. This is a chance to be taught by brilliant CEOs, brilliant Noble Prize winners, brilliant academics, brilliant Turing-medal winners, brilliant entrepreneurs, and also me 🙂. If you're ready to learn smarter, and if you've been waiting for a business school experience that's faster, cheaper, AI-native, and more 2026-appropriate than what's out there .... this is the program you've been looking for. Dig in to learn more here: https://lnkd.in/gxNFHBYG

There’s a reason this line still stings. We’re revisiting this earlier Change Signal conversation with Kate Lye in this week’s newsletter — and it’s a timely reminder that the hardest part of transformation isn’t strategy. It’s self-reflection. If you’re leading change right now, this one’s worth another listen. 🎧 https://lnkd.in/ePDHX66y

We spend a lot of time trying to change people’s minds. Kristen Berman makes a different case: behavior shifts not because attitudes change, but because environments do. In this clip, she explains why context beats persuasion and why your change effort might need redesign more than inspiration. 🎧 https://lnkd.in/gSgQ8zzT

Most resistance to change is not rebellion. It’s grief. Michael Norton names something most of us feel but rarely acknowledge: ambiguous loss. The organization is still here. But something meaningful has gone. Listen to The Change Signal podcast 👉 https://lnkd.in/eNu8ay7z

We build diverse teams. Then we rush them to agreement. Todd Kashdan suggests something uncomfortable. Cooperation, too early, destroys the very diversity we claim to value. Listen to The Change Signal podcast 👉 https://lnkd.in/eNSHMv-8

Most leaders say they want innovation. Rita McGrath makes it more specific: be discovery driven. That means genuine curiosity, a willingness to hear disconfirming information, and paying attention to the “weak signals” at the edges of your organization. The whisper on the loading dock. The unexpected customer question. The data point that doesn’t quite fit. That’s often where change begins. 🎧 https://lnkd.in/d24fj_u7

Change leadership is not a toolkit problem. It’s an identity question. We’re drawn to new models and better plans. I am too. A good process can steady the ship. But most change efforts don’t falter because the methodology was weak. They falter because, under pressure, we revert to habit. Today’s Change Signal episode looks at what sits below the waterline of transformation. Not just what you’re doing, but who you are being when you show up. When resistance kicks in. When progress slows. When you’re tempted to grip tighter or disappear into busyness. In this solo episode, I explore four paradoxes at the heart of change leadership: humble confidence, fierce love, a process that has structure but stays human, and the discipline of caring deeply without clinging to control. These aren’t techniques to master. They’re tensions to practise. You don’t solve them once and move on. You notice where you lean too far one way, and you adjust. So let me ask you: when the pressure rises, who do you become? And is that version of you helping the change, or quietly constraining it? If you’re leading change inside a large organisation, this is practical work. It shapes how meetings feel, how decisions get made, how people experience you. The Four Leadership Paradoxes is out now. Have a listen. And notice what it asks of you. 🎧 https://lnkd.in/d24fj_u7

Your idea isn’t the problem. It’s the drag around it. Loran Nordgren explains why most leaders make resistance worse without knowing it.

If you want to make change work, you need to understand how power actually flows. (Not the org chart version. The real one.) That’s why I keep coming back to 'Power, for All' by Julie Battilana and Tiziana Casciaro. It does something I find quietly brilliant. It takes power, this thing we often tiptoe around, and makes it more human. Less mysterious. More usable. And the more I sit with it, the more I notice power at play everywhere. In meetings. In decisions. In what’s said, and what isn’t. I’ve been lucky enough to have conversations with both authors, Julie on Two Pages with MBS and Tiziana on Change Signal. Both well worth a listen.

If your leadership feels mechanical, it probably is. When does your leadership become mechanical? Senior leaders are rarely short on tools. The deeper question is what happens to your presence when resistance appears, when time compresses, when scrutiny increases. Do you become more human, or more procedural? This Wednesday on Change Signal, we explore the difference between technique and identity in change management. It’s a conversation about paradox, agency, and why real influence sits below the waterline. For experienced transformation leaders, it’s a necessary recalibration.

Change does not only move through strategy. It moves through ritual. When we talk about transformation, we tend to default to plans and milestones. New targets. New structures. A fresh slide deck with sharper arrows. All useful. None sufficient. Because change is not just a shift in direction. It’s a shift in identity. And identity rarely moves because of a memo. As leaders, we’re asking people to move from A to B. To let go of something familiar and step into something not yet stable. The easier we make that emotional journey, the more likely the strategic journey succeeds. In this week’s Change Signal newsletter, we revisit my conversation with Michael Norton about ambiguous loss, team rituals, and why top down mandates so often backfire. When something ends without being properly acknowledged, people don’t simply “get on board.” They hold on. Quietly. Politely. Persistently. If you’re leading transformation and sensing resistance that no amount of clarity seems to fix, this perspective may explain why. Sometimes what people need is not a clearer plan, but a moment to mark what’s shifting. A way to honour what was, before stepping into what’s next. So here’s a question: what ritual might help your team cross the threshold? 🎧 https://lnkd.in/exiYrvND

Yesterday we released my Change Signal conversation with Rita McGrath. Here’s the moment I’m still thinking about: leadership in uncertain times isn’t about having better answers, it’s about absorbing uncertainty so others can think clearly. 🧠 As Rita puts it, “One of the best things leaders can do is absorbing uncertainty.” 🎧 https://lnkd.in/d24fj_u7

If the environment stays the same, don’t be surprised when the behavior does too. We keep trying to change behavior by changing minds. In this carousel, Kristen Berman breaks down why that approach often falls short — and what to design instead. 🎧 Listen to the full episode of Change Signal here: https://lnkd.in/gSgQ8zzT

There’s a tension in doing work that matters. On the one hand: you want to make a dent. Leave things better. Be ambitious for the world. On the other: zoom out… and you’re a tiny speck in a very big universe. So here’s the question: Can you hold both? → The ambition to matter → The humility that, well, maybe you don’t → And the discipline to show up anyway Because tilt too far one way and you burn out. Too far the other and you drift. But hold the paradox? That’s where something solid emerges. Not flashy. Not heroic. Just real work. Done daily. So… what would it look like for you to keep showing up? The latest episode of Change Signal is out now. 👇 🎧 https://lnkd.in/dZatQDwq

“To disarm requires you to engage…and to engage requires you to sit with your own anxiety.” Revisiting this conversation with Loran Nordgren for this week’s Change Signal newsletter and this line is worth repeaing. Leading change isn’t about overpowering resistance. It’s about being steady enough to face it. 🎧 Revisit the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/epNfEtHw

The biggest blind spot leaders have during transformation is ______. Not the obvious stuff. Not the strategy or the plan you’ve spent months refining. I want to hear about the thing hiding in plain sight. The thing that quietly derails momentum…while everyone insists things are “on track.” So… what are you noticing?

Perfection is seductive. It whispers: wait a bit longer, polish the plan, get the roadmap just right. But complex systems rarely reward perfection. They reward movement. In fact, chasing the perfect plan is one of the fastest ways to stall change, because while you’re refining the roadmap, the system itself is already shifting. A wiser move is simpler: make the next intelligent step. In this bonus episode of Change Signal, I talk with strategist and leadership advisor David Lancefield about what it means to lead change as a systems leader — someone who sees the connections between the personal, relational, organisational, technological, and societal systems shaping the work. Because most meaningful change doesn’t happen neatly inside one system. It happens in the messy spaces between them. In our conversation we explore why the real action in change often lives between systems, the risk of getting stuck in just one perspective, and why your next thoughtful move matters more than the perfect roadmap. So here’s a useful question to sit with: what’s the next intelligent move available to you right now? Not the perfect one, just the one that nudges the system forward. The bonus episode with David Lancefield is out now. 👇 🎧 https://lnkd.in/dZatQDwq

I'm pretty excited to be heading down to Dallas next week and film as part of MasterClass Executive faculty. I'm in extraordinary company ... CEOs, Noble Prize winners, brilliant academics, savvy entrepreneurs. Tipping my hat to Bob Sutton, Indra Nooyi, Gary Vaynerchuk, Issa Rae, Linda Yueh ... and that's just the beginning.

Autonomy is not a memo. It’s not something you announce at the next town hall or tuck into a slide deck and hope people absorb by osmosis. Autonomy is a design choice. Kristen Berman joined me for a conversation that, in the best possible way, unsettled how I think about influence. Most organisations try to persuade people when what they really need to do is redesign the environment around them. We send another email, run another training, explain again why this matters. And yet behaviour stubbornly stays the same. So here’s the uncomfortable question: if nothing’s shifting, what in the system is perfectly designed to keep things exactly as they are? Ownership and agency don’t appear because you declare them. They show up when the structure changes, when the defaults shift, when the incentives align, when the path of least resistance leads somewhere better. It’s less about motivation and more about architecture. If you’re serious about behaviour change inside large systems, not just nudging at the edges but actually moving something that matters, this conversation may recalibrate how you think about influence. Not louder. Not more persuasive. Smarter design. So where are you trying to convince, when you could be redesigning? And what’s one small structural shift that would make the desired behaviour the easy behaviour? Have a listen. Stay curious a little bit longer. 🎧 https://lnkd.in/gSgQ8zzT

Most change fails because we see the world in silos. We’ve been trained to break things apart, to simplify, to treat problems like they’re neat and solvable. But real organizations don’t work like that. They’re complex systems, and when you miss the connections, you miss what’s actually driving the problem. Dr. Leyla Acaroglu has spent years working in systems thinking, and in this conversation she makes one thing clear. The problem isn’t just that systems are complex. It’s that most of the ways we’ve been taught to work with them are too theoretical to be useful. Frameworks, diagrams, models. Interesting, but hard to apply when you’re actually inside the mess of change. So the real question is how do you make systems thinking practical? How do you use it to see what matters and intervene in a way that actually shifts outcomes? Listen to the full Change Signal conversation here 👇 🎧 https://lnkd.in/eEREdtkh

Most strategy days feel productive. Kate Lye suggests they might be elegant avoidance. The real question is not what the organization will do differently. It is what you will do differently. Listen to The Change Signal podcast 👉 https://lnkd.in/eEEUfvtP

“You’ve already won.” Too soon? Because it’s not when the project lands. Not when the numbers behave themselves. It’s earlier than that. Quieter than that. It’s the moment you show up… fully. And loosen your grip on how it has to turn out. That’s the shift. Or maybe the better question is: what changes when you stop trying to win… and start trying to show up? That’s today’s episode. Live now. 👇 🎧 https://lnkd.in/dZatQDwq