The Art and Science of Inspiration

What coach and bestselling author Michael Bungay Stanier can teach us about that ‘spark’ for change

Is there anything you can do to be inspired...if you’re not inspired? Are there inspirationtechniques? Can you force inspiration? Or should you just wait for it...at the risk that it maynever come?

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As someone who has inspired millions with his books and workshops, Michael Bungay Stanier can provide some answers to these burning questions. At the beginning of his career, long before he was a bestselling business book author or had invented the coaching method (The Coaching Habit) that brought him global renown, Bungay Stanier was a brand consultant. In the mid-1990s, he was part of a consulting team that specialized in bringing new products and services into the world.

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Bungay Stanier was hired by a Scottish whiskey company, a client selling the right product atthe wrong time. The 90s were a decade of hard lemonade and vodka coolers; neither Scotch, nor the multi-consonnated Gaelic distilleries it came from, seemed particularly hip. For Scotch to sell, it would have to shed its image as the drink of grizzled grandfathers, and become alluring and accessible to modern consumers, a population eager for the new millennium and enamored with life-changing technology.

But can you really wait for inspiration?

Is there anything you can do to be inspired...if you’re not inspired? Are there inspirationtechniques? Can you force inspiration? Or should you just wait for it...at the risk that it maynever come?

‍

As someone who has inspired millions with his books and workshops, Michael Bungay Stanier can provide some answers to these burning questions. At the beginning of his career, long before he was a bestselling business book author or had invented the coaching method (The Coaching Habit) that brought him global renown, Bungay Stanier was a brand consultant. In the mid-1990s, he was part of a consulting team that specialized in bringing new products and services into the world.

‍

Bungay Stanier was hired by a Scottish whiskey company, a client selling the right product atthe wrong time. The 90s were a decade of hard lemonade and vodka coolers; neither Scotch, nor the multi-consonnated Gaelic distilleries it came from, seemed particularly hip. For Scotch to sell, it would have to shed its image as the drink of grizzled grandfathers, and become alluring and accessible to modern consumers, a population eager for the new millennium and enamored with life-changing technology.

But can you really wait for inspiration?

Is there anything you can do to be inspired...if you’re not inspired? Are there inspirationtechniques? Can you force inspiration? Or should you just wait for it...at the risk that it maynever come?

‍

As someone who has inspired millions with his books and workshops, Michael Bungay Stanier can provide some answers to these burning questions. At the beginning of his career, long before he was a bestselling business book author or had invented the coaching method (The Coaching Habit) that brought him global renown, Bungay Stanier was a brand consultant. In the mid-1990s, he was part of a consulting team that specialized in bringing new products and services into the world.

‍

Bungay Stanier was hired by a Scottish whiskey company, a client selling the right product atthe wrong time. The 90s were a decade of hard lemonade and vodka coolers; neither Scotch, nor the multi-consonnated Gaelic distilleries it came from, seemed particularly hip. For Scotch to sell, it would have to shed its image as the drink of grizzled grandfathers, and become alluring and accessible to modern consumers, a population eager for the new millennium and enamored with life-changing technology.