Having fun at work is an oxymoron for most people in most jobs. But if we want to be serious about innovation and encouraging people to be innovators, maybe it’s time to get serious about fun. Fun evangelist Michael Bungay Stanier, who recently presented at the Asian Human Resources Congress in Mumbai has a lot to contribute on this topic.

Michael, by all standards, is a really smart man. A Rhodes scholar with a Masters in Philosophy from Oxford and a law degree, he was named the 2006 Canadian Coach of the Year by Coaches Canada. He is also the principle of his coaching company, Box of Crayons, (www.boxofcrayons.biz) and the marketing genius behind a crafty little viral video, the 8 Principles of Fun.

Intrigued, I got the opportunity to sit down and chat with Michael when I interviewed him recently. Here are some of the highlights of our conversation.

A: What got you started in coaching?

M: Like many coaches I had a natural inclination to sit down with people and ask them what’s working, what’s not working & what you really want? I became a telephone counselor in University, which is the first coach training I had. That’s when I learned how to ask questions that helped people get a perspective on their situation. In 2001 I did my formal coach training with CTI (Coach Training Institute) and then began taking on clients. Before that I had been a change management consultant and was able to grow a client base from that work.

A: Where does the fun come in?

M: Well, I realized that while most people weren’t having a bad time at work, they weren’t really having a fun and fulfilled time. I wanted to create something that captured core principles of behavior that would allow people to access a more fulfilled life. And I realized that there is a basic structure that underlies all coaching and change - focus, creativity, wisdom and action. Each step in the structure draws on 2 principles that lead people to behave differently in the life that that they’re living.

A: What are these principles?

M: Focus - What’s the problem? What needs to be done?
Creativity - Draw on ideas. Draw from the future.
Wisdom - Apply your wisdom because you have it. Draw from the past.
Action - What’s the next step?

So, from this I created a 6-minute short internet movie around these principles called 8 Principles of Fun (www.EightPrinciples.com). Since launching 14 months ago, it’s been seen by over 100,000 people in over145 countries. It’s designed to make people stop in the moment and ask what do I need to change.

What I noticed is that people find 1 or 2 of these principles that speaks mostly to them.
These principles are simple and difficult. Most people are running so full out, they don’t have the time /space to take a breath and ask themselves - Is this the life I want to be living? They use the principle as a doorway.

One of the principles I personally like is #7. Stop being busy. This principle leads me to an enquiry about - Where in my life am I showing up as being too busy? So for me it might mean that I need to say no to clients that aren’t quite right for me. I want to do work I find compelling and where I can have more impact.

A.: What kind of work do you find most compelling?

M: My mental model of work is this. There’s bad work, good work and great work.

Bad work is work that if you ever stopped and thought about it you’d say - Why am I wasting my time doing this?
Good work is work that I understand, am comfortable doing, makes money, is efficient, good quality, and requires a high level of competency.
Great work is work where you’re on the edge of yourself, so it’s more exciting, more scary and more risky. It’s what your passion is about, a crossroads of excitement and terror at the same time.

This leads to my personal mission which is to infect 1 billion people with the “possibility virus.” What that means is that I can look at the work that I do and ask myself - Of all the things that I can do, what will get me closest to that? Which means that only one-on-one coaching won’t get me this kind of impact, though I love it, so it calls me forth to do more work with groups and more international work.

A: How do you see people’s reactions when they are having fun at work?

M: When I show people the movie I see their reaction. There’s this little ripple of recognition to the principles. “Yeah, this is me!”

A: And is that enough to get people moving?
M: No, one must continue to live a self-examined life.

A: Which principle affects people the most?
M: The 1st principle “Get rid of the crap. Start being yourself. Dig out your unique DNA and once you find out who you are …turn up the volume.

A: How do you advise people to live a more powerful life?
M: Find out who you are. Find out what’s important and then do that. Don’t do the other stuff.

Sounds like fun to me.

Contact:  Arupa Tesolin, 905.271.7272; Cell 905.301.7461, email intuita@intuita.com, www.intuita.com