About Michael Stratford
GameMaster “Play is the Way”

Michael is particularly known for his sense of play. He was an early player in the of professional coaching game and was one of the first to be awarded the prestigious Master Certified Coach designation from the International Coach Federation. A leader in his profession, he soon earned a reputation for helping others achieve a level of excellence in communication, leadership and team performance. This led him to coach executives in some of the top Fortune 50 companies on personal and business excellence.

He has often been hired to create new games for team development or training for many of these companies, such as "The Game of Cutting Edge Leadership." His “The Game Of Masterful Presentation and Facilitation” for the Successful Professionals organization was particularly well received.

Michael specializes in the Art of Inquiry as a Leadership Development tool. This curiosity ripples throughout his Game Of…™ material. His creativity, mastery of language, and improvisational spontaneity have helped him forge new strategies and solutions for his clients that consistently remain congruent with who they are and their personal methodology of winning in their own game. Michael has a light and playful approach, yet through his masterful coaching and training, he quickly reveals a depth of knowledge and understanding on a wide range of human and organizational issues.

Among his business clients have been executives at Cisco, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, GE, the Whirlpool Corporation, Wells Fargo, and Countrywide. For fun in his early years, he coached rock bands. 

An accomplished author, Michael has penned two children's books, a fair amount of Haiku, a play produced off-off Broadway, three books on Coaching in the Master Coach Series, numerous volumes of coach training curriculum for four different organizations, The Game of Coaching and the first 5 of 15 articles in his "Provocation Series," which will be collected into his "The Game of the Human Condition." He's also very grateful to have collaborated with Tom Stone of Great Life Technologies on the Core Dynamics Coach Training.

Michael is a graduate of Saddleback College and the University of California where he studied both theatre and mathematics. His own path toward Playing and Winning the Game You're Built 4, has had a long and winding road through 55 different jobs including three previous careers: one as VP of Operations; the second as an Actor, Director and Writer, on/off Broadway as well as TV; and third as a General Contractor doing interior renovations in NYC.  Even now, he can still tape a mean sheet-rock joint. 

His latest adventure is launching his “Playing and Winning the Game You're Built 4.™” and beginning "Dreams of Play."  When he’s not biking his butt around SoCal he’s chillin’ on the beach in Laguna with his brilliant, gorgeous and talented wife, Carly.                   PLRK!