Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace

A management text with a title like this simply demands to be read. Even more so when it is described by Stanford University professors as the best book on corporate creativity ever.

Gordon Mackenzie was a long-term employee at Hallmark, serving in a variety of functions in the creative arms of that company. in Mackenzie's world, the Giant Hairball is the agglomeration of rules, policies and procedures that even the most creative organisations devolve into, stifling the creative potential of their employees. Mackenzie's solution is to go into orbit around the Hairball, by operating outside the rules and processes, while still respecting the "gravity" of the organisation's aims. In this way, employees can free up their creative juices show more and make a bigger contribution.

This actually takes some doing, as people are heavily conditioned to do the opposite. Mackenzie offers a series of little anecdotes giving examples of how he managed to operate outside Hallmark's stifling norms, whilst still being a valuable employee. Along the way he makes some very good points about our creative urges, how they work, and how easily they can be undermined.

The book is cleverly presented, with loads of little scribbles and drawings that add to the fun. Highly recommended. show less

A colleague recommended this one as a business type book that isn't the type to make you want to stick a fork in your eye (that may not have been his precise wording). He reads lots of business books, and I had been bemoaning how much I dislike reading them in general, though had been wading through several at the time. I decided to give it a whirl.

It's mostly pretty annoying. The author styles himself sort of a guru, which is annoying out of the gate, but then he also just writes really inconsistently. One chapter will be a nice little meditation on an event that shaped the way he navigated corporate infrastructure and another will be a a weird self-congratulatory description of a way in which he seemed to think he was pioneering by show more being (what read to me as) patronizing to his coworkers or workshop attendees, and then just kind of stopping in what feels like the middle.

I did dog-ear a few pages, but on the whole, it felt like sort of a how-to for being a self-styled guru who actually is an annoying crank. If I had to work with this guy or attend one of his workshops, I think my eyes would fall out from all the rolling. I would probably be tempted in any case to stick a fork in my eye. show less

I stumbled on this book about creativity (by a former sketch artist at Hallmark) while on a lunch break during a business conference. The title annoyed me and I remember leafing through the book and thinking, "Yech!": the pages were a mess of weird fonts and weird art and scribbles. I put it back.

But then I pushed myself to take another look. It would do me good to stretch toward something eclectic, I decided. And I found the content as different from what I was accustomed to as the design: Creative. Spontaneous. Curious. Encouraging. Supportive. Fun.

Read the first chapter ("Where Have All The Geniuses Gone?") and you’ll be hooked. (Hint: the geniuses are all still here. They're us.)

Fantastic! Amazing! Business books usually leave a lot to be desired. This one had me captivated from page 1 right to the very end. I borrowed it from the library and ended up going out and buying my own copy. The message that the author sends about thinking outside the box, paradoxes, creativity and the workplace are priceless, and well worth the read. The big question is how do you contribute to an organization, but not get swept up in the hairball that IS the organization. How do YOU orbit the giant hairball of corporate America?

I have referred to this book more than any other I have read. It's lessons are great for work and life. It is so genuine and honest. You have a real sense of Gordon MacKenzie as a person, not as a persona. He is relates lessons from his life, whether they reflect well on him or not. This book is certainly on my list of 5 volumes I would want with me on a desert island. Buy it, keep it, give it as a gift!

This book was recommended to me by a friend and I fell in love with it as soon as I started reading. MacKenzie provides a very creative and distinct insight into the corporate world and offers interesting perspectives on how to fly above the corporate mess he calls the giant hairball. Invaluable read for anyone wanting to find a way to make their big, corporate job more interesting.

I pulled six good points out of the first 53 pages ... then only three out of the remaining 170 . It does make some sense occasionally, but MacKenzie hides that in a meandering scrapbook of experiences from his Hallmark days.

If you happen across it, it's an interesting diversion. Not really worth seeking out, though.