Creativity is crucial to business success. But too often, even the most innovative organization quickly becomes a "giant hairball"--a tangled, impenetrable mass of rules, traditions, and systems, all based on what worked in the past--that exercises an inexorable pull into mediocrity. Gordon McKenzie worked at Hallmark Cards for thirty years, many of which he spent inspiring his colleagues to slip the bonds of Corporate Normalcy and rise to orbit--to a mode of dreaming, daring and doing above and beyond the rubber-stamp confines of the administrative mind-set. In his deeply funny book, exuberantly illustrated in full color, he shares the story of his own professional evolution, together with lessons on awakening and fostering creative genius.

Originally self-published and already a business "cult classic", this personally empowering and entertaining look at the intersection between human creativity and the bottom line is now widely available to bookstores. It will be a must-read for any manager looking for new ways to invigorate employees, and any professional who wants to achieve his or her best, most self-expressive, most creative and fulfilling work.

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Although I have read many excellent books about nurturing creativity and working creatively in companies, this is the first book I have read where the author has been someone who has done that repeatedly and in a variety of ways. That perspective is uniquely valuable both to those who want to have more creative jobs and those who would like to encourage creativity.

Although the analogies seem far-fetched at first (orbiting the giant hairball means taking a creative tangent and refocusing it to have relevance for the company's purpose), they serve to open your mind to thinking differently about creativity and organizations.

Although the author's key points are not summarized anywhere in the book, you will begin to get a sense of how the ideas connect together. That's useful, because otherwise why should he try to teach us so much? Except in the chapter that deals with them, any of the key observations would have been enough for a whole book on the subject. The overall theme is that our minds are subject to being too quickly anesthetized, rather than stimulated to ground-breaking insights. You'll love the story about hypnotizing hens where he introduces that concept.

One of my favorite stories in the book described when the author was asked to create an introductory course on creativity. The first session was wildly successful. The author then analyzed why it worked and created a more organized version of this course (called Grope). That sesssion didn't work as well. Then he went back to being unstructured (operating at the edge of chaos), and the course worked again. He learned from this the delicate connection between groping and rote. You need more of the former and less of the latter.

Another of my favorite stories related to the joy he experienced when he first started parachuting. But within six months, it was getting to be boring. He could only make it more exciting by taking the parachute off, but that would be suicide. On the other hand, if he never tried something new, he would be vegatating. So we want to stay somewhere between suicide and vegetation for the most effective results.

You will enjoy reading this book because it presents a fresh perspective that will stay with you. The successful point of entry is a story about children. When the author shows children about making sculpture from sheets of steel, he asks them if they are creative. All first graders raise their hands. By sixth grade, no one will say that they are creative. The pressure to be like everyone else makes the creative people want to hide. It just gets worse from there. Everyone who reads that story will remember experiences from childhood where their creativity was actively discouraged by teachers, parents, neighbors and classmates. Such a pity!

Each story is imaginatively illustrated to help you get a sense of a different reality. It also makes the material more accessible to people of all ages.

In addition to reading and changing your own behavior, this book should be shared with young people to reinforce the idea that it is desirable to be creative. This would be a good book to discuss with your coworkers, as well.

22 of 24 found the following review helpful:

Not for businessDec 30, 1999
By Donald E. Ingram "Barefoot Again"
Gordon's book is listed as a rave for business anywhere. I would say, that it should be in the hip pocket of every teacher and educator in the world.

If our education system would use this book as a guideline, we would not have to write this way for business. In our world we seem to always work at fixing things when they are broken and not working on the Source. To use this book in business is addressing a secondary manifestation.

If we were to follow his book, chapter by chapter, the children would grow in their creative genius, and the business world would automatically be fixed. I loved the story of how the chickens were mesmerized and if ever we need to free our schools from keeping the children's beaks on a chalk line on the porch, it is now.

I cannot say enough; from the question at the beginning about, how may of you are artists? to the end where we are given the challenge to paint our own masterpiece...each anecdote, speaks loudly, nay, shouts to every person in a classroom to open the containers and let the minds find their creative genius.

If this book were on every teacher's desk, and more importantly in the cellular understanding of each educator, there would be no articles in any paper about how schools are failing.

Gordon, if you are watching and listening....you created a legacy that will not be forgotten...Thank you.

15 of 16 found the following review helpful:

addicted to structure & conformity? think business/life should run by formula? meet your cure.Apr 12, 2006
By gencus
OK, Here's the review:

Buy this book and take it's message to heart. I have purchased and given this book more times than I can count to people in all levels of business, and to friends who are at crossroads in their lives. I have seen some reviews here which take issue with the fact that the author's message is too far ahead of it's time, won't fly within the gridwork of a conformist corporate culture, or that the message is inaccessable due to the book's apparent lack of structure.

Well, the message and how it's presented are kind of the point, not the problem.

If the message won't fly in a particular company culture, the problem is within the culture. Those groups need to pay attention more than any other, because they stand to gain the most. The perspective offered here is unique and invaluable. It applies to more than the immediate situation, not just to surviving a job at Hallmark, or any job, for that matter, but can be applied to any aspect of life. If you are in business today, you can apply the lesson given here. If you are a CEO and think that workers are drones who need your company more than it needs them, accept the moral initiative given by this book and learn why change is good, both economically and sprititually. If you are a humble worker bee and are saddened by your present position, use this book as a springboard to give you the initiative you need to find a better place, one away from the CEOs who haven't read this book. That would probably make Gordon smile.

This book is all those things that have already been said about it: it's loopy, zany, wise, generous, playful, full of heart, loaded with quirky illustrations, and stuffed to the gills with genuine spirit. It's a non-traditional and revealing take on that most pathological of institutions, the American corporation. In this case, the corporation happens to be a seemingly warm and fuzzy greeting card company.

It's also a fun, quick read.

End of review.

I also want to offer a second book which Gordon personally recommended to me in 1990. Years before he wrote "Hairball", he told me to read "The Addictive Organization : Why We Overwork, Cover Up, Pick Up the Pieces, Please the Boss, and Perpetuate Sick Organizations" by Anne Wilson Schaef. It inspired him enough to tell others about it; in turn, it opened my eyes to the real reasons behind the deep-seated problems within organizations, and I want to pass it to others. If you've already taken inspiration from Gordon's own gentle, brilliant book, check this one out, too. If you haven't, then read both.

What follows is a brief personal account of my interaction with the author. Those looking for a traditionally structured review may wish to look elsewhere.

I was VERY lucky to meet Gordon MacKenzie when I was at a low point in my career, having just (naively) taken a job with a division of Hallmark that existed at the outermost edge of the Mothership, a division which I came to learn was known internally as a "red-headed step child", and worse. In the five weeks that I had been there, the facade of colorful spontaneity and effervescent creativity had quickly given way to reveal a dysfunctional regime - it was rigid, grey, and structured - clueless both in the ways of healthy human interaction AND in the manner of the creative process.

Amid this depressing environment, Gordon noticed my work and was kind enough to introduce himself by presenting me with some photos of it, which he had taken himself. He was enthusiastic - the only senior Hallmarker I ever met who was - and bursting with ideas. Gordon exercised no direct authority over any part of our department, but no one in a position of management dared to turn him away when he would frequently drop by unannounced. To the consternation of that same management, and to my great delight, he came and went as often as he pleased, brightening the bleak outlooks in our department and spiriting individuals away to better jobs whenever he could. He was, as he describes in his book, "The Diversion. The Disruption. The Hope for Escape". He knew no creative boundaries, and, most telling of all, was one of the few encouraging voices I encountered while I was there.

Sure, it was part of his job to be encouraging, and it seems likely now that neither I nor my situation were more than a blip on the periphery of his Big Picture, but, just the same, he always had time to really listen, to coach, and to offer genuine guidance; in other words, to be a mentor.

I moved on after four years; I believe that without Gordon's support I would not have made it even six months. Less than a year after I left, he left the company for good, and made it known in many circles that he couldn't wait to get out. The guard had been changed. The same messages he had been hired decades ago to deliver were still relevant, but were no longer welcome. The company today reflects that mindset.

Like so many others, I was saddened to hear of his untimely passing.

As he states in this book, he would often be tapped for live speaking engagements, both in and outside the company. Individuals lucky enough to have been there for at least one of them will happily recognize some of that material distilled into his book. To witness his presentation and the challenges it posed to a gathering of suits was to take a breath of fresh air in a very stale room. It was easy to discern, by reading the faces in the room, just who was absorbing it, really getting it.

It was just as easy, and disconcerting, to look around a room full of Hallmark execs and see just how many closed minds weren't interested in absorbing a thing. Imagine watching the most brilliantly colored paints as they slide off a myriad of bullet-proof, teflon-coated surfaces, leaving no impact or hint of their existence, and you get the idea.

That scenario opened my eyes to the reality of the situation, and the reality of this book: THE MESSAGE IS LEGIT; IF ONE DOESN'T/WON'T/CAN'T ACCEPT IT, IF THE MESSAGE ISN'T STRUCTURED IN A MANNER DEEMED ACCEPTABLE, OR FLIES IN THE FACE OF THE ESTABLISHED PARADIGM OR THREATENS THE GROUPTHINK, THE MESSAGE IS NOT DIMINISHED. THE ONUS IS ON THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE CORPORATE ENTITY (COMPRISED OF INDIVIDUALS) TO OPEN HIS MIND, TO MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN FROM WITHIN, NOT JUST PERSONALLY, BUT COLLECTIVELY, AND CORPORATELY.

This is not a book about finding a solution by the numbers. This is not a book about how to make it big by shoring up the status quo, or by rewarding the establishment for bad behavior. This is a book meant to inspire you to find your own path, to spark your own creativity, to find your own ways to incorporate those things into your business environment and your life. Grab it. Absorb it. Change your head. Acheive your own unique orbit. You'll be glad you did.

12 of 13 found the following review helpful:

R.I.P. Mr. ParadoxAug 27, 1999

Gordon MacKenzie changed my life. He truly lived by the principles in his book. He didn't just seek out the most visible idea people or those whose external appearances trumpeted that they were creative. His book is not just talk. I know because I was one of those shy little nobodies whom Gordon sought out and encouraged. I am sorry to say for those of you who don't know, that Gordon passed away on July 26, 1999.

Here is the passage that was on his funeral leaflet: "You have a masterpiece inside you, too, you know. One unlike any that has ever been created, or ever will be. And remember: If you go to your grave without painting your masterpiece, it will not get painted. No one else can paint it. Only you."

11 of 12 found the following review helpful:

One of the most unique management books I've readJan 18, 2005
By M. Strong
Given the title of the book, it may go without saying, but this is a very different approach to managing a business and creating a corporate culture.

Some people say the book is too "cute" and lacks solid ideas, but I used many of the concepts from this book in helping to turn around the culture of a business and it worked very well. This is certainly not a paint-by-numbers guide to business, but if you are striving to do something truly different and better with your business, "Orbiting the Giant Hairball" may provide an approach that can help you.

As an aside, the book itself is a piece of art - I've never seen another like it. The writing and the physical product clearly come from the mind of a creative individual.

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