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

Originally self-published and already a business "cult classic", this personally empowering and entertaining look at the crossroads between human creativity and the bottom line is now widely available. 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. --Amazon.com

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.

May you always find the creative solutions!


inspiration for surviving the downturn   December 4, 2002
Helper (Oxford)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This is a wonderfully inspiring and entertaining book. For those who are championing innovation and originality in large organizations in times of cost reduction and market downturn this book provides hope and tactics. Full of learning experiences from Gordon's years at Hallmark and insights into how we might apply these. I am on to my third copy of this book having given earlier copies to colleagues who have since gone into orbit!


Truly inspirational   July 23, 2002
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I'd recommend this book to anyone who may be trying to find the means to inject some realness back into their existence and transform the suffocating tedium of big corporate life into something a little more interestnig. Gordon MacKenzie's writing, while light and fluffy, is insirational and, through anecdote and analogies, he shares many important ideas on how to recapture your true self and let go of much of the "normalcy" we are taught to display from an early age. Thanks to Gordon for a great read. Everyone else, buy a copy today!


Liberates the you inside of you   February 5, 2002
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Absolutely fantastic! This book is a call to arms to all of us. It endorses us to be us and permits us to be different. Not only that, but the presentation itself (complete with cartoons and illustrations) is a perfect example of what Mr MacKenzie is getting at - as I read the final chapters on the London Underground this morning, I noticed other commuters looking over my shoulder at this unconforming book. "Pictures? But surely she's an adult," I could hear them thinking. "Tee, hee," I thought to myself. This book makes me feel free as a bird even though we're trapped underground and the rest of you are swearing & angry about the delay. I wish I had had spare copies for everyone.