- Paperback: 1 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Paperbacks (Dec 1 2019)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140275134
- ISBN-13: 978-0140275131
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Booklist
There is no denying the creativity of someone who can persuade one of the 50 largest private companies in the U.S. to create a position for him called "creative paradox," or someone who can convince the accounting department of that same company to write off to the company art collection the purchase of more than a dozen roll-top desks to be used in his "creative lab," or someone who could come up with such a goofy title for a book. MacKenzie worked for the Hallmark greeting card company for 30 years, first as a sketch artist and eventually as an upper-level manager, until he escaped the "hairball" by creating his own niche. A corporate hairball is an entangled pattern of behavior or a mess of bureaucratic procedure that discourages originality and stifles imagination. A consultant for the last seven years, MacKenzie tells what he knows about creativity and what he learned about the creative process in a corporate setting. David Rouse
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Book Description
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.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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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First Sentence
Groaning under its overload of blacksmith equipment and steel passengers - a menagerie of elephants, crocodiles, Stegosauri, turtles and sundry fantasy creatures - my rusted-out pickup swayed ominously as I gentled it into the school parking lot to a safe stop. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Groaning under its overload of blacksmith equipment and steel passengers - a menagerie of elephants, crocodiles, Stegosauri, turtles and sundry fantasy creatures - my rusted-out pickup swayed ominously as I gentled it into the school parking lot to a safe stop. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Orbiting the Giant Hairball,
By
This review is from: Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace (Hardcover)
As the college I worked for reorganized, this book inspired me to look at the way we were doing things and to bring my full creativity into my administrative role. It helped me to be open to the changes and discover new ways to work. In the process, I recreated my position and felt the joy of the change as it reverberated through my staff (lowered the turnover and gave people a sense of joy in their work).I think it gets bad reviews because it doesn't do the work for you. You have to ask yourself how am I like what he describes and how could I break from this routine? And isn't that his point? He is not about formula. Get out and just question one of the rote ways you proceed and the magic of change happens. If you feel uncomfortable about it, he has covered that, too. (and don't forget it is a process -- once you change that can become rote, too -- so keep dreaming up new things -- this work/fun pays off in the beauty of removing yourself from the same dried up place.)
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable, insightful, inspiring!,
By
This review is from: Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace (Hardcover)
This book is a must read for anyone trying to live creatively inside an environment that lends itself to repetitive, dry and dusty monothink. Presented in a dynamic visual style, this book will vault you out of the rut into fresh and expansive new terrain - don't miss it!
5.0 out of 5 stars
You Know You Got a Classic When,
By Robert K. Smith (Somewhere, over the Brainbow..) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace (Hardcover)
You know you've got a classic when people either love it or hate it. My wife tries to get this idea across to students who either love E.A. Poe or hate him as being 'too creepy'. The point is that the work creates strong emotions. What, if anything, you do with your reaction is up to you. MacKenzie's 'hairball' is one of these. Me?, I love it.
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