Gordon MacKenzie (1) (–1999)

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 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.… (meer)

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 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.… (meer)