Still an important work after over 10 years
This book is not filled with prescriptions. It isn't intended to be a "how to" manual or a handbook of best practices to help you survive organizational dysfunction. It's grist for the mill of personal and group reflection in an often maddening world--a mirror to help break the bounds of organizational conformity. As such, it's best in the hands of leaders and followers committed to introspection, creative expression and constant, never ending improvement.
Stories access learning. We learn from seeing our foibles and our unproductive thinking and habits through the eyes and actions of others. I laughed at some of MacKenzie's stories and was moved and inspired by others.
Our individual and organizational somnambulism is accurately conveyed, for example, by a hilarious story of hypnotized chickens when MacKenzie was a lad visiting relatives' farm. That story alone is worth having the book in your collection. It will serve you as a handy mood lifter any time the system gets you down.
In another case, while training a group of Hallmark employees, a woman makes a break for the corporate fence of conformity. She is knocked back into place by the jeers, sarcasm and snipes of her colleagues. MacKenzie finesses this into insightful learning for the group and overdue approbation for the woman. Reading this story will help you whenever the system puts you down.
A good read and well worth having in your collection.
A Creative Ride
This book reminded me of the George Bernard Shaw quote "Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people." Gordon MacKenzie writes of his successful 30-year career at Hallmark Cards living an unreasonable life. From furnishing his department with antique desks and hanging stained-glass doors and windows to his three year stint as Creative Paradox, MacKenzie worked hard to exist outside the institutional environment. Through this book he continues to inspire people to escape the institutional rules, procedures and traditions (which he calls the "giant hairball") that stifle creativity.
Through entertaining use of stories the author shows us how to break free and be a renegade. Hypnotized chickens are used as a warning to resist corporate normalcy. A cavewoman drinking from a stream teaches us to not be confined by our job title. And a touching story about teasing challenges us all to have a little more courage.
Being a bit of an Adrenaline junkie myself, I could relate to the story of the rush he experienced when he began parachuting. But familiarity, repetition and conditioning diminish the excitement and within months, the thrill was gone. MacKenzie realized the only way to regain the mind-blowing excitement of the earlier jump would be to remove the chute and truly be free, but that would be suicide. However, accepting security over freedom leads to living in a vegatative state. The key to life is to find that perfect spot between security and freedom; a spot that is different for each of us, different for the various stages of our lives and different for the jobs and roles we will play.
While an entertaining read and full of solid recommendations, my disappointment with the book - and with MacKenzie's career at Hallmark - is that his ideas seem to have had limited impact on the corporate culture. The premise that you must existing in an area orbiting the hairball means that you have limited impact on the hairball itself. As chapter 18, "The Pyramid and the Plum Tree", acknowledges the pyramid and the hairball remain. Further, there was no indication that MacKenzie had inspired any others to begin their own orbits.
I think this book is a good read for anyone who enjoys working outside of the corporate norm. Hopefully this book will inspire others to set up their own orbiting satellites and recruit additional orbiters.
The inspirational story of a man who thought differently
This is a book that has one central premise; if you are willing to think and act outside the box, but not too far outside, you can become free. Since I agree with the central premise, I tended to like the book.
The book details MacKenzie's time at Hallmark and in this respect its more biography than actual how to book. In fact, the book is primarily here a story of someone who did it his way, changed minds and instilled a sense of creative fun at work. Its a story that can inspire you to try and find your orbital arc within your workplace and thus allowing you to soar.
With all that, "Orbiting..." is not really a management book; or if it is its in the same vein "What do you care what other people think?" by Feynman; its a book about someone who dared to think outside the box and succeeded. In this, its inspirational.
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