Book Review: Orbiting the Giant Hairball/J. Colannino

Gordon MacKenzie is an artist turned manager who worked at Hallmark for thirty years. His book gives an insider's look at how creativity can be nurtured and expressed even in the confines of corporate structure. As someone who has successfully been fighting this battle for more than 20 years, I like what Gordon has to say. According to MacKenzie...

The giant hairball is the corporate system of rules and regulations. A hairball starts when two hairs get together, then three, then, one-day, a hairball. But hairballs aren't all bad. There's safety in the hairball. It can be a nurturing place where structure provides guidance and order for necessary corporate functions. But then there's creativity -- that most unstructured and vital part of sustaining an organization. What to do about that? One could go rogue, upset the applecart, make a big mess, and ultimately cheese enough people off to doom your correctives to failure; or... YOU CAN ORBIT THE HAIRBALL!

Orbiting the hairball is the process of finding a creative way to do the necessary things required for you and your company to succeed. The hairball has lots of entanglements and cannot be furiously fought. What should be fought, however, are the unintended consequences of generally good rules and regulations. Here, one must learn how to find a way to do the right thing in a way that can be understood by those in the hairball.

Here are two instructive quotes:

"...the Anal Retentives, as Trustees of the Hairball, are loath to commit resources or genuine moral support to the amorphous concept of creativity. They lust for the fruits of creativity (especially when they see the very measurable results of a successful competitor's creative efforts) but mistrust the act of creativity, which remains invisible and elusive." p 197

"...your challenge is to help that bureaucrat discover a means, harmonious with the system, to meet your need." p 139

[italics, punctuation and capitalization in original]

For example, MacKenzie tells the story of a creative environment he structured. He had to break down some barriers to use things other than the common cubicle and drab office fare -- and he did. However, one sticking point was the waste basket -- MacKenzie had bought many milk cans to function as waste receptacles. But he was now having a conflict because milk cans were not on the list of approved furniture. Standing in front of the bureaucrat, he was about to go ballistic. Just then his co-worker asked if the milk cans could be classified as corporate art. Satisfied, the bureaucrat went happily on her way. What happened?

It turns out that most bureaucrats are not evil demons -- they are custodians of the corporation performing an important fiduciary duty. It's not personal, it is their job. You can entangle yourself in the hairball (and lose or create so much ill will your victory will be hollow) or you can choose to orbit the hairball, using some of your creativity to help everyone get what they need -- fiduciary discipline and creative production.

If you are frustrated with an organization that says they reward creativity but whose policies retard it (and that's all of them to a greater or lesser extent), you should read this book. You'll take a few points off your blood pressure and find out that, in the end, nearly everyone wants to do the right thing.