OK, Here's the review:
Buy this book and take it's message to heart. I have purchased and given this book more times than I can count to people in all levels of business, and to friends who are at crossroads in their lives. I have seen some reviews here which take issue with the fact that the author's message is too far ahead of it's time, won't fly within the gridwork of a conformist corporate culture, or that the message is inaccessable due to the book's apparent lack of structure.
Well, the message and how it's presented are kind of the point, not the problem.
If the message won't fly in a particular company culture, the problem is within the culture. Those groups need to pay attention more than any other, because they stand to gain the most. The perspective offered here is unique and invaluable. It applies to more than the immediate situation, not just to surviving a job at Hallmark, or any job, for that matter, but can be applied to any aspect of life. If you are in business today, you can apply the lesson given here. If you are a CEO and think that workers are drones who need your company more than it needs them, accept the moral initiative given by this book and learn why change is good, both economically and sprititually. If you are a humble worker bee and are saddened by your present position, use this book as a springboard to give you the initiative you need to find a better place, one away from the CEOs who haven't read this book. That would probably make Gordon smile.
This book is all those things that have already been said about it: it's loopy, zany, wise, generous, playful, full of heart, loaded with quirky illustrations, and stuffed to the gills with genuine spirit. It's a non-traditional and revealing take on that most pathological of institutions, the American corporation. In this case, the corporation happens to be a seemingly warm and fuzzy greeting card company.
It's also a fun, quick read.
End of review.
I also want to offer a second book which Gordon personally recommended to me in 1990. Years before he wrote "Hairball", he told me to read "The Addictive Organization : Why We Overwork, Cover Up, Pick Up the Pieces, Please the Boss, and Perpetuate Sick Organizations" by Anne Wilson Schaef. It inspired him enough to tell others about it; in turn, it opened my eyes to the real reasons behind the deep-seated problems within organizations, and I want to pass it to others. If you've already taken inspiration from Gordon's own gentle, brilliant book, check this one out, too. If you haven't, then read both.
What follows is a brief personal account of my interaction with the author. Those looking for a traditionally structured review may wish to look elsewhere.
I was VERY lucky to meet Gordon MacKenzie when I was at a low point in my career, having just (naively) taken a job with a division of Hallmark that existed at the outermost edge of the Mothership, a division which I came to learn was known internally as a "red-headed step child", and worse. In the five weeks that I had been there, the facade of colorful spontaneity and effervescent creativity had quickly given way to reveal a dysfunctional regime - it was rigid, grey, and structured - clueless both in the ways of healthy human interaction AND in the manner of the creative process.
Amid this depressing environment, Gordon noticed my work and was kind enough to introduce himself by presenting me with some photos of it, which he had taken himself. He was enthusiastic - the only senior Hallmarker I ever met who was - and bursting with ideas. Gordon exercised no direct authority over any part of our department, but no one in a position of management dared to turn him away when he would frequently drop by unannounced. To the consternation of that same management, and to my great delight, he came and went as often as he pleased, brightening the bleak outlooks in our department and spiriting individuals away to better jobs whenever he could. He was, as he describes in his book, "The Diversion. The Disruption. The Hope for Escape". He knew no creative boundaries, and, most telling of all, was one of the few encouraging voices I encountered while I was there.
Sure, it was part of his job to be encouraging, and it seems likely now that neither I nor my situation were more than a blip on the periphery of his Big Picture, but, just the same, he always had time to really listen, to coach, and to offer genuine guidance; in other words, to be a mentor.
I moved on after four years; I believe that without Gordon's support I would not have made it even six months. Less than a year after I left, he left the company for good, and made it known in many circles that he couldn't wait to get out. The guard had been changed. The same messages he had been hired decades ago to deliver were still relevant, but were no longer welcome. The company today reflects that mindset.
Like so many others, I was saddened to hear of his untimely passing.
As he states in this book, he would often be tapped for live speaking engagements, both in and outside the company. Individuals lucky enough to have been there for at least one of them will happily recognize some of that material distilled into his book. To witness his presentation and the challenges it posed to a gathering of suits was to take a breath of fresh air in a very stale room. It was easy to discern, by reading the faces in the room, just who was absorbing it, really getting it.
It was just as easy, and disconcerting, to look around a room full of Hallmark execs and see just how many closed minds weren't interested in absorbing a thing. Imagine watching the most brilliantly colored paints as they slide off a myriad of bullet-proof, teflon-coated surfaces, leaving no impact or hint of their existence, and you get the idea.
That scenario opened my eyes to the reality of the situation, and the reality of this book: THE MESSAGE IS LEGIT; IF ONE DOESN'T/WON'T/CAN'T ACCEPT IT, IF THE MESSAGE ISN'T STRUCTURED IN A MANNER DEEMED ACCEPTABLE, OR FLIES IN THE FACE OF THE ESTABLISHED PARADIGM OR THREATENS THE GROUPTHINK, THE MESSAGE IS NOT DIMINISHED. THE ONUS IS ON THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE CORPORATE ENTITY (COMPRISED OF INDIVIDUALS) TO OPEN HIS MIND, TO MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN FROM WITHIN, NOT JUST PERSONALLY, BUT COLLECTIVELY, AND CORPORATELY.
This is not a book about finding a solution by the numbers. This is not a book about how to make it big by shoring up the status quo, or by rewarding the establishment for bad behavior. This is a book meant to inspire you to find your own path, to spark your own creativity, to find your own ways to incorporate those things into your business environment and your life. Grab it. Absorb it. Change your head. Acheive your own unique orbit. You'll be glad you did.
