WALL STREET JOURNAL Bestseller
A humorous yet practical five-step guide to ridding ourselves—and our companies—of bureaucratic bottlenecks and red tape
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the TSA is allowing passengers to board planes with unlimited amounts of hand sanitizer, while maintaining its 3.4-ounce limit on all other liquids. You need a chainsaw to pry open your new pair of headphones from their package. Your eighth Zoom meeting of the day keeps freezing, and if you hear “No, wait; no, you go first” again, you will implode. But first you have to sit through an endless Power Point presentation that everyone claims they’ve read, no one has, and that could have been summarized in one page.
What has happened to common sense? And how can we get it back? Companies, it seems, have become so entangled in their own internal issues, and further beset by reams of invisible red tape, that they’ve lost sight of their core purpose. Inevitably, they pay the price.
Best-selling author Martin Lindstrom combines numerous real‑life examples of corporate common sense gone wrong with his own ingenious plan for restoring logic—and sanity—to the companies and people that need it most. A must-read for today’s executives, managers, and employees, The Ministry of Common Sense is funny, entertaining, and immensely practical.
"Anyone who has ever worked in a big corporate structure will be nodding along and underlining every page in this book as management consultant and branding expert Martin Lindstrom recounts extraordinary encounters with his clients. He exposes and then offers a plan for eradicating internal nonsense... There are lots of good examples and farcical anecdotes here." -The Financial Times “The Ministry of Common Sense forces us all to take a hard look in the mirror if we want to take our businesses to the next level to win big – and do so by simply eliminating needless layers of corporate BRIGHT RED tape. Thanks for this book, Martin, because you have saved me from senseless meetings! -Tyra Banks, Supermodel turned Super Businesswoman “You will laugh, you will cry, and you will learn the power of common sense in this incredible gift of a book. Oh, and buy one for your boss too!”- Chester Elton, best-selling author ofThe Carrot Principle, All In, and Leading with Gratitude "Lindstrom proves that, more often than not, the bigger your policy manual the smaller you organization’s common sense. More importantly, he shows leaders at all levels how to reverse that alarming trend." - David Burkus, author of Under New Management "Essential reading for all of us who feel bogged down in workplace bureaucracy and wish to improve our quality of life at work." - Arianna Huffington, Founder & CEO, Thrive Global "Fun, fast-paced, and as actionable as it is insightful. Get ready to find out all the ways your organization can gain from better common sense. Highly recommended." - Renée Mauborgne, INSEAD Professor and co-author of Blue Ocean Strategy and Blue Ocean Shift "Martin Lindstrom’s delightful romp shows how too many organizations seemed designed to drive their customers and employees crazy. And this gem if filled with useful (and fun) tips and tools that will help leaders build teams and organizations where common sense is the rule rather than the exception." - Robert Sutton, Stanford Professor and author of bestsellers including The No Asshole Rule and Scaling Up Excellence
