The Ministry of Common Sense

How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses, and Corporate Bullshit

By: Martin Lindstrom Company

Narrated by: Robert Fass

Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

A humorous yet practical five-step guide to ridding ourselves - and our companies - of the bureaucratic bottlenecks and red tape that plagues every office.

How often in your life do you spend time following a rule or a procedure that makes no sense, offers little or no advantage and slows you down in the process? In a world of work governed by a system of well-intentioned rules, that's something that happens all too often. 

In this audiobook Martin Lindstrom - a global leader in branding and expert in organisational culture - takes you behind the scenes at companies which are paralyzed and demoralised by a breakdown in common sense. Lindstrom shares a five-step process for identifying and repairing these lapses, showing that restoring common sense always cuts costs, boosts engagement and increases customer retention. 

The stories in The Ministry of Common Sense are entertaining, troubling, eye-opening and recognisable to anyone who works in or leads an organisation of any size. It's easy to get blinded to problems right in front of you - but setting up your own Ministry of Common Sense will mean less time wasted on unnecessary things, less mistakes and misunderstandings, and a better way of working for all. 

©2020 Martin Lindstrom Company (P)2020 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

AWFUL AND NEGATIVE description of today’s reality

What an obvious and long way to retell what we see every day.
This book is just an egocentric way to show how much he’s traveled and seen but no conclusions or recommendations.

You’d listen this book

During my tenure at Nortel Networks, Comverse, and Cellcom (Israel), I experienced firsthand corporate regulations that made employees' lives a living hell.

If you are an executive and looks to change your organization for the better, listen to this audiobook now.

Boorish, patronising & arrogant

I really wanted to like this book. I certainly recognise some of the situations described but rather than being concise and informative it is really just a whine fest.

My common sense tip for the author. Make your points succinctly and don’t be so patronising. You may believe you are far more intelligent than your readers but constantly rubbing it in will not get you great reviews.

As Enjoyable as I’d hoped

Inspired by Martin Lindstrom’s podcast, a practical and amusing book. Well told with much to ponder over and a few laugh out loud moments, probably laughing at myself!!

Can relate to so much of this!!

so much of this book could be my daily life at work and everywhere. Nothing is straightforward anymore and people seem to have lost the ability to think for themselves and have turned into robots where the computer says no. common sense has left the building..... this book was so entertaining but also somewhat disturbing because it's just so true!!!

Worth a listen for people in management/busin

My criticism is that the author speak for a large portion of book giving examples of processes or ways of working that don't make sense, but only a smaller part of the book on how to address/change the issues. Afer a few examples of bad processes, the point is made. Perhaps there was an indecision on the part of the author/publisher at who this is aimed at - is it the casual worker (to whom the examples of poor work processes are aimed at) or the c-level executive (to whom the overall message is aimed at). For me, more detail on how the ministry of common sense should operate would be helpful.