5 Lesssons in Creativity From Pixar
25 Sep
In the September issue of Harvard Business Review, Ed Catmull, cofounder and president of Pixar wrote an excellent article entitled How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity. Below are five lessons that stood out in my mind.
- There is no single idea. A single idea means very little. It takes multiple good ideas (in Pixar’s case, thousands) in order to produce anything of value. This concept holds true far beyond the film realm. Consider something as simple as the iPod, an easy to use, aesthetically pleasing MP3 player. One idea right? Not really. The scroll wheel, the menu system, the locking mechanism and the consumer friendly client (iTunes) are just a few of the good ideas that drove made the iPod what it is.
- Good people matter more than good ideas. Once it is acknowledged that no single idea can stand alone, it becomes clear how important execution is and in order to ensure top notch execution, an organization needs good people. As Ed writes, “If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up; if you give a mediocre idea to a great team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something that works.”
- Barriers between disciplines inhibit innovation. Given the different languages, goals, philosophies and often locations between people working in different disciplines, barriers will naturally occur. In order to foster innovation these barriers need to be removed. One of the biggest things Pixar has done to remove these barriers is to create open communication channels. Anyone should be able to approach anyone else regardless of department in order to solve a problem. This requires managers to loosen the reins on process a little bit and accept that they will not always be the first to know about everything and will occasionally be surprised.
- Trust is paramount. In order to foster creativity, each member needs to be be trusted enough to be given leeway to be creative within their purview. In addition to that trust, team members need to trust and respect one other enough to be able to provide honest criticism and not pull any punches. Inversely, those receiving feedback need to trust that those giving the feedback are doing it for the betterment of the project not out of ego or in order to serve some alterior motives.
- Ideas are to be shared. This one I found to be both surprising and quite forward thinking on the part of Pixar. Pixar proactively shares their ideas externally by encouraging their technologists to publish their ideas within the academic community. Sharing ideas outside of an organization provides three primary benefits. Sharing can bring in or inspire new ideas by initiating exchanges and dialogue, it can establish your organization as thought leaders within your industry and it is an excellent way to attract talent.