Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration

Ed Catmull, Amy Wallace

Published: 2014

Start from the presumption that your people are talented and want to contribute. Then you accept that, without meaning to, your company is stifling that talent in unseen ways. So, you try to identify those impediments and fix them.

Management: decisions are made, usually for good reasons, which prompt other decisions. When problems arise, disentangling them is not as simple as correcting the original error. Often, finding a solution is a multi-step endeavour.

To attract the sharpest minds, you need to put your insecurities away; even though that person might take your job one day.

Being on the lookout for problems is not the same as seeing problems.

The Toyota Way: the responsibility of finding and fixing problems should be assigned to every employee.

Questions to ask after a success:

• If we had done some things right to achieve success, how could we ensure that we understood what those things were?
• Could we replicate them on our next projects?
• Was replication of success even the right thing to do?