Book Club Notes: “Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration”
Authors: Ed Catmull, Amy Wallace.
One of the best books that we’ve read this year. Ed Catmull, President of Pixar and later Walt Disney Animation, tells the story of fostering collective creativity, correlation between people and ideas, and building culture of innovation.
The book opens with Ed Catmull telling the story of Pixar’s beginnings and the people behind it. Catmull, at that time computer scientist with the dreams about animation, sincerely shares ups and downs that the company faced during the first years of its existance. The group that became Pixar was started at Lucasfilm, but was sold to Steve Jobs in the course of a costly diviorce. After the sale, that stagnated for over a year, Jobs tried to turn Pixar into an independent software and hardware company. Only after several painful years of low sales and stagnation, they finally decided to change direction and become the animated motion picture studio we know now.
Throughout the book, Catmull tells story after story, unfolding the principles that make Pixar unique.
What makes Pixar special is that we acknowledge we will always have problems, many of them hidden from our view; that we work hard to uncover these problems, even if doing so means making ourselves uncomfortable; and that, when we come across a problem, we marshal all of our energies to solve it. This, more than any elaborate party or turreted workstation, is why I love coming to work in the morning. It is what motivates me and gives me a definite sense of mission.
Ed Catmull also shares 7 core principles that helped him and his team build the unique environment at Pixar:
- Quality is the best business plan.
Quality is a mindset you must have before you decide what you are setting out to do. You can say you are going to be a company that never settles, but saying it isn’t enough: You must live and breathe it.
2. Failure isn’t a necessary evil.
It’s a necessary consequence of doing something great. Making mistakes should never strike fear into employees’ hearts.
3. People are more important than ideas.
If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. But give a mediocre idea to a great team, they will either fix it or come up with something better. That’s why people matter.
4. Prepare for the unknown.
Empower employees at every level to own the problems and give them the freedom to fix them without asking permission.
5. Do not confuse the process with the goal.
Making the process easier, better, faster, and cheaper is something we should continually work on — but it is NOT the goal. Making something great is the goal.
6. Everybody should be able to talk to anybody.
Communication structures should never mirror organizational structure.
7. Give good notes.
Truly candid feedback is the only way to ensure excellence. Being honest with each other and with the management leads to better culture.
The Brain Trust
Although Ed Catmull doesn't reveal all secrets behind Pixar’s creative culture, he gives examples of a couple of them, that can actually be used not only in creative industry. The most inspiring for us was The Brain Trust.
The Brain Trust is a group of colleagues that get together on a regular basis to discuss the progress of a Pixar film. As the company prophets candor as the main drive for excellence, the job of the Brain trust is to “push towards excellence, and root out mediocrity.”
Everyone who participates in the Barin Trust is encouraged to be completely honest about what they observe. The most important takeaways from the Brain Trust culture:
- The Brain Trust identifies problems and may discuss potential solutions, but they leave the final solution up to the director that owns the idea.
- Candor and actionable feedback is the desired result. Participants provide the notes of their feedback, and as Ed Catmull writes,
“A good note says what is wrong, what is missing, what isn’t clear, what makes no sense. A good note is offered at a timely moment, not too late to fix the problem. A good note doesn’t make demands; it doesn’t even have to include a proposed fix. But if it does, that fix is offered only to illustrate a potential solution, not to prescribe an answer. Most of all, though, a good note is specific.”
- If you receive the feedback, try not to be defensive about it:
“You are not your idea, and if you identify too closely with your ideas, you will take offense when they are challenged.”
- The Brain Trust typically meets every 3 or 4 months to see the progress being made.
Unleashing creativity requires that we loosen the controls, accept risk, trust our colleagues, work to clear the path for them, and pay attention to anything that creates fear. Doing all these things won’t necessarily make the job of managing a creative culture easier. But ease isn’t the goal, excellence is.
Our rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐
Great and inspiring book, was easy to read and provides tremendous amount of actionable advice. Would recommend it not only to creatives and managers, but to all people who want to make better work.
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