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Creativity, Inc.
Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
Creativity, Inc. explores the peaks and troughs in the history of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios along with Ed Catmull’s personal journey towards becoming the successful manager he is today. In doing so, he explains the management beliefs he has acquired along the way, and offers actionable advice on how to turn your team members into creative superstars.
- Anyone interested in successful managerial habits and leadership styles
- Anyone managing a staff whose work requires creativity
- Anyone truly committed to building a sustainable creative culture
Ed Catmull is the current president of both Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, and was co-founder of Pixar in 1986. In addition to being a successful manager, he has also contributed many important tools in computer graphics and animation.
Amy Wallace is an editor-at-large at Los Angeles magazine as well as a correspondent for GQ.
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Creativity, Inc.
Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
- Read in 15 minutes
- Audio & text available
- Contains 9 key ideas
Synopsis
Creativity, Inc. explores the peaks and troughs in the history of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios along with Ed Catmull’s personal journey towards becoming the successful manager he is today. In doing so, he explains the management beliefs he has acquired along the way, and offers actionable advice on how to turn your team members into creative superstars.
Key idea 1 of 9
Hierarchical structures prevent honest employee feedback, especially if directed at superiors.
Would you ever ring up your boss with your ideas about how you think the business could be improved? Probably not. Most likely, you – like most people – would feel too scared or unimportant to talk to the head honcho.
Yet, this paralyzing fear can have consequences for the business: if the right people aren’t aware of problems that need fixing, they remain unfixed. So how can you get around this?
You can start by creating feedback systems that allow information to be shared freely and openly between hierarchies. Animation company Pixar, for example, held a “Notes Day” in 2013, when the company halted all operations and the entire staff spent the day working with each other in teams and giving their feedback about the company.
Notes Day was invaluable for the company, as staff members felt free to engage in an open dialogue about the issues they faced, meaning that problems were shared and solved.
But you don’t just want any feedback. In order to get the best feedback from staff, leaders should ensure that their employees take ownership of their work.
For example, Japanese companies in the 1940s were able to improve their productivity with a simple idea: rather than giving only senior managers the power to stop the factory assembly line, all workers could halt production by simply pulling a cord if they saw there was a problem. Workers thus felt pride when they fixed problems on their own rather than waiting on management’s solution. This also boosted efficiency as it led to fast problem solving.
Finally, workers should feel that their opinions and suggestions are actually valued. Unfortunately, they’re often afraid to voice their opinions because they believe management will simply ignore them, or worse, treat them with disdain.
That’s why Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, visits all his employees individually in order to hear and gain insight about their opinions and problems, thus ensuring that they feel confident to speak to him with their opinions.
Key ideas in this title
- Hierarchical structures prevent honest employee feedback, especially if directed at superiors.
- The fear of failure causes people to prefer familiar routes instead of risking changes.
- Leaders need to acknowledge their own shortcomings and listen to the views of their staff.
- Employees work harder if they feel they’re contributing to the company’s drive for excellence.
- People are more important than ideas or processes, so assembling the perfect team is critical.
- Managers need to trust the people they hire and empower them to make decisions.
- A manager’s job isn’t to avoid risk and failure but to enable the company to get back on its feet.
- Companies need to consider their working environment as a tool for fostering creativity.
- Final Summary
