March 24, 2024

B. Creativity, Inc.

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Synopsis

In Creativity, Inc., Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, explores the principles that foster a thriving creative culture. He emphasizes that true innovation arises from an environment where hierarchy is minimized, playfulness is encouraged, and emotional intelligence is valued. Catmull introduces the concept of the “Braintrust,” a group that offers candid feedback while maintaining a focus on collective problem-solving rather than personal egos. He discusses the importance of experimentation, resilience in the face of failure, and the necessity of balancing creativity with the demands of production. Ultimately, Catmull advocates for a leadership style that prioritizes trust, openness, and the recognition that every team member contributes to the creative process. This guide is not just for creatives but for anyone looking to cultivate a vibrant workplace that embraces risk and fosters innovation.

Intro to expanded edition

Not knowing isn’t a sign of a weakness, it’s a sign of strength.

Goals:

• Preventing abuse of hierarchy
• Encouraging playfulness
• Valuing human emotion
• Fostering experimentation

Introduction (original)

The best managers make room for what they do not know

Only when we admit what we don’t know can we ever hope to learn it

Part 1: Getting Started

Chapter 1: Animated

• In the creative process, job titles and hierarchy are meaningless
• To create a fertile laboratory, you need to assemble different kinds of thinkers and then encourage their autonomy. Offer feedback when needed but stand back and give them room

Chapter 2: Pixar is Born

• Any hard problem should have many good minds trying to solve it simultaneously
• Pixer + Radar = Pixar
• For all the care you put into the artistry, visual polish frequently doesn’t matter if you’re getting the story right

Chapter 3: A Defining Goal

• Give ownership of and responsibility for a product’s quality to the people most involved in its creation
• Instead of a repeating an action, workers can suggest changes, call our problems, and feel the pride that comes when they fix what was broken

- You don’t have to ask permission to take responsibility

• When you disagree, wait until you can gather your thoughts and explain it more clearly
• Either they see you’re right
• Either you see they’re right
• Or the discussion is inconclusive but your passion to do what you think is right wins them over
• Sometimes the good stuff hides the bad stuff
• Check in with people and leave it open-ended
• Anyone should be able to talk with anyone else at any time without any fear of reprimand
• The act of thinking about the problem and responding to it is invigorating and rewarding

Chapter 4: Establishing Pixar’s Identity

• 2 original principles: Story is king and Trust the process
• Simply repeating ideas isn’t enough, you must take ownership and live out those ideas
• Trust in people not processes. Process is just a framework and tool not a substitute for self discipline and goals
• The Braintrust: a group of problem solvers that can analyze the emotional angle of a movie without any members getting emotion themselves
• It’s better to focus on how a team is performing rather than the individual talents of each member
• Ideas are not singular they are forged by tens of thousands of decisions by people
• Any person on any time should be able to identify a problem and pull the cord to the assembly line
• Efficiency is a goal, quality is THE goal
• Always have the flexibility to recognize and support balance
• Handle-suitcase problem
• Handle = saying / mantra
• Suitcase = all that went into it, the context
• Too often we grab the handle and walk away. It’s ok to use the handle as long as you remember the suitcase
• Excellence must be an earned word attributed by others to us
• Leaders must ensure the words remain attached to their original meanings
• The key is not to let trust lull is into abdication of personal responsibility
• “The process either makes you or unmakes you” where you play an active role
• We are part owners the company’s greatest asset: quality

Part 2: Protecting the new

Chapter 5: Honesty & Candor

• Candor is key and building a culture for candor to be unhindered is the goal
• The Braintrust
• Meets regularly to asses the project, compiled of trusted minds who can provide candor feedback
• Has no power to mandate solutions, it is up to the director
• You are NOT your idea
• Remove power dynamics from the equation, focus on the problem not the person
• The Braintrust can give you perspective and help you bridge that gap between art and commerce, but creatives must be willing to let go of things that don’t work and be open to feedback
• Spirited debate, laughter, and love… and sometimes volume
• It’s harder to figure out what’s actually wrong rather than finding the right solution
• The key is to looking at the viewpoints being offered as additive not competitive

Chapter 5: Continued

• What’s a good note for feedback?
• Offered a timely moment, not too late
• does not make demands
• Does not have to include a proposed fix but if it does it is only potential
• It is specific
• Its takes time for a group to develop the level of trust necessary to be truly candid
• It does not work if people don’t understand the Braintrust value
• The Braintrust evolves over time
• The people you choose must
• Make you think smarter
• Put lots on the table in a short period of time

Post Script

• There is not a single group that make up the Braintrust, it’s a type of meeting run in certain way

1. Everyone must view each other in the room as equals, everyone has insight
2. Remove power from the room, no one can override the directors film
3. You must recognize the vulnerability of the filmmakers, be kind
4. Give and receive honest notes
5. Someone who is observing the dynamics of the room

• Lead by demonstrating
• Notes need to be addressed, how they do it is up the director
• The best feedback gets the student to want to do their homework
• Fresh eyes don’t have any of the baggage (politics, deadline, budget)
• How to reach egolessness, a few approaches

1. Do not become attached to your ideas
2. Do not judge your value of contribution whether your ideas are adopted
3. Put all your attention on the problem, keep your focus on whether the thread is advancing or stagnating
4. Withhold quick judgment
5. Try not to stop listening to what’s happening

• The IKEA effect: people attribute more value to something when they participate in building it
• The two day offsite helps free people up, looking outside a new window

1. The two day intensive helps everyone stay fresh without reverting to the original structure
2. Everyone is on the same page

Chapter 6: Fear of failure

• The politics of failure can impede your progress. To determine
• What happens when a failure is discovered?
• Is the question “whose fault is this” being asked?
• How do you make failure into something people can face without fear?
• Leaders can talk about mistakes and our part in them
• Failure is an investment in our future
• “Explore the neighborhood”
• Creating a story is about discovery
• You go down blind alleys confidently and open mindedly
• A failed approach is not a failed team, it means you are closer to success - in fact every discovery can be a success because there is new information
• When experimentation is seen as necessary people will enjoy their work
• Being risk adverse is the first step on the path to irrelevance
• There is the event itself and our reaction to it. We can only control the second and that is where culture is formed
• Signs when you’re stuck —> Little changes between Braintrust meetings as if notes were not taken into consideration

Chapter 6 (cont)

• The antidote to fear is trust
• Trusting others doesn’t mean that they won’t make mistakes, it means trusting them when they do
• To confide in employees is to give them ownership in the information, sharing sensitive info makes everyone part owners in culture
• We compare ourselves to a made up model, but we should look at how our teams rally together to solve key problems
• Managements job is not to prevent risk but to build the ability to recover

Chapter 6: Post-script

• In the early stages of development, you can’t judge how excellent an idea is but by how well the team is functioning together
• 3 stages of identifying risk and avoiding fear

1. When you identify a risk you should potentially take
2. Begin working at the consequences of the risk you chose to take
3. Lock and load by not introducing any new risk

• Never skip stage 1, or you will never innovate
• 3 Pitches Rule - when presenting a new idea, research and refine 3 ideas to help get unstuck and focus on the one that gets you most excited

1. It gives you a new place to go in your head
2. Once you’ve worked on one for a while you can switch back to the other idea with some distance

Chapter 7: The Hungry Beast and the Ugly Baby

• Protect the new (ugly babies) from people who don’t understand that greatness can emerge from not-so-greatness so that the economic engine (the beast) does not trample it
• How to hold off the beast?
• Balance competing desires because conflict is healthy
• You learn balance by doing in motion
• Hold lightly to goals and firmly to intentions
• Creative products should not be created in a vacuum
• People are more important than ideas
• At some point the new cannot be protected forever
• Knowing when to green light is different every time
• Anton Ego: In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends

Chapter 8: Change & Randomness

• Unpredictableness is the ground on which creativity occurs
• Tricks for solving resistance to change
• “Pretend” to explore an option, just playing around
• Encourage people to play, allowing chatter and seemingly unrelated topics fuels productivity in the long run
• Someone who can’t change their mind is dangerous
• Be open to good change, not just for change’s sake
• Randomness
  • We attach great significance to the patterns we can see, but by definition we cannot anticipate or recognize randomness
  • Be aware of outside influence as it is often over simplified and based on assumption, so break down what is random
  • Occam’s razor: “If there are competing explanations for why something occurs the way it does, you should pick the one that relies on the fewest assumptions and is thus the simplest”
  • However, our desire for simplicity may be inappropriate especially when pursuing creative endeavors
• Stochastic self-similarity
• Stochastic: random or chance, Self-similarity: patterns that look the same at any level
• Approach all problems and life events the same
• However rare and despite magnitude, they are actually very similar
• Focusing too much on seemingly big problems causes us to overlook the little problems
• Trying to make an example out of someone to control or prevent random events is naive
• When you see that big and little problems are structured similarly, you have a calmer perspective and the best response is to give people the authority and confidence to take ownership of their problems at every level
• Big and small problems are not different, if you allow your people to solve problems without permission and tolerate + don’t vilify mistakes, then you enable a larger set of problems to be addressed and random problems can be approached level-headed
• Create a response structure that matches the problem structure
• Communicate the role people should play and the values of the company, but do not prescribe their solution

Chapter 9: The Hidden

• If you don’t try to uncover what is unseen and understand its nature you will be ill prepared to lead
• Everyone has blind spots often rooted in human interaction, and access to information does not remain unchanged the higher you go (people exhibit their best to their boss)
• Hierarchical structures can be healthy, but certain delusions arise such as people associating their personal value to where they fit in
• We often draw conclusions on incomplete pictures trying to fully grasp a complex environment, but instead we should focus on developing skills that deal with the intersection of different views
• There are an infinite number of “2 inch” events that are completely left to chance
• “Hindsight is not 20/20, not even close”
• We do not ever have 20/20 vision on all the factors that led to those events, the past should be our teacher not our master
• We are meaning-making creatures that use many subtle clues to draw major inferences
• Differences in our personal models can be assets for creativity
• Once a model takes hold it’s difficult to get it to change and we believe our view is the correct one, but our mental models are not reality
• “The unmade future”
• Starting a new creation is filled with hidden, to see more clearly:
• Place one foot on either side of reality: what we understand and what is unseen / uncreated
• Success can make you more weary of failure and cause you to retreat away from risk
• The Hidden and our acknowledgment of it is key

Post-script to Chapter 9

• Avoid context switching to reduce number of decisions and delay the severity of decisions
• Be willing to experiment and go against the status quo, remove the pressure that it will be set in stone and place your trust in those around you as they are experiences
• “Long shots aren’t often as long as they seem” - Bob Iger
• If you aren’t transparent about the reversibility of your new decisions you build resistance in your people

Part 3: Building and sustaining

Chapter 10: Broadening Our View

• Our models of the world distort what we perceive to the point where it’s hard to see what’s right in front of us
• We don’t typically see the boundary between new information coming in and our existing models
• When we get caught up in our own interpretations we become inflexible
• People who work / live together have models that are intertwined via proximity and history
• Pixar’s mechanisms to put them in a different state of mind

1. Dailies
2. Research trips
3. Power of limits
4. Integrating technology and art
5. Short experiments
6. Learning to see
7. Post-mortems
8. Continuing to learn

• 1: Dailies

1. Showing incomplete work every day to show progress and get candid feedback
2. Some can show up to see what type of feedback is being given, others are the ones presenting and putting themselves out there
3. Everyone shows incomplete work and everyone is free to make suggestions
4. Make the struggle to solve the problem safe to discuss

• 2: Research Trips

1. When you simply cut up and reassemble what has come before it gives the illusion of art
2. Craft is what we are expected to know, art is the unexpected use of our craft
3. When it feels derivative, do more research and do it early in the process
4. You’ll never stumble upon the unexpected if you only stick to the familiar
5. Research fosters authenticity which will be felt by the audience even if they don’t have context “Hidden Engine”

• 3: Power of Limits

1. There will never be a shortage of demands, and many limits are dictated by external realities, thus shifting internal limits is vital
2. Example: popsicle sticks for people weeks and reallocating with a finite amount of capacity
3. Limits can backfire creating too much tension when they are being enforced: ask how these limits will enable people in their creative approach

• 4: Integrating Technology & Art

1. Art challenges technology, technology inspires art
2. If we can constantly change and improve our models by using technology in the pursuit of art, we keep ourselves fresh

• 5: Short experiments

1. Working on a smaller scope, lesser scope gives everyone a broader view point
2. Working in small groups asks more of each person and deep relationships are formed
3. When small experiments obviously have no commercial gain, it sends the message to your audience you care about art and creativity
4. Better to have train wrecks with miniature trains than with real ones

• 6: Learning to see

1. Turn off your mind from “general models” and focus on observation skills
2. Focus on negative spaces, divorce the parts from the whole and isolate your view to find a different perspective
3. Don’t get caught up in a problem, look elsewhere for solutions, question the premise

• 7: Post-mortems

1. 5 reasons to do them. 1: consolidate what’s been learned
2. 2: teach others who weren’t there
3. 3: don’t let resentments fester
4. 4: use the schedule to force reflection (preparation is 90% value)
5. 5: pay it forward
6. Vary the way you conduct them
7. Allow people to balance the candid negative with positives (what would you do again, what wouldn’t you do again)
8. Data is neutral, try to tie your work back to metrics

• 8: Continuing to learn

1. Challenge yourself to learn new things constantly
2. Don’t let the fear of judgement hinder creativity, be open to everything because what do you have to lose

Chapter 11: The Unmade Future

• At the start of a creative project our mental models are all we have so it is key to construct one that’s sustains you.
• “the best way to predict the future is to make it. “
• Types of mental models keep out at day and strive originality
• Stay in the zone - don’t overthink it, get comfortable and let creativity flow
• Include people in your problems not just your solutions - make the decision that you think is best but don’t stress when you need to change course, be transparent
• Use your skills and knowledge to invent, not duplicate
• When “darkness” descends in the process, keep your emotional mind in check with your logical mind knowing there are two ends to the tunnel
• Not every bone you unearth will belong to the skeleton you are trying to assemble - not everything is valuable
• Mindfulness - everything is changing constantly so resisting change robs you of your beginners mind, stay in the moment
• Leading creative process requires balance like going up and down, left and right in an elevator meeting people where they’re at
• Pay attention to the direction your people are heading and steer them into place
• Setting the track and framework is more important than driving the train

Part 4: Testing what we know

Chapter 12: A New Challenge

• Timidity won’t make an organization great, innovation will
• Approach change as inspiration not intimidation

Chapter 13

• notes day and developing notes day internally not outsourcing
• Personal project days twice a month

Chapter 14

• Pirate + peer (network between lower level positions and heads of departments)
• There’s a delicate balance between the need to make timely decisions and the need to listen and consider the ideas of your people
• Seek out the people that have a gripe, figure out what’s causing their problem
• Everyone should feel they can speak their mind and feel heard

Chapter 15: Incorporating Creativity

• Aphantasia & hyperphantasia
• Approach your impact on an organization by how well you connect with others (not where your work begins and another’s ends)
• Tentpole 1: we are here to make the films
• Do we care about the characters?
• Does the story have real emotion that comes from us?
• Does the design of the world draw us in?
• Is it a well told story?
• Tentpole 2: we believe there is power in safety
• Do we actively make it safe to strongly disagree?
• Do we honor mistakes?
• Do we take risks on people?
• Do we recognize and resist the notion of first and second class?
• Do we understand that high contribution in any department can never be an excuse for poor behavior?
• Does the least powerful person in the room feel safe to talk?
• Tentpole 3: we value change and technology
• What kind of effect do we want our movies to have on the world?
• How do we treat and support each other?
• How do we respond to change?
• How do we keep ourselves open and vulnerable
• Can we use our fears to become stronger?

4 main values

Values can change, but having a starting place provides direction:

1. Community: who might feel excluded
2. Innovation: what else is possivle
3. Ownership: how can I contribute
4. Authenticity: what more can I share?

Signals come from anyone, make it safe to do so

Experimentation is one of the main roots of originality: 1/3 sequels, 1/3 effortless ideas, 1/3 ideas that fail the elevator pitch

Thinking about each other: everyone should speak up in a meeting

Leaders set the tone, pay attention to the signals you are sending

Quietly affirm those who push boundaries

Valuing human emotion: when people confuse conflict with passion, candor is less likely

True conflict is usually personal

There is greater leverage in removing barriers to creativity than in trying to grow it in places it doesn’t exist.

Creativity demands that you never stop peeling.

Starting points

Thoughts for managing a creativity culture

1. Give a good idea to a mediocre team and they will screw it up, give a mediocre idea to a great team they’ll either fix it or come up with something better. If you get the team right chances are they will get the ideas right.
2. When looking to hire new people: give their potential to grow more weight than their current skill level.
3. Always try to hire people that are smarter than you
4. If there are people in your organization who feel they are not free to suggest ideas, you lose. Do not discount ideas from unexpected sources
5. There are any number of ideas why candor isn’t flowing, your job is to dissect those reasons

Tags: bookshelf creativity culture orbiting