Ed Catmull shares the story of his journey into Pixar leadership, and the principles he believes has made Pixar and Disney able to capitalise on the opportunities they’ve come across.
Catmull seeks to make a lasting impression of the principles by delivering them in story, instead of as just a list of tips (although the afterword does contain said list of tips, to serve as reminders – a cheat sheet to revisit for bite-sized Ed wisdom in the future).
The first section of the book deals with Catmull’s own journey, leading up to the founding of Pixar and the first efforts at establishing the company’s identity. It’s a compelling account of the trials of entrepreneurship and leading a creative endeavour, and deals with subjects ranging from skill transfer and the value of cross-functional expertise to how feedback and candour should be encouraged for a creative environment to thrive.
Parts 2-4 are more concretely structured around specific categories of lessons learned – types of lesson Catmull invites the reader to go and learn in their own organisations.
Part II – Protecting the New
The second section deals with methods for protecting the new – honesty, candour, dealing with fear and failure, the concept of the hungry beast and the ugly baby, change and randomness and something Catmull calls “the hidden”.
Key to this chapter is the idea that the new needs protecting at all. Catmull describes early editions of Pixar movies as ugly babies. He insists that they are not miniature versions of the complete films they will turn out to be – they are in fact, terrible. They need nurturing, lots of development work. Until they are more fully developed they must be protected.
Candour might seem a counter-intuitive method for protecting the new. However, exposing early editions of a project to true, candid feedback is one of the most robust ways to ensure that the project grows. The idea is to protect the new from that which would consume it, not from that which would challenge it to grow, change, and become better. Candour is the latter.
Apart from candour, Pixar has also worked hard to create a fearless culture, where it’s OK to present a project that is unfinished and full of mistakes, as well as a culture that embraces change.
These qualities are essential when dealing with randomness and “the hidden”.
Put simply, there are things we cannot see, things we don’t know, and connections we cannot predict. However, any organisation must be ready to react to them. The stories in Catmull’s account are paradigm-shifting examples – if you want that, go read it.
One key insight is that just as we cannot predict the future, we are inept at seeing the past. We make connections where there are none, and work hard to build a narrative that makes sense out of what we see. Large portions of what we consider “truth” is usually surprisingly subjective, filtered through our own perceptions and understanding, and stored in a memory bank that is eager to automatically join and merge data sources, and invent bits if they seem to be missing.
Part III – Building and Sustaining
Part III is devoted to describing how Pixar concretely practices the principles outlined in Part II.
It’s a list of management approaches, structures, and leadership methodologies, heavily focused on shifting mindset, seeing what is unseen, and thinking of creativity as that which is unmade. It’s not stumbling upon something that already exists, it’s literally making the unmade – creating that which doesn’t yet exist.
Part IV – Testing What we Know
Part IV deals with how being acquired by Disney gave Pixar leadership a chance to test their principles in another organisation – would they work outside the unique culture in Pixar?
It’s a series of challenges and tests, and packs quite a punch for any leader looking for a deep dive into how serious creative challenges have been addressed in one of the worlds most prominent creative organisations.
Final Thoughts
Catmull finishes with a checklist which means nothing on its own, and reads like a series of popular management soundbites without the depth provided by the readthrough of the entire narrative where the lessons were learned.
Excellent list of reminders, again, go get the book.
Catmull is a master of creative leadership, and no matter what creative endeavour you’re embarked upon, there are lessons to learn.