Three things I've learned from Pixar
Sunday afternoons, I usually end up folding laundry while watching the most interesting documentary I can find on cable. A week or two ago, that documentary was about the history of Pixar. Just watching Pixar staff talk about their work was a learning experience for me:
1. When Pixar built its own headquarters building in 1998 (a headquarters that has been significantly expanded since), a stated goal was to design the building in a way that would "encourage unplanned collaboration." I found that idea fascinating: How do you plan for the unplanned? But Pixar sees such value in serendipity and unplanned connections between staff that it puts significant effort into encouraging them.
2. I noticed that as Pixar began work on each new film, giant figures from that film could be seen in the central lobby of their headquarters. It struck me as a great visual way to remind the Pixar team of the company's central purpose, each and every day. As staff walk through the doors, they can't help but notice the giant figures from Monsters Inc. or The Incredibles and remember that their work is part of what's going to make that movie great.
3. Multiple interviewees during the documentary talked about how each new movie began with some difficult technical challenge. When Toy Story was developed, it was the longest computer-animated movie made to that date (Pixar's previous projects had all been short films). When Monsters Inc. was in production, animating the monsters' fur was a huge stumbling block. When Pixar moved on to The Incredibles, animators had to find ways to create human characters, hair, fabric, and more.
In each case, Pixar's team saw the challenge as an inspiration, not a stumbling block. Instead of saying, "We'll have to scale the movie back" or "We'll have to come up with a character design that doesn't cause us these problems," they used these opportunities to take computer animation to a whole new level. That's not to say it was easy--there was more than one story told about the sheer amount of work it took to lay the technical groundwork for the animation you see on the screen--but the Pixar mindset seems to be one of seeing the opportunity to grow and learn rather than looking for ways to cut corners.
Luckily enough, one of the Annual Meeting thought leader sessions, "Innovate the Pixar Way," will take an even closer look at Pixar. I'm looking forward to learning more. (And in the meantime, there's some great info on Pixar in both Wired and in this HBR blog post.)
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Comments
I have seen that same 2007 documentary and agree wholeheartedly that there are lessons there for all innovative, creative workplaces. Nominated for an Emmy, "The Pixar Story" repeats regularly on different cable channels and was shown earlier this month at the Comic-Con Festival in California. You should be able to Netflix it, if you're interested.
Posted by: Kristin Clarke | July 29, 2010 3:04 PM
This should be an interesting presentation! I've always found Pixar (from the very first shorts 20+ years ago shared in the old "Tournee [sic?] of Animation" series available on VHS) to be a true genre-buster. It's a minor miracle is that they grew steadily yet never lost their soul or compromised on extreme creativity and technical quality. Of course, posting incredible grosses helps to protect the autonomy of their culture, even today from a corporate culture as intrusive as Disney's.
(As an aside, I also love Kristin's post .. anytime we talk about 'multi-media' in associations I have to remember in the consumer world how diverse their choices are--how much would an association [or another company] love to have such a compelling story about themselves that it can appear regularly on cable, be featured at the coolest consumer trade show, be rentable for delivery through your TV, and even gain exposure on a TV awards show). A 12 year old would say 'so'? but I am a dork, and it's pretty remarkable to me what we do in our associations without a broad appeal and wiht minimal ability to use most of the media we think of in our personal lives!
Posted by: Kevin Whorton | July 30, 2010 9:55 AM
In watching the bonus features from Finding Nemo, I was inspired too. When the challenge was making water really look like they were underwater -- but there needed to be a light source and clarity too. They showed their first version and I thought, "looks good enough to me. It doesn't have to look like real water. It's a cartoon." But it wasn't good enough for them. And when they did a side by side comparison of real water and their digital version, they even fooled their co-workers! I'm sure they knew their customers wouldn't have complained about the first version -- but they wanted to surpass their customer's expectations. I know I'm guilty of just doing what we need to get by, it's all we have time for sometimes. But Pixar has certainly shown that the extra effort is worth it.
Posted by: Carolyn Hook | August 2, 2010 2:07 PM