Rebel Leadership Lessons from Pixar

From Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life

By Francesca Gino

Pixar President and Cofounder Ed Catmull has a large, bright workspace on the second floor of the Steve Jobs building. Windows overlook green lawns, and toy versions of characters from my favorite Pixar movies fill the shelves of his office. When we met, Catmull sat on a couch in his office across from me, dressed in a colorful short-sleeved shirt and jeans. He told me that, despite all the signs of comfort and whimsy I saw around me, Pixar had experienced real trouble. In 2013, seven years after being acquired by Disney, the studio had gone through some tough times. Film budgets were rising, the DVD market was shrinking, and production costs were soaring. Pixar management was also increasingly feeling that a key aspect of the company culture—employees’ willingness to speak their minds freely—was not what it used to be.

“A hallmark of a healthy creative culture is that its people feel free to share ideas, opinions, and criticisms,” Catmull said. He went on to note that when a creative group draws on unvarnished perspectives of all its members and the collective knowledge, decision-making stands to benefit. Candor is key to effective collaboration, says Catmull. “Lack of candor leads to dysfunctional environments,” he told me. This belief has been at the core of Pixar’s culture since the company was founded. At its inception, Pixar formed a group called the “Braintrust,” which consisted of four or five Pixar creative leaders who oversee development on all movies, meeting every few months to assess progress and challenges. Catmull described the Braintrust in simple terms: “Put smart, passionate people in a room together, charge them with identifying and solving problems, and encourage them to be candid.”

The whole idea behind the Braintrust is that members should speak freely, arguing without fear of conflict, with the interests of the company in mind. The group has no authority, so when members evaluate a movie in production, the director can decide whether or not to follow any of their speciﬁc suggestions.

“All employees are invited to screenings at the very early stages of a film, long before a story line is finalized, and everyone is welcome to give notes”

In the 2010s, Pixar was expanding and growing, so it hired more and more people. The new recruits were excited, sure, but the talent in the room was usually pretty intimidating and left them nervous about sharing their own ideas. Executives decided to try something bold to improve the situation. In early 2013, Catmull and a few other managers began planning a special day, Notes Day, during which Pixar would shut down to elicit honest feedback from its employees. Notes Day was an expansion of the spirit of the Braintrust. Catmull and other executives at Pixar wanted to bring the same style of safe sharing to the entire organization. For Notes Day, employees were invited to brainstorm ways to improve the company, drawing on topics and problems they themselves had identified. So that employees would feel comfortable offering candid feedback, managers were excluded from Notes Day.

Notes Day was inspired by a widespread practice among studios of screening in-progress films for executives, who offer written suggestions and criticisms, or “notes.” At most studios, directors are generally encouraged, if not required, to follow the direction of these notes. But Pixar decided to handle notes differently. All employees are invited to screenings at the very early stages of a film, long before a story line is finalized, and everyone is welcome to give notes. Moreover, directors do not have to use the notes they receive; the notes are merely suggestions. Pixar’s version of the practice is more like crowdsourcing.

Notes Day applied the same principles to the overall practices of the company, as opposed to a specific film. One initial goal of Notes Day was to solicit ideas from employees on how to lower costs by 10 percent. Pixar executives asked employees to prepare themselves for Notes Day by imagining they’d been transported four years into the future and to answer the following questions: “The year is 2017. Both of this year’s films were completed well under budget. What innovations helped these productions meet their budget goals? What are some of the specific things we did differently?” Questions were sent out to all employees, generating over four thousand responses on more than one thousand unique topics, such as reducing implicit gender bias in Pixar films, shortening production time, and improving the workplace.

Out of the thousands of responses, executives chose 106 issues for employees to discuss in separate sessions. The sessions were spread across three buildings on Pixar’s main campus, and employees could choose for themselves which sessions to attend. Trained internal facilitators led each session, which culminated with specific proposals, brainstorms, or best practices. The group also assigned certain members to be their “idea advocates”—those who would help advance their suggestions. After identifying their recommendation, employees were treated to hot dogs and beer. Out of the 106 topics, the company immediately started working on 21. Some were small changes, like implementing a faster, more secure way of delivering film cuts to directors. But even the smallest changes added up to something bigger. “They were changing Pixar—meaningfully and for the better,” Catmull said. And improving efficiency may not have been the most notable benefit. “I believe the biggest payoff of Notes Day was that we made it safer for people to say what they thought,” Catmull writes in his book Creativity, Inc. “Notes Day made it OK to disagree.”

Reprinted by permission of Dey Street Books. Excerpted from Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life. Copyright 2018 by Francesca Gino. All rights reserved.

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