Pixar

and Innovation

Running head: Pixar and Innovation

Pixar: Innovation through Teams and Creative Problem Solving Bill Gary Jr, Adrienne Hartman and David Owens-Hill Queens University of Charlotte Spring 2011

 Pixar and Innovation When Steve Jobs purchased the company that would become Pixar, Inc. from George Lucas in 1986, the business plan was to produce high-quality imaging computers and rendering systems for use in medicine, government and engineering. Sales failed to take off, however, so Pixars computer scientists decided to highlight their machines capabilities by creating groundbreaking

computer graphics for television commercials. The demand for those high-quality imaging systems never took off but Pixars computer graphic expertise soon became one of the hottest commodities in marketing and entertainment. To date, Pixar has produced eleven films, which have grossed a total of over $6.6 billion and won eleven Academy Awards. (Capodagli & Jackson, 2010) When creating a filmanimated or otherwisemost of todays Hollywood firms follow the same path: track down a story idea, attract a mix of acting and technical talent, then backfill the rest of the production team with an army of freelance workers (Schumpeter blog, 2010; Lehrer, 2010). The resulting production teams are ad hoc and never achieve true synergy. Conversely, Pixar embraces a different ethos, one that blends the old studio system of Hollywood with modern management techniques. Pixars technical talent works completely in-house, guiding each movie through from conception to release. Project teams circle around one another, eyes trained on the goal of producing the next blockbuster, but are intimate groups working through a systems approach. The Brain Trust Decision making at Pixar is collaborative and team-oriented. The eight senior animators form a group, nicknamed the Brain Trust, which applies

 Pixar and Innovation oversight of all employees and operations. Teamwork is essential to creatively solving problems within the organization, and frequent, regular work critiques cultivate an air of open and honest communication. Pete Docter, director of

Pixars 2001 film Monsters Inc, explains the review process for another Pixar film he directed, 2009s Up: The way we work at Pixar is that we have our team thats making the film, and we get together about every four months and show it to [the brain trust] (Capodagli & Jackson, 2010, p. 42) This small teamonly eight people in a sea of hundreds of ber-talented employeesprovides feedback that drives the direction of each feature length film, but the decisions are ultimately made by an empowered staff of artists. Ed Catmull, the president of Pixar, explained in an interview after receiving the Technical Academy Award that one has to [t]rust the artists. Creative people need to drive the innovation, not the technical people or management. Given this high level of trust, the creative workforce works hard to include everyone else in their decision-making, and deliver a high quality product. (Computer History Museum, 2005) The Brain Trust provides direction to the team of technical directors for each film. TDs, as they are known in the business, are responsible for taking the still artwork of animators and breathing life into flat celluloid. They add the shading, the movement, the scenery around the characters, the lighting and ultimately make everything move. Though the scale, scope and quality of the finished product may belie it, each Pixar film carries only eight to twenty technical directors who ultimately set the tone and direction of the film.

 Pixar and Innovation PIXAR UNIVERSITY

Throughout all of Pixar, teamwork is a culturally-defining feature. Integral to instilling and nurturing this sense of collectivity is Pixar University (Pixar U), an unconventional corporate training program that emphasizes intellectual stimulation and collaboration over more traditional topics like Six Sigma. The creators of Pixar U looked at the challenges faced by their associates and tried to find a way to make those challenges valuable. The genesis for how Pixar U functions has its roots in the man who founded the company that today owns Pixar. A letter written by Walt Disney, Sr. to a colleague in 1960 outlined courses designed for the Disney staff- courses in comedy, music, drawing, and dialogue: We will thus stir up the mens minds more and they will begin to think of a lot of these things that would never occur to them otherwise Disney wrote to an animator. In the 1990s, Pixar President Ed Catmull, the creator of Pixar U, discovered Disneys vision and thought it made perfect sense for Pixar. In 1997, Catmull hired Randy Nelson as dean of Pixar U and charged him with building a program like no other in the world of corporate training. The courses offered by Pixar U are voluntary and are open to all employees. Everyone from the creative staff to the CEO to the janitors is encouraged to take four hours of coursework per week. The catalog of courses offered is expansive- improvisational comedy, Maya Software, Korean dance, Krav Maga (an Israeli self defense system), and basic drawing are some of the

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over sixty courses available. Each course is aligned with one of six tracks specific tracks of study: - - - - - - New Hire & transitional training Desktop Tools & daily productivity Art & Film classes Health & recreation Communication & management training Production management

While the variety of courses available aids in keeping minds creative, the courses also teach valuable lessons in teamwork. The students come from diverse areas of the company to share an experience and classroom, with power structures and organizational structures left at the door. Everyone is an equal, sharing a learning experience and growing together. Even the CEO and top executives partake in classes and find themselves interacting with associates they might not otherwise reach. (Capodagli & Jackson, 2010) ALONE NO LONGER Collaboration is central to the courses within Pixar University. The instructors guide the students to rely on constant sharing as a means of learning and this translates to the work that goes on away from the classroom as well. Most important to Nelson is the encouragement of both making art together and failing publicly together. Nelson believes in honoring failure, saying, You need an environment to foster risk-taking and error recovery. (Hartlaub, 2010) Risk is seen as the most vital ingredient for innovation at Pixar. To nurture

 Pixar and Innovation innovation, they nurture risk, and with risk come failures. It seems appropriate that the Pixar University crest bears the inscription Alienus Non Diutius, Latin for alone no longer. Nelson states this is the heart of the company model, and

he feels that giving Pixarians the opportunity to fail together and recover together builds mutual respect and trust. (Capodagli & Jackson, 2010, p. 60) The shared mantra of alone no longer communicates the importance of teamwork and deters feelings and actions of isolated individuals. Creativity is often the product of multiple ideas and collaboration that can be found in an environment which enables shared work. Catmull doesnt want his employees to get trapped into thinking that [a]n answer is the only answer. (Capodagli & Jackson, 2010, p. 63) The diversity of status and roles in Pixar U courses adds perspectives and insights and helps prevent groupthink, which also strengthens the companys overall problem-solving ability. Another of Walt Disneys ideas that continues to flourish at Pixar is the idea of plus anothers work. This allows employees to build their own ideas but add the ideas of their partners. The resulting plus yields outcomes that are more creative and refined. One could say that Pixar plus-ed the idea of Disneys training courses to create Pixar University. Walt Disneys influence serves a narrative for the people of Pixar. His ideas on how teams function have been passed along, motivating a new generation towards new goals and helping define them as a workforce. In our text, Harris and Sherblom tell us that we limit our creativity because we lack self-confidence, fear taking risks, feel a need to conform, do not

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feel we are in an environment that encourages creativity, or find ourselves locked into our habitual ways of looking at the world (2011, p. 165) When the name of ones game is creativity, paradigm-breakers are an everyday necessity; they are the modus operandi. An organization locked into non-creative decision-making cannot innovate, and Pixar surely does not operate under those conditions. The Brain Trust and artistic talent, including small teams of TDs, are encouraged to set the tone of their work and break boundaries in current animation technology. They are empowered to revise work and schedules as necessary to compliment each others workload. By maintaining in-house work teams instead of an army of freelance talent, Pixar achieves synergy. Admittedly, Pixar is a unique workplacenot everyone gets to make movies for a living. Still, there are lessons about teamwork that can be taken from the ways Pixar works and applied to any workplace setting. Removing the fear of failure and building mutual respect should be central to all group work. Pixar University embodies and instills these values.

 Pixar and Innovation References: Capodagli, B. & Jackson, L. (2009). Innovate the Pixar way: Business lessons from the world's most creative corporate playground. Columbus, Ohio: McGraw Hill. Computer History Museum. (2005, May 16). A human story of computer animation with Brad Bird, Ed Catmull, Alvy Ray Smith, Andrew Stanton, and Michael Rubin [video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjSExqtilyg Harris, T., & Sherblom, J. (2011). Small group and team communication (5th edition). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Hartlaub, P. (2010, June). Creativity thrives in Pixars animated workplace. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved from http://articles.sfgate.com Lehrer, J. (2010, May 24). Animating a blockbuster: How Pixar built Toy Story 3. Wired, 18(6), Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/process_pixar/ Schumpeter blog. (2010, June 17). Planning for the sequel: how Pixar's leaders want to make their creative powerhouse outlast them [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/node/16377010