Leestijd: 2 minuten
Een van de bedrijven waar mijn hart al jaren sneller van gaat kloppen is Pixar. Het bewijst dat scherpe, bezielde creativiteit en brede commercie goed samen kunnen gaan. Waar Walt Disney op een gegeven moment met films als Bambi 2 oude ideeen schaamteloos exploiteerde, blijft Pixar zichzelf uitdagen.
Harvard Business Review interviewde Pixars directeur Ed Catmull over hoe je creativiteit als collectief goed managed. Vanzelfsprekend interessant.
Wat quotes:
“If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up; if you give a mediocre idea to a great team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something that works.”
“People show work in an incomplete state to the whole animation crew, and although the director makes decisions, everyone is encouraged to comment.
There are several benefits.
First, once people get over the embarrassment of showing work still in progress, they become more creative.
Second, the director or creative leads guiding the review process can communicate important points to the entire crew at the same time.
Third, people learn from and inspire each other; a highly creative piece of animation will spark others to raise their game.
Finally, there are no surprises at the end: When you’re done, you’re done. People’s overwhelming desire to make sure their work is “good” before they show it to others increases the possibility that their finished version won’t be what the director wants. The dailies process avoids such wasted efforts.”
“Because we’re a creative organization, people tend to assume that much of what we do can’t be measured or analyzed. That’s wrong. Most of our processes involve activities and deliverables that can be quantified. We keep track of the rates at which things happen, how often something has to be reworked, whether a piece of work was completely finished or not when it was sent to another department, and so on. Data can show things in a neutral way, which can stimulate discussion and challenge assumptions arising from personal impressions.”
Mocht je overigens meer over Pixars creativiteit willen weten, houd dan Michael B. Johnson in de gaten. Hij geeft veel lezingen en is ook regelmatig in Nederland. Bijvoorbeeld voor PICNIC en Mastermundo.
