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A hallmark of a healthy creative culture is that its people feel free to share ideas, opinions, and criticisms. Lack of candor, if unchecked, ultimately leads to dysfunctional environments.
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Ed Catmull |
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Which meant that the people working on Up had to be able to roll with that evolution without panicking, shutting down, or growing discouraged.
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Ed Catmull |
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when our younger employees--those without families--work longer hours than those who are parents, we must be mindful not to compare the output of these two groups without being mindful of the context. I'm not talking just about the health of our employees
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Ed Catmull |
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So I tell myself that I have time, even when I don't. As in, 'Okay, I'm going to proceed as if I have time--I'm going to sit back and muse rather than looking at the clock--because if I sit back and muse, I'm more likely to solve the problem.'
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Ed Catmull |
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Companies, like individuals, do not become exceptional by believing they are exceptional but by understanding the ways in which they aren't exceptional.
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Ed Catmull |
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When I advocate for protecting the new, then, I am using the word somewhat differently. I am saying that when someone hatches an original idea, it may be ungainly and poorly defined, but it is also the opposite of established and entrenched--and that is precisely what is most exciting about it. If, while in this vulnerable state, it is exposed to naysayers who fail to see its potential or lack the patience to let it evolve, it could be dest..
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Ed Catmull |
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Did you arrive early to work because you left on time, planned ahead, and drove carefully? Or were you just in the right place at the right time? Most people would choose the former answer without a second thought--without even acknowledging the latter was an option.
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Ed Catmull |
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Communication would no longer have to go through hierarchical channels. The exchange of information was key to our business, of course, but I believed that it could--and frequently should--happen out of order, without people getting bent out of shape. People talking directly to one another, then letting the manager find out later, was more efficient than trying to make sure that everything happened in the "right" order and through the "prop..
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Ed Catmull |
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Believe me, you don't want to be at a company where there is more candor in the hallways than in the rooms where fundamental ideas or matters of policy are being hashed out.
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Ed Catmull |
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Since making movies is such a messy process, we need to be able to talk candidly, among ourselves, about the mess without having it shared outside the company. By sharing problems and sensitive issues with employees, we make them partners and partowners in our culture, and they do not want to let each other down.
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Ed Catmull |
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ARPA had been created in response to Sputnik, and one of its key organizing principles was that collaboration could lead to excellence.
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Ed Catmull |
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personally supervised by Walt himself to ensure that as many rooms as possible had windows to let in natural light.
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Ed Catmull |
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A Subdivision Algorithm for Computer Display of Curved Surfaces,
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Ed Catmull |
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The Z-buffer accomplished that by assigning a depth to every object in three-dimensional space, then telling the computer to match each of the screen's pixels to whatever object was the closest.
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Ed Catmull |
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Alex Schure
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Ed Catmull |
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prescient
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Ed Catmull |
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The lesson of ARPA had lodged in my brain: When faced with a challenge, get smarter.
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Ed Catmull |
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I've made a policy of trying to hire people who are smarter than I am.
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Ed Catmull |
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After talking about it, however, Alvy and I decided to do the opposite--to share our work with the outside world. My view was that we were all so far from achieving our goal that to hoard ideas only impeded our ability to get to the finish line.
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Ed Catmull |
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In the intervening years, George has said that he hired me because of my honesty, my "clarity of vision," and my steadfast belief in what computers could do. Not long after we met, he offered me the job."
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Ed Catmull |
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Clearly, it wasn't enough for managers to have good ideas--they had to be able to engender support for those ideas among the people who'd be charged with employing them.
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Ed Catmull |
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The Art of Animation
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Ed Catmull |
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The antidote to fear is trust, and we all have a desire to find something to trust in an uncertain world. Fear and trust are powerful forces, and while they are not opposites, exactly, trust is the best tool for driving out fear.
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Ed Catmull |
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I remember his assertiveness. There was no small talk. Instead, there were questions. Lots of questions. What do you want? Steve asked. Where are you heading? What are your long-term goals?
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Ed Catmull |
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a conversation with him took you places you didn't expect. It forced you not just to defend but also to engage. And that in itself, I came to believe, had value.
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Ed Catmull |
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When you instantly resort to secrecy, you are telling people they can't be trusted.
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Ed Catmull |
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Dick Levin's Buy Low, Sell High, Collect Early, and Pay Late: The Manager's Guide to Financial Survival,
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Ed Catmull |
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When you are candid, you are telling people that you trust them and that there is nothing to fear. To confide in employees is to give them a sense of ownership over the information.
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Ed Catmull |
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We are striving to tell you something impactful and true. When attempting to make good on that promise, no detail is too small.
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Ed Catmull |
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Not for George, though. He skipped the raise altogether and asked instead to retain ownership of licensing and merchandising rights to Star Wars. The studio that was distributing the film, 20th Century Fox, readily agreed to his request, thinking it was not giving up much. George would prove them wrong, setting the stage for major changes in the industry he loved. He bet on himself--and won.
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Ed Catmull |
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We had learned long ago that while everyone appreciates cash bonuses, they value something else almost as much: being looked in the eye by someone they respect and told, "Thank you."
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Ed Catmull |
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obligated to be honest somehow
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Ed Catmull |
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As we try to learn from the past, we form patterns of thinking based on our experiences, not realizing that the things that happened have an unfair advantage over the things that didn't.
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Ed Catmull |
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When a bad thing happens, people will draw conclusions that might include conspiracy or forces acting against them or, conversely, if a good thing happens, that they are brilliant and deserving.
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Ed Catmull |
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When looking to hire people, give their potential to grow more weight than their current skill level. What they will be capable of tomorrow is more important than what they can do today.
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Ed Catmull |
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My view was that we were all so far from achieving our goal that to hoard ideas only impeded our ability to get to the finish line.
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Ed Catmull |
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Making the process better, easier, and cheaper is an important aspiration, something we continually work on--but it is not the goal. Making something great is the goal. I
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Ed Catmull |
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Pete Docter compares directing to running through a long tunnel having no idea how long it will last but trusting that he will eventually come out, intact, at the other end. "There's a really scary point in the middle where it's just dark," he says. "There's no light from where you came in and there's no light at the other end; all you can do is keep going."
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Ed Catmull |
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But when it comes to creativity, the unknown is not our enemy. If we make room for it instead of shunning it, the unknown can bring inspiration and originality.
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Ed Catmull |
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Rather than trying to prevent all errors, we should assume, as is almost always the case, that our people's intentions are good and that they want to solve problems. Give them responsibility, let the mistakes happen, and let people fix them.
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Ed Catmull |
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Measure what you can, evaluate what you measure, and appreciate that you cannot measure the vast majority of what you do. And at least every once in a while, make time to take a step back and think about what you are doing.
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Ed Catmull |
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The thesis of this book is that there are many blocks to creativity, but there are active steps we can take to protect the creative process. In the coming pages, I will discuss many of the steps we follow at Pixar, but the most compelling mechanisms to me are those that deal with uncertainty, instability, lack of candor, and the things we cannot see. I believe the best managers acknowledge and make room for what they do not know--not just b..
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Ed Catmull |
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A culture that allows everyone, no matter their position, to stop the assembly line, both figuratively and literally, maximizes the creative engagement of people who want to help. In other words, we must meet unexpected problems with unexpected responses.
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Ed Catmull |
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mundo suele ser cruel con el nuevo talento, con las creaciones nuevas. Lo nuevo necesita amigos.>>
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Ed Catmull |