Like Pixar -- Create An Environment For Genius
It's actually collective genius that makes films like the ones Pixar does. ("Toy Story" is an example from 1995.) At Harvard Biz Review, Linda Hill, Greg Brandeau, Emily Truelove and Kent Lineback explain. A quote from Pixar's co-founder Ed Catmull:
For 20 years, I pursued a dream of making the first computer-animated film. To be honest, after that goal was realized - when we finished Toy Story - I was a bit lost. But then I realized the most exciting thing I had ever done was to help create the unique environment that allowed that film to be made. My new goal became...to build a studio that had the depth, robustness, and will to keep searching for the hard truths that preserve the confluence of forces necessary to create magic.
The authors explain:
What happens when an organization innovates? What does that process look like?It's an important question if you want more innovation, because the answer will shape what you do as a leader. If you think, as many do, that innovation comes from hiring a few "creative" people and implementing their best ideas, then you might assume your job is to find those people, sequester them in R&D or Product Development, review the solutions they propose, and adopt the winners.
...Talent matters, obviously, but any organization that wants to innovate again and again must do more than hire a few "creative" individuals. Even with the right people, there's still the huge problem of getting them to work together productively.
What does this say about the task of leaders who want more innovation? It says, above all, that no leader can make innovation happen, just as no director can conceive and create all the pieces that make a great CG film. Instead, leaders must create an environment that draws out the slice of genius in each individual and then melds those many slices into a single work of innovation - a new product, a new process, a new strategy, a new film - that is collective genius. This almost magical transformation is what truly innovative organizations are able to do well, over and over.








You do what my company does. Have standard work for everything they can think of, then evaluate people based partially on creative solutions. I wish I were kidding.
MarkD at June 15, 2014 6:54 AM
They've put out some entertaining flicks, but genius? Come on ...
dee nile at June 15, 2014 12:45 PM
They've put out some entertaining flicks, but genius? Come on ... -- dee nile at June 15, 2014 12:45 PM
The computer graphics were the genius part. They had to build a lot of it from scratch.
Jim P. at June 15, 2014 5:07 PM
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