Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Bill Capodagli coauthored The DisneyWay and cofounded Capodagli Jackson Consulting in 1993.
Lynn Jackson helps Fortune 500 andentrepreneurial companies reshape their cultures and principlesusing the methods outlined in The Disney Way, which shecoauthored.

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INNOVATE THE PIXAR WAY

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Contents

Chapter One

WHEN WE BEGAN writing this book, our goal was to unveil the secrets of Pixar's innovative genius. Our first thought was to, as Lieutenant Casselle said in Casablanca, "Round up the usual suspects"—leadership, teaming, training, culture. As we investigated each one, we found that indeed, all of these "usual suspects" do contribute to Pixar's success. But which of these, if any, was the essence, the source, the head waters, the "big bang" of Pixar's creativity?

After perusing our library of Pixar films, it dawned on us—of course—Toy Story held the answer: looking at the world through the eyes of a child or a child's toys. This is how Pixar continues to catch lightning in a bottle. Pixar director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc., Up) revealed, "As naïve as it may sound, making Toy Story felt like an extension of school, where we were just making the film we wanted to make for us and our friends to enjoy."

When we were children the truth lived in our imaginations—where we were the princesses in the castle or the knights in shining armor slaying the dragon. In our minds, we could do anything! But then parents, teachers, and bosses chased the little kid right out of us. Dreaming, making believe, acting impulsively, and taking risks were not rewarded in the "real world"—the adult world. We must follow the rules. The small child became silent, but childhood dreams are resilient and remain hidden away in the deepest caverns of our minds. In the Pixar "playground," employees are free to let loose their childlike "magic" and energy.

Recently, Bill witnessed firsthand how the Tucson Unified School District is reinventing the learning experience and capitalizing on that childlike dreaming through its Opening Minds Through the Arts (OMA) program. The George Lucas Educational Foundation features OMA as one of the few shining examples of a uniquely creative K–12 learning environment (see edutopia.org/arts-opening-minds-integration). OMA's vision of "improving student achievement by building connections between the arts and the curriculum" is akin to Pixar's mantra "Art is a team sport." During the first half of the school year in OMA, first graders learn about opera and the value of the collaborative process. During the second half of the school year, students write their own operas, and these formal artistic learning experiences continue through the fifth grade. Instead of stifling their imaginations, OMA is opening new worlds to these children by allowing them to dream. As Donn Poll, executive director of the OMA Foundation, remarked, "With the use of arts integration comes the enormous opportunity to bring every child the opportunity to love the process of learning, and to be engaged on the level of their own passion—this carries forth throughout their lives in anything else they want to learn."

Any "kid" who is lucky enough to "carry forth" into the world of Pixar finds a company who lives its credo: dream like a child. Pixar is a unique blend of both technically and artistically creative people who are continually engaged in their passions for making movies. And certainly, the childlike atmosphere in Pixar's Emeryville, California, "playground" sparks its employees' collective creativity on a level that has become the envy of employees in countless other organizations. In the words of Alvy Ray Smith, "When I sit around and watch the animators, it seems that they have managed to hold onto childhood. They surround themselves with toys, and they just have a lot of fun like kids. That's one of the reasons they are so damn much fun to be around—they're sort of constantly fun, playful, setting up little secret rooms—you just don't know what they are going to do next."

Unfortunately, however, most organizations have no interest in and no knowledge of what it takes to produce such an energizing environment. It begins with creating a culture where imagination—the very thing that kept us so interested in discovering and trying new things when we were young—is cherished and rewarded. So, who better than kids themselves to help remind us that we need to remove the haze from our childhood eyes of wonder? When it comes to unleashing creativity, the little children of OMA have some big messages to share, and we have included them in Appendix C, "Through a Child's Eyes."

Chapter Two

DID YOU EVER wonder why it took so long for the fast-food hamburger business, started by White Castle back in 1912, to become such a staple of the American way of life? It took a creative visionary like Ray Kroc, who was influenced by another visionary—Henry Ford and his assembly line production innovations. In 1961, Kroc bought McDonald's from the McDonald brothers, and the rest is history. Likewise, the discount department store has been around for more than a century—Woolworth dime stores date back to 1879, followed by Kresge's in 1899 and Ben Franklin Stores in 1927. Again, it took a creative visionary—this time Sam Walton—to open Wal-Mart Discount City in Rodgers, Arkansas, in 1962 to forever change the discount retail market. When Walt Disney arrived in Hollywood in 1923 to begin his animated cartoon business, he thought he came too late to really make a name for himself. By that time, Felix the Cat, a creation of the Pat Sullivan Studios, had already attained superstar status. But instead of giving up, Walt reinvented animation. Rather than using the slap-stick gags so popular at the time, he created characters with unique personalities that have endured for decades—Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, the list goes on and on. These characters continue to capture the hearts of children today, and Mickey has been around for more than eighty years!

What does all this mean? Clearly, the first to market, while initially being creative, can lose focus and fade into relative obscurity over time. Slowly, that imagination that once soared on wings like Buzz Lightyear finally crashes into the ground. (Buzz's wings didn't make him fly; he only thought they could.) Why is it that only once in a while an organization totally redefines its industry? Why can't every organization be innovative? There's the typical lineup of excuses—"We tried that before"; "That's too crazy to consider"; "There's nothing wrong with what we're doing"; "That's not my job"—and so on and so on. The worst excuse of all is when managers say, "We aren't an innovative organization." Too many shortsightedly reserve the label "innovator" for the "big-league" brands like Apple, Nike, or Google, who are associated with recognizable, simple, and sexy products. Therefore, they just don't view themselves as very creative.

Consider the creative talents of the following two groups who were asked these three questions: How many of you are good singers; how many of you are good dancers; and how many of you are good artists? About 2 percent of the first group responded positively to each of these three questions. This response is typical of most business teams with whom we've worked. We tell teams that it would be easy to find a second group in any community who...