On Creativity and Creative Culture
Ed Catmull, the cofounder and president of Pixar Animation Studios, wrote an excellent piece for the Harvard Business Review on developing a creative -- no, inspired and inspiring -- business culture. It's an excellent read and totally applicable to any number of industries, from movies or theater to software development.
Catmull's central premise -- that you must hire truly creative people and give them free reign to succeed or fail wildly, and that everyone involved in the process has value and voice and must be allowed to contribute -- speaks directly to my years of running a theater company and the thousands of hours I put in to directing. One of the very early lessons I learned is that I never had all the answers. Yes, there are lots of directors as dictatorial auteurs out there, but some of the best moments and best ideas in the productions I directed didn't come from me. They came from the set designer, or the stage manager, or the actor in the bit part, or the crew member who saw something, something inspiring and creative and right and felt they could stand up and say something to me and I, in turn, was not so stupid as to pass up their great idea because it didn't come from me. I learned you had to foster that environment from day one, and if you did, you'd get a final product that was about 100% better than a product you tried to design, develop, and deliver with autocratic power.
There are limits to this approach, of course. Someone has to take final accountability at the end of the day. Someone (or a group of someones, in Pixar's case) needs to be able to say "You know, that's interesting, but it's just not going to work." You still need leaders and teams running the show from the top, but if everyone who remotely touches the project feels that they have a voice, that their voice matters, that we are all equal and creative and working towards the same goal, you inspire passion, inspiration, and, sometimes, greatness.
That's key to building a successful team, regardless of your industry. Pixar, of course, has the advantage of money, time, reputation, and some real geniuses running the show. But the same principle applies if you're running a 68-seat theater company or building complex enterprise software. Don't discount the suggestion of the administrative assistant who uses your software or the stage crew member who has to bring on and off 38 pieces of furniture each night. They're involved. They have ideas. Listen and make them feel valued, and you'll end up with something much better than you could have ever made alone.
