Creativity, Inc.

Key takeaways

• A leader's real job is to find and remove the hidden things that block good work
• Candid feedback works when it targets the work, not the person, and leaves ownership with the maker
• Every new idea starts ugly and needs protection until it is strong enough to survive
• Failure is the price of trying something new, so make it cheap and safe to admit
• You cannot see everything, so build ways for problems to reach you early

Inside this bit

1. Protecting the creative machine

   Ed Catmull spent his youth dreaming of making the first computer-animated feature film. When Toy Story finally released in 1995, he got his wish, and then felt oddly lost.

2. Candor beats politeness

   Pixar's most famous tool is the Braintrust. Every few months, a film's director shows a rough version to a room of experienced storytellers.

3. Early ideas are ugly babies

   Catmull is blunt about something most creative people hide: every Pixar film is bad at the start. Not a little rough, actually bad.

4. Make failure cheap and honest

   Most organisations say they welcome failure and then punish it. Catmull wants failure treated as a normal cost of doing anything new.

5. Leaders cannot see everything

   One of the most humbling lessons in the book is that the boss's view of the company is always incomplete. People filter what they tell you.

6. Put it to work

   Start with one change to how feedback flows. This week, show a piece of unfinished work to two or three people you trust, ask them to be honest about the work itself, and keep the decision in your hands.