Play like Pixar

As mentioned in a previous post, I recently finished reading Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull, co-founder and President of Pixar.  While I found the beginning of the book a bit of a slog (mostly dedicated to biographical history and development of the company), the last 1/3 of the book served up exactly what I was looking for: direct implications for the world of education.

Below are some of my favorite nuggets of wisdom from Catmull (other than the one discussed in the previous post: Try Something New).


"Give [people's] potential to grow MORE WEIGHT than their current skill level."
There has been a lot of discussion of growth mindset in the last few years, and I find it heartening that even a powerhouse company like Pixar considers this axiom worthy of focus.


"If there are people in your organization who feel they are not free to suggest ideas, you lose.  Do not discount ideas from unexpected sources.  Inspiration can, and does, come from anywhere."
Catmull spends a good amount of time discussing the central tenet of Ratatouille.  As Ego asserts in the end--not just anyone can cook, but good cooking can come from anywhere.  Catmull echoes this idea here, and I think it's an important one to consider in schools, too.  We need to listen to people's ideas and provide easy avenues for them to do so.

"Further, if there is fear in an organization, there is a reason for it--our job is (a) to find what's causing it, (b) to understand it, and (c) to try to root it out."
I draw attention to this one because so many people's actions in education can be run by fear.  Fear of messing up. Fear of failure.  Fear of being fired/getting a bad evaluation.  And, thus, this can result in educators to simply play it safe.  However, playing it safe rarely produces great, invigorating results--and much less: great, invigorated teachers.  We need to promote environments where educators will feel safe to take healthy risks--all the while supporting teachers when their risks don't pay off and, of course, celebrating them when they do!


"Don't wait for things to be perfect before you share them with others.  Show early and show often."
Of course there is always the sentiment that "too many cooks in the kitchen" can cause problems.  But that isn't the case here.  I think the more you invite people in (to your classroom, in this case), the better your teaching becomes.  There must be complete trust for this to work, but if both parties want to see the teacher grow (and both have the faith that the teacher can grow), then visiting each other's classrooms to give honest feedback (positive and room-to-grow comments) can only result in positive growth over time.