Peer beyond the screen into the genius of the man behind some of the greatest animated films in history.
My latest guest on The Wisdom Of… Show, Ed Catmull is nothing short of an entrepreneurial legend whose experience holds riveting insights, many of which challenge conventional corporate wisdom. As a co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and the former president of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Disneytoon Studios, Catmull has revolutionized the world of animation and built one of the most innovative and emulated companies on earth.
Ed is a highly respected figure in the business and creative worlds whose ground-breaking management principles have been distilled into his book, Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration.
For over twenty-five years, Pixar has dominated the world of animation, producing #1 box office hits such as Toy Story, Frozen, Cars, and The Incredibles. Pixar’s works have grossed over $14 billion worldwide and won twenty-three Academy Awards®, 10 Golden Globes Awards, and 11 Grammys, among countless other achievements.
On a personal level, Dr. Catmull has been honored with five Academy Awards®, including an Oscar of Lifetime Achievement for his technical contributions and leadership in computer graphics for the motion picture industry. He also has been awarded the Turing Award by the Association for Computing Machinery for his work on three-dimensional computer graphics.
Join me for this magical journey into the highest echelons of creativity and leadership. You’ll get a peek at the potent principles that have birthed many of the most famous animated movies in cinematic history.
…Wisdom that could very well represent a new era of leadership for us all.
Want more behind-the-scenes insights on how to fuse creativity and leadership to drive record-breaking results? Watch the full interview with Ed Catmull now.
Don’t Shy Away From Seeming Incongruity
As I sat down with Ed Catmull, one of the first things I wanted to ask him about was how he got into animation. I was curious about what sparked this incredible journey, and although it was simple, one of the things he said really stuck with me.
“When I was in high school, I wanted to be an animator, but it was hard to advance there as there weren’t many schools. So, I switched to physics”, he recalled to me.
He then remarked how often there would be a snicker in the room when he would mention this, as the two things were seemingly unrelated.
“I didn’t think of them as incongruous,” he began. “I actually think it’s a problem culturally if people think that science and art and math don’t belong together. I think you’re richer if you combine them together.”
This belief in drawing from seemingly unrelated disciplines was invaluable to Dr. Catmull as he made forays into computer science and later into 3D animation, which indeed drew from science, math, and art.
Zooming out for a moment, while it might be instinctual to dismiss an atypical path that draws inspiration from multiple subject areas, as entrepreneurs, that path less taken could be the very thing that differentiates you in the market. In other words, it could be a catalyst for your original genius.
Control Vs. Collective Ownership
Next, we shifted the conversation to how Ed managed creative talent at such an esteemed organization. This led to a revealing discussion of company culture and the mismatch between the apparent surface-level priorities and the deeper motivations of many CEOs.
“It’s important to get the people around you to feel ownership of the company,” Dr. Catmull professed.
He asserted that most businesses conflate collective ownership with shares or control, which is not true ownership.
The former is driven by ambition, while the latter is driven by altruism.
According to Ed, resisting the temptation to default to ambition is no simple task.
“Most of the forces on CEOs have to do with short-term market pressure. I’ve only known a few who’ve been able to resist it. Steve [Jobs] being one of them.”
This mismatch between assumed values and motivating values was made more apparent as he broke down a business’s responsibilities into three core buckets (in no particular order):
Product
People
Profit
Next, he challenged the founder to list them in order of importance. Many would say all three were equally important or that people or products were the most important.
However, when it came to which of the three directly influenced decisions and drove action, it was clear that profit (money) was the most important factor for the vast majority of CEOs.
“So what we end up with is an inversion of our values,” he concluded, which is supported by my notion that the intangible in business are often most important even though it is generally only the tangible elements that are factored into decisions.
In our companies, it is important to ask yourself, “Am I leading a company where everyone feels genuine ownership, where their presence along with the product drives the most value?”
Ready For The Rate Of Change
One of the most certain challenges today’s entrepreneurs face is the ability to guide themselves and others through chaos and uncertainty, so I was eager to hear Ed’s perspectives on risk and innovation in highly creative environments.
I’ll be honest… Given his remarkable work pioneering new technologies for animated pictures, I expected him to have a profound depth of wisdom on this subject. What surprised me was his perspective, which far surpassed the commonly reached surface-level insight that change is inevitable and we must prepare for it.
He began with a striking critique of many business owners’ difficulty with pivoting when change is evident and their industries are being disrupted.
“Things are going to change. Once you know this, it is very easy not to get attached to what you do. This is one of the biggest mistakes most companies make.”
He then deepened the observation by highlighting the pace of this change and why CEOs must make decisions based on the fundamental understanding that things will change more rapidly than most are comfortable anticipating.
“Factor the rate of change into your business, and think about how to prepare your people and how they can prepare you for this change to make it an exciting part of the growth of business. Responding to the change will create new opportunities and allow you to respond to the difficult times that are coming.”
Today’s founders must be aware of the rate at which change will affect them and their people. This awareness creates opportunities to innovate and lead more effectively in a fast-paced world.
Truth-Finding Mechanisms
We then looked at the biggest difference between the world-class teams that Ed led and ordinary ones, the greatest of which, according to him, was the truth-finding mechanism the founders used to test and assess what was true and what was not.
Because of the compounding rate of change mentioned earlier, Ed laid out this framework for developing this truth-finding mechanism:
Accept you don’t know what to do (and it is not your job as a CEO to know). Don’t try to control the outcome or assume you know the answer.
Get feedback from collaborating, contributing experts on the project. These individuals will be better versed in the product itself than the founder.
Respect the vulnerability of the creator (without using “failure” in the process). The team honors the creator by judging the creation, not the creator.
Look for people willing to disagree with you (Steve Jobs fired those who didn’t). Actively seek out those who disagree with you as they ensure growth.
Have passionate, but not personal, debates focused on solving the problem. These collaborative sessions bring about otherwise unreachable outcomes.
Off of this blueprint of sorts, he asserted that “This notion of the error-correction mechanism is very important. It’s very subtle. My guess is that most CEOs think they have a good error detection mechanism. I would argue that they don’t.”
Next time you’re faced with rapid change and a seemingly intractable problem, ask yourself how you decide your organization’s truest version of truth.
Consider how you can let go of the notion that you have all the answers yourself. Then, you can invite those around you to contribute their insights without judgment, with the collaborative goal of making the final product as meaningful and magical as possible.
Role Of The Creative CEO
After getting an inside look at Pixar’s intense and inspiring decision-making processes, we turned our attention to the CEO and their role in these meetings and, more broadly, in this rapidly evolving world.
“My job in those meetings is to look around that room and look at the dynamics in the room. The others are the experts. My job is to help them work together and have each of them contribute the most.”
What’s truly interesting about this is that it continues the principle of others owning the company. As the CEO, you are enabling and empowering your team to shine in their area of genius.
Leaders of truly successful organizations in a rapidly changing world have shifted their attention from “What am I achieving?” to…
“IS THIS WORKING?”
If you continuously pursue the answer to this question across your organization, you’ll be better prepared to meet today’s needs and anticipate tomorrow’s.
This powerful and nearly peerless wisdom will enable you to leverage the original genius of not only Ed Catmull and the Pixar/Disney creative teams but everyone in their ecosystem to have a massive advantage over the rest of your competition to anticipate the pace of change and craft cutting-edge products and experiences that irrevocably change the world.
If you enjoyed what you read, I encourage you to watch this episode.
Immerse yourself in Ed’s profound wisdom, inimitable creativity, and lasting legacy as a transformative force in the animation industry and a shining example of the breed of leader the world needs now more than ever.
Join the transformation and conversation…
Watch the full interview with Ed Catmull on The Wisdom Of… Show
And don’t miss Simon Bowen’s transformative masterclass on unlocking your hidden genius. Your future self will thank you.
