Pixar's Old Captain, Ed Catmull.

 

Pixar's Old Captain, Edwin Catmull:

 

Pixar old captain, Edwin Catmull.

"He is a person who can see himself and the organization from a broad perspective without falling into pride or prejudice."
(Steve Jobs)

One of the longest-serving colleagues  with the icon of innovation, 'Steve Jobs', and a management mentor to Jobs.

He has led Pixar, which is called the world's most creative organization, for more than 30 years since its establishment in 1986, and after the merger of Pixar and Disney in 2006, he became the CEO of Disney Animation Studios, and brought Disney, which had been in a long slump, to splendor. He is also a person who has been resurrected and has attracted the attention of the world.

And the book he wrote, CREATIVITY, INC
Absolutely the best book on how to." - Robert Sutton, Professor of Business Administration, Stanford University
"A must read for those who want to run better" - Chip Heath

It has received great reviews from many people.

Moreover, Ed Catmull, known for his gentle personality, is a person who receives social trust as well as his                                                                                                                 business achievements.

In particular, when compared with the managers of Silicon Valley, who are the protagonists of numerous accidents and rapid growth, and given the inherent uncertainty of the content industry, it can be said that the stability that Ed Catmull has shown so far is unmatched. can.

However, if you understand the failures and conflicts he experienced in his life, his success process and management techniques can be understood more deeply. Let's take a look at the last 20 years of the process he endured with his colleagues until the release of.

Early life of Edwin Catmull:

As a teenager, Ed Catmull was a student with good concentration and immersion.

In particular, once he started drawing, he was completely immersed in it without realizing the passage of time, and he liked to draw so much that he even dreamed of becoming a Disney animator.

However, this dream soon turns into frustration.

[caption id="attachment_4598" align="alignright" width="383"] Disney[/caption]

At that time, 'Disney' was a company that only the most talented and talented of animators around the world could enter, and Ed Catmull, a boy, thought that his skills were 'extremely average' compared to them.

The boy, who was more like a 'realist' with a sober self-awareness than a 'dreamer', decided that it was much easier for him to become a scientist than an animator, considering his inclinations and abilities, so he went on to the physics department.

And the young man who went to college became interested in computer engineering, which was still in its infancy, and changed the direction of his life once again as a 'computer engineer'.

In his grad school, Ed Catmull seizes on a turning point to rekindle his long-abandoned dream.

In the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Utah, where Ed Catmull attended, there was Professor Ivan Sutherland, a pioneer of interactive computer graphics. I have in my mind the possibility that my childhood dream could be achieved by using computer graphics.

And he set a goal that no one could easily imagine at the time, 'I will make a feature-length animation with computer graphics and put it in the theater'.

World's first computer graphic animation Pixar's "Toy Story":

It was the early 1970s, and he was in his mid-20s at the time.

And since it was 1995 when he and his colleagues released the world's first computer graphic animation Toy Story, it took nearly 25 years for his dream to come true.

In the process, the thoughtful young man became a profound man.

[caption id="attachment_4599" align="alignleft" width="300"] Toy Story[/caption]

If you listen to the process more closely, Ed Catmull's affiliation, who was an 'artist for a living' and a 'computer engineer', continued to change from New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Research Institute  Lucasfilm Pixar, and his dream was an 'unfinished business' that no one had pioneered. realm', so the people who challenged with him were mostly those who suffered injuries in one place or another in the harsh winds and waves of the world.

Elvy Ray Smith, the co-founder of Pixar, was a person who could not adapt to Xerox, where he started his social life, and wandered for a while. It was a person.

And Steve Jobs, who had a decisive influence on the success of Pixar, was also a lucky boy who was abandoned by the Apple he founded.

In this way, the process of creating a 'feature animation using computer graphics' that did not exist in the world was not a flowery path, but rather a journey of over 20 years of embracing hurt artists and advancing towards their dreams.

So, in the process of Ed Catmull making Pixar a creative organization, traces of this journey remain.

 

Recover from failure:

'The ability to recover from failure' is more important

"I'm not stupid enough to think that Pixar will never fail"

“Failure is a natural consequence of doing something new.”

“(So) the role of managers is not to avoid risk, but to develop the ability to recover from failure”

Ed Catmull never had the expectation that he and his team would never fail in the first place, so he placed a greater weight on how to deal with the failures and setbacks he would face rather than trying not to fail.

In particular, in creative work such as animation production, he knew well that the morale and mood (mental) of the members greatly influence the result, so Ed Catmull thought that it should be made so that members can feel psychological stability even when they experience failure or frustration. It's possible

"Trust isn't about expecting your employees not to mess things up"

"Trust is trusting people even when they mess things up"

Friendship Consciousness in Pixar community:

The most important thing in organizational culture It's about having a 'friendship consciousness'.

“One of the things that sets us apart from other studios and is so important to us is that people from all locations lead each other.”

“I have to feel that I exist for the whole and the whole exists for me.”

So, to understand Pixar's culture, it's necessary to know the rather peculiar term 'kind consciousness'.

kind consciousness in Pixar community:

A state of consciousness in which people other than oneself are recognized as being of the same kind

This camaraderie is one of the biggest forces moving the Pixar community.

And at Pixar, the core of the sense of companionship is that in the process of making a film, 'producers never leave alone when they're in crisis'.

 

“When difficulties arise, the director must take responsibility, find solutions and make decisions.”

"But Pixar doesn't leave the director alone"

“The director is the one who has to solve the problem, but there has to be someone who can help them when they are in trouble, and that’s the brain trust.”

To make good work, you have to break away from the egocentric mindset.

Ed Catmull highlighter of 'Dailies' in Pixar:

'Daily' is a relatively lesser-known management technique that Ed Catmull introduced to Pixar, such as Brain Trust, Story Trust, and Note Day.

'Daily', which translates as a daily meeting or daily check, is a neologism of the plural of Daily, and refers to checking the progress of a project being worked on at Pixar every morning at Pixar.

It is burdensome for creators to share 'unfinished works' every day, and in some cases it may feel repulsive.

But here's why Ed Catmull highlights Dailies.

"(It's obviously burdensome) If all colleagues do the same, it won't be too much of a burden"

"If you do it every day, the burden will disappear quickly"

“And when the pressure and tension are gone, people are more focused on their work and trying to solve problems.”

“That’s when creativity comes into play.”

Shift from a 'self-centered' mindset to a 'problem-centered' mindset:

“In other words, a shift from a self-centered mindset to a problem-centered mindset.

The reason why Ed Catmull emphasizes Dailies like this is to break free from the ego-centered thinking of talking to each other about their creations every day and making the creators match their work.

In other words, rather than relying on individual creativity, Pixar's way of making animations is that members work together to build high levels of creativity every day.

To create great works, you must go through not-so-great steps."