A Li'l Bird Told Me

Jim Hill, RightBrain/Co-Founder

This week I stumbled upon an interview that really fired me up. The McKinsey Quarterly sat down with Brad Bird to discuss how to stimulate creativity and foster teamwork and innvoation. Sounds pretty THRIVE!-tastic, right?

Some of you may be asking, “Brad who?”. I’ll help you out (before you can Google him). Brad Bird is the two-time Oscar winning director of The Incredibles and Ratatouille, smash hits from Pixar Animation (he’s also the voice of Edna “No Capes!” Mode for you trivia buffs). Digging deeper, he also directed the animated movie Iron Giant and worked on The Simpsons. So now you know that he’s a genius, funny and must work really, really hard.

As I read the interview, I was struck by the insights and drive that this guy brings to the office. Writing classic stories, building teams of animators, and delivering movies on time and budget takes a whole other level of dedication. He dreams big, really big. He’s committed to his vision. He seeks help from his team, and gives it back to them in a positive way. He does what it takes to get it done, and then he raises the bar and does it again.

Hey, that sounds like the THRIVE! Step Plan for Success, doesn’t it? Let’s take a look at two of Brad Bird’s responses with that in mind and learn from a master, shall we?

Step 1: Dare to Dream Big

The Quarterly: Engagement, morale—what else is critical for stimulating innovative thinking?

Brad Bird: The first step in achieving the impossible is believing that the impossible can be achieved. There was a point during the making of The Incredibles where we had a company meeting. We have them about twice a year, and anybody can bring up concerns. Somebody raised their hand and said, “Is The Incredibles too ambitious?” Ed Catmull said, “I don’t know” and looked over at me. I just said, “No! If there’s one studio that needs to be doing stuff that is ‘too ambitious,’ it’s this one. You guys have had nothing but success. What do you do with it? You don’t play it safe—you do something that scares you, that’s at the edge of your capabilities, where you might fail. That’s what gets you up in the morning.”

Step 3: Help Me, Obi-Wan

The Quarterly: How do you build and lead a team that collaborates in the way you’re describing?

Brad Bird: When the time came for animators to start showing me their work, I got everybody in a room. This was different from what the previous guy had done; he had reviewed the work in private, generated notes, and sent them to the person.

For my reviews, I got a video projector and had an animator’s scenes projected onto a dry-erase board. I could freeze a frame and take a marker and show where I thought things should be versus where they were. I said, “Look, this is a young team. As individual animators, we all have different strengths and weaknesses, but if we can interconnect all our strengths, we are collectively the greatest animator on earth. So I want you guys to speak up and drop your drawers. We’re going to look at your scenes in front of everybody. Everyone will get humiliated and encouraged together. If there is a solution, I want everyone to hear the solution, so everyone adds it to their tool kit. I’m going to take my shot at what I think will improve a scene, but if you see something different, go ahead and disagree. I don’t know all the answers.”

Those are just two examples from a great interview. Take time to read it in it’s entirety and you will see the rest of the T! Step Plan mapped out in his experience. There are fantastic lessons on avoiding complacency, building team morale and the art of creative leadership. Lessons like these are valuable for anyone, even if you're not feeling particularly animated about your current situation.

And remember, take Edna's advice — "No capes!"

KAED

Quotes of the Week

"Animation is about creating the illusion of life. And you can't create it if you don't have one. "
- Brad Bird

"I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things. "
- Walt Disney

Coaching Quickie: A Li'l Bird Told Me

What Pixar film describes your life best?

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Last Week's Results

Coaching Quickie: Having a Ball
In the basketball game of life, who are you?

(13%) The All-Star - I bring my "A" game every day.
(13%) The Owner - I sit high above it all in the skybox.
(38%) The Coach - My greatest gift is helping others work together and win.
(38%) The Water Boy - Technically I'm in the game, I'm just not on the floor.