A few weeks ago I wrote about Ed Catmull and Pixar, about how Pixar learns from failure. Well, in his new business book, Creativity Inc, Catmull had other amazing secrets for success. One I think that Scott Adams and Dilbert would appreciate, at least as titled by Fast Company, was “Protect Creatives from the Organization.”
“I think most people are creative. The reason I don’t write about how to make people creative in my books is that there are lots of books and lost of people saying things like “free people up” or “get rid of mental blocks.” But I don’t think that’s the central problem. I think the central problem is the stuff companies put in place that block the natural abilities that are already there. Accidentally, and without intending to, companies smother creativity. Our job as managers, whether it’s here at Pixar or elsewhere, is to manage an environment that lets the right things happen.”
Catch that? “Companies smother creativity.” Yep.
I’ve seen that in all of my working stops including three churches, two Olympic swim teams, a construction company and yes, at my college. Now, no one is actually attempting to kill creativity….wait, well, maybe some people are. Let me get back to that. On the whole, companies put process into motion for the sake of continuity, efficiency and even safety.
The entire aspect of creativity is disruptive. It sees a different way of doing things. In that different way, the creative upsets the apple cart. Yes, so the thinking goes, there may be an upside down the road, but we already know how to do what we are doing well. So, why be creative. In the process, the person who is creative increasingly gets frustrated….or determines it is better to take his or her vision elsewhere.
I wish Catmull had said more about this to Fast Company. On the whole, I can defend the processes that each of those former businesses of mine had in place. There was a reason, and a good one….so I would have loved to have heard more about exactly how to protect the creatives from the organization. If you do give them space to try (a la Google X, perhaps), then how do you bring their ideas forward without potentially upsetting the organization.
And that takes us back to those others….at times, there are indeed people in an organization who do attempt to kill creativity. It comes from fear…a fear of the new, perhaps a fear that they will no longer be as useful if the new creative thing takes hold, and probably a fear of the creative person. I have seen all of that in a few specific instances. In those cases, it is imperative if you are the creative person to not just fight the system, but to look for ways to slip your ideas in through a back door. And, if you are really good, you bring your critic over to your side, showing them that you seek them as an ally.
If you are creative, well good. Go for it. If your business doesn’t provide you protection, perhaps go speak to your organizational leaders. Maybe there is a way to build that system of protection, maybe an incubation engine, into the machinery of your work. Maybe to do that it will take a creative person who can see new paths. Go for it.