Bad News, Bad News

"Nobody likes the man who brings bad news."
—Sophocles

"Grief" -- 24"x 24" Acrylic on panel. 

It''s a stubborn feature of human nature: we often confuse the message with the messenger. Bad news disrupts comfort, threatens hope, and forces reckoning, so our irritation or fear seeks an outlet. Rather than grapple with the reality being reported, we turn on the person who delivers it. This instinct appears in families, politics, workplaces, and even religion, where truth-tellers are labeled as negative, disloyal, or cruel simply for naming what others would rather avoid saying

Sophocles' quote also exposes a moral hazard. Societies and leaders that punish bearers of bad news slowly lose access to truth. This brings to mind an observation by Pixar's Ed Catmull in his book Creativity, Inc., "If there is more truth in the hallways than in meetings, you have a problem." In other words, when honesty carries social cost, people learn to soften, delay, or conceal reality. What begins as a desire for emotional comfort becomes a system of self-deception. Sophocles, who wrote Greek tragedies, understood that catastrophe often follows not from ignorance alone but from hostility toward warning.

Yet the quote also invites humility from the messenger. Bad news need not be delivered with relish or contempt. Courage, compassion and empathy must travel together. This is part of the problem with our toxic social media culture. There is seldom empathy, only outrage.

The challenge is to speak truth clearly without delighting in the pain it brings—and to hear truth without demanding pleasantness as a condition before accepting it.

Sophocles' observation applies on many fronts. It explains why whistleblowers are often shunned and why reformers are resisted. It's why leaders reward flattery over honesty and why families avoid difficult conversations. 

The truth stings, but it's better than the alternatives.  

Remarkable Lessons from the Pixar Story: Creativity Inc.

How to Create and Manage a Creative Culture: Lessons from the Pixar Experience

When I first saw the silhouette on the cover of Creativity, Inc. I was stymied. It bore a resemblance to the familiar conductor who appears in Disney's Fantasia, but was not, yet it had a familiar look. It's like that puzzle with the vase and the face, or a number of similar optical illusions. Once you see it, you generally don't un-see. It was Buzz Lightyear, or rather a hybrid of these two iconic images, standing in as symbol for the phenomenal business hybrid of Disney and Pixar.

It was Brent Schlender's Becoming Steve Jobs that cued me in to the role Steve Jobs played in saving Pixar Animation Studios from the ash heap of stories that might have been, keeping the company on life support till all the pieces could be pulled together for the Hollywood supernova called Toy Story. Upon completion of this Jobs career and character development story, I felt impelled to read Ed Catmull's insider account of Pixar. The big achievement there, and the basic storyline in this book, was not Toy Story, or its various other superhits. Rather, Catmull's aim is to share a lifetime of insights about management in general, and managing creative people specifically.

How does a company create a creative culture where excellence flourishes, where ideas actually come to fruition and become earth-shaking events? Catmull shares everything, including all the lessons learned through their various failures, and the miracles that rose from those ashes.

The amazing thing is that despite the various mis-steps, Pixar never had a single film that bombed.

The book's subtitle tells the real story of what made Pixar such a superstar: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in The Way of True Inspiration. Unseen forces means forces can refer to forces that are invisible, like the ice below the surface that sunk the Titanic, or it can mean forces that are in plain sight, like Poe's Purloined Letter, but we do not see them. Catmull states that the management team had to be perpetually vigilant. What they were vigilant about was very different from most organizations.

At the end of the book Catmull does a summing up of his "Thoughts For Managing A Creative Culture." If you Google that title, you'll find that numerous writers have begun sharing these. Though Ed Catmull's stories make it such a rewarding read, his distilled thoughts at the end are well worth deeper reflection. Here's a small collection of notes from this five page reiteration of the book's themes.

--Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they will screw it up. Give a mediocre idea to a great team, and they will either fix it or come up with something better. If you get the team right, chances are that they'll get the ideas right.

--It isn’t enough merely to be open to ideas from others. Engaging the collective brainpower of the people you work with is an active, ongoing process. As a manager, you must coax ideas out of your staff and constantly push them to contribute.

--There are many valid reasons why people aren’t candid with one another in a work environment. Your job is to search for those reasons and then address them.

--Likewise, if someone disagrees with you, there is a reason. Our first job is to understand the reasoning behind their conclusions. 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.

--There is nothing quite as effective, when it comes to shutting down alternative viewpoints, as being convinced you are right.

--In general, people are hesitant to say things that might rock the boat. Braintrust meetings, dailies, postmortems, and Notes Day are all efforts to reinforce the idea that it is okay to express yourself. All are mechanisms of self-assessment that seek to uncover what’s real.

--If there is more truth in the hallways than in meetings, you have a problem.

You can find more of these here or if you go ahead and purchase the book here.

* * * *
Healthy organisms and healthy organizations will grow naturally if given the right nourishment and environment. In the case of institutions, there have been plenty of books written about how they fail. Ed Catmull's insider perspective on Pixar's achievements has applications for all types of organizations. But it would be especially valuable for companies working in creative fields like ad agencies, theater, Hollywood, arts communities, new product development, communications and more.

More can be said, but we'll end with this: Read the book.

“Achieving enormous success while holding fast to the highest artistic standards is a nice trick—and Pixar, with its creative leadership and persistent commitment to innovation, has pulled it off. This book should be required reading for any manager.”
—Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit

Originally published in 2017

How to Create and Manage a Creative Culture: Lessons from the Pixar Experience

When I first saw the silhouette on the cover of Creativity, Inc. I was stymied. It bore a resemblance to the familiar conductor who appears in Disney's Fantasia, but was not, yet it had a familiar look. It's like that puzzle with the vase and the face, or a number of similar optical illusions. Once you see it, you generally don't un-see. It was Buzz Lightyear, or rather a hybrid of these two iconic images, standing in as symbol for the phenomenal business hybrid of Disney and Pixar.

It was Brent Schlender's Becoming Steve Jobs that cued me in to the role Steve Jobs played in saving Pixar Animation Studios from the ash heap of stories that might have been, keeping the company on life support till all the pieces could be pulled together for the Hollywood supernova called Toy Story. Upon completion of this Jobs career and character development story, I felt impelled to read Ed Catmull's insider account of Pixar. The big achievement there, and the basic storyline in this book, was not Toy Story, or its various other superhits. Rather, Catmull's aim is to share a lifetime of insights about management in general, and managing creative people specifically.

How does a company create a creative culture where excellence flourishes, where ideas actually come to fruition and become earth-shaking events? Catmull shares everything, including all the lessons learned through their various failures, and the miracles that rose from those ashes.

The amazing thing is that despite the various mis-steps, Pixar never had a single film that bombed.

The book's subtitle tells the real story of what made Pixar such a superstar: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in The Way of True Inspiration. Unseen forces means forces can refer to forces that are invisible, like the ice below the surface that sunk the Titanic, or it can mean forces that are in plain sight, like Poe's Purloined Letter, but we do not see them. Catmull states that the management team had to be perpetually vigilant. What they were vigilant about was very different from most organizations.

At the end of the book Catmull does a summing up of his "Thoughts For Managing A Creative Culture." If you Google that title, you'll find that numerous writers have begun sharing these. Though Ed Catmull's stories make it such a rewarding read, his distilled thoughts at the end are well worth deeper reflection. Here's a small collection of notes from this five page reiteration of the book's themes.

--Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they will screw it up. Give a mediocre idea to a great team, and they will either fix it or come up with something better. If you get the team right, chances are that they'll get the ideas right.

--It isn’t enough merely to be open to ideas from others. Engaging the collective brainpower of the people you work with is an active, ongoing process. As a manager, you must coax ideas out of your staff and constantly push them to contribute.

--There are many valid reasons why people aren’t candid with one another in a work environment. Your job is to search for those reasons and then address them.

--Likewise, if someone disagrees with you, there is a reason. Our first job is to understand the reasoning behind their conclusions. 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.

--There is nothing quite as effective, when it comes to shutting down alternative viewpoints, as being convinced you are right.

--In general, people are hesitant to say things that might rock the boat. Braintrust meetings, dailies, postmortems, and Notes Day are all efforts to reinforce the idea that it is okay to express yourself. All are mechanisms of self-assessment that seek to uncover what’s real.

--If there is more truth in the hallways than in meetings, you have a problem.

You can find more of these here or if you go ahead and purchase the book here.

* * * *
Healthy organisms and healthy organizations will grow naturally if given the right nourishment and environment. In the case of institutions, there have been plenty of books written about how they fail. Ed Catmull's insider perspective on Pixar's achievements has applications for all types of organizations. But it would be especially valuable for companies working in creative fields like ad agencies, theater, Hollywood, arts communities, new product development, communications and more.

More can be said, but we'll end with this: Read the book.

“Achieving enormous success while holding fast to the highest artistic standards is a nice trick—and Pixar, with its creative leadership and persistent commitment to innovation, has pulled it off. This book should be required reading for any manager.”
—Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit

Psych 101: Pixar' Inside Out

Disgust, Anger, Joy, Sorrow and Fear @ Riley HQ

Just finished watching the latest Pixar gem Inside Out. I intended to watch it on DVD while doing something else, but the beginning is so compelling I just couldn't detach my retinas.

There are really two stories in this animated film, just as there are two stories in most of our lives. There is the external story where we move about from place to place geographically in the space-time continuum. And then there's our inner story where our various emotions reside, with experiences of their own. Inside Out is primarily about the five characters who express themselves within our heads and define our personalities -- Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear. The movie does a great job of showing how the memories that accompany us through life impact us, often comforting and sometimes shackling us.

As with many a story there's a problem that the hero must resolve, the hero's quest. And the Pixar story is no different. Just as Woody and Buzz must find their way home (in Toy Story), so it is that two of the characters -- Joy and Sadness -- somehow get whisked away from Riley's Head-quarters so that Anger, Disgust and Fear are all that Riley has left.

Making memories that will reside in Family Island

Ah, yes... Riley. The external world story is about a girl named Riley whose family moves with her family from Minnesota (a world of good memories) to San Francisco, which becomes a challenge for various reasons, not the least of which is being alone and tentative about her new life.

One of the unexpected characters we meet, during the journey of Joy and Sadness in their effort to get back "home" to the place where they belong inside Riley's head, is the hilarious forgotten imaginary friend from Riley's early years, Bing Bong. Bing Bong strives to help them in their journey, but he's a bit of a doofus and his leadership at various points creates more setbacks than solutions. Nevertheless, he's fun to have along.

Although this is the inner story of Riley's life, the main storyline seems to be about Joy's journey. When Joy is absent from headquarters, where she belongs, how empty our lives become.

One of the scenes I enjoyed was in the kitchen where Riley's parents are trying to deal with Riley after her first day in school. The same five emotions live inside her parents as well, and when we go inside Mom's head we see her inner emotions trying to dissect the situation, to determine a course of action. Then we go inside Dad's head and see he is initially oblivious because he's following a game on his smartphone. Finally his own Anger step up, for Riley is interfering with his own Joy.

Ah, how much fun we had being silly when we were kids.

It's probable that some folk might see the film as overly simplistic psychobabble, but it's a children's flick and yes, like The Velveteen Rabbit or Beauty & the Beast, there are story lines for the kids and for the parents who share memories with their kids.

One of our favorite books when we were raising our own kids was Let's Make a Memory. (My fact checker has noted that I never read this book, but liked the idea of its premise.) The importance of good memories cannot be underemphasized. Inside Out underscores this key truth as well, showing us the various "amusement parks" where such memories reside.

Each of Riley's core memories build the island that make Riley Riley: Hockey Island, Goofball Island, Friendship Island, Honesty Island, Family Island etc. Imagination and exploration and environment all contribute to to the whole, and for the sake of this story it is a wholesome whole.

After thinking about the story for a day I wondered if there was something missing from this entertaining film. I'm thinking here of my inner narrative, out self talk. Are we really only a bundle of emotions responding to inputs? Somehow this simplification goes too far, and may even be part of the problem we have as a society. Emotions respond to thoughts, which are interpreting the inputs of our experience. How we talk to ourselves, interpreting the inputs, produces emotional effects. We consider people immature who do not reign in their emotions, who let their emotions continually get the best of them.

Woo hoo when Joy is in ascendency. 

Overall, though, the story is well told, engaging, entertaining, and fun. The writing is good, the Pixar animation up to snuff, and it even begins in Minnesota.

There are a lot of subtle touches as one might expect in a well-conceived and executed Pixar flick. For example, when Riley and her family arrive in San Francisco, she's wearing a sweater comprised of the colors of the five emotion-characters inside her head. What we are on the inside is revealed on the outside. Or so it is with Riley.

One thing missing from the film are memorable songs, though I didn't initially notice till after. The Lego Movie has "Everything Is Awesome" and Elton John's soundtrack for The Lion King was stellar. This did not, however, diminish my enjoyment of the movie.

All in all, another stellar offering from the Pixar Hit Factory.

* * * *
Two decades ago I produced a story that deals with one of the roles memories play, and their special importance in our lives. It's called The M Zone, and it's a bit darker than this tale. I invite you to read it. You'll find it here at ennyman.com.