What Offends Your People?

I was blown away by this short anecdote, which not only encapsulates a special aspect of Pixar's culture, but also sets a high water mark for the ambitions any leader could hope to instill in a creative team. 

"Toy Story 3 was the only Pixar production during which we didn't have a major crisis, and after the film came out, I repeatedly said so in public, lauding its crew for racking up not a single disaster during the film's gestation.

You might imagine that the Toy Story 3 crew would have been happy when I said this, but you'd imagine wrong. So ingrained are the beliefs I've been describing about failure at Pixar that the people who worked on Toy Story 3 were actually offended by my remarks. They interpreted them to mean that they hadn't tried as hard as their colleagues on other films – that they hadn't pushed themselves enough. That isn't at all what I meant, but I have to admit: I was thrilled by their reaction. I saw it as proof that our culture is healthy."

(Another excerpt from Ed Catmull's fantastic memoir, Creativity, Inc)

When a team feels they didn't attempt boldly enough when praised for their lack of failures, you know you've properly calibrated not only the degree of originality desired, but also, of the inherent cost it takes to get there.

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