Lessons in Candour From Pixar’s Braintrust

In his book Creativity Inc., Ed Catmull, President of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation, explains the important role of the ‘braintrust’ in the creative success of Pixar.

He starts by stressing the importance of candour.  It is essential for open and honest discussion.  The opposite of candour is reserve and there are many reasons why people should be reserved. When you are fresh into a company and go to a meeting it is only natural to be polite, show respect, defer to authority, avoid embarrassment and avoid looking like an idiot.  These are all good reasons to be reserved and hold off making critical comments.  It is also the case that strong and confident people in meetings can intimidate others and can easily signal that they do not like criticism.  Catmull argues that we need to be aware of all these and other factors which mitigate against candour.  We should show by words and actions that candour is wanted and appreciated.

At Pixar they initiated this process by stressing to staff that, “early on, all our movies suck.”  A key part of the initiative to innovate and improve movies is what Pixar call their ‘braintrust’.  It is a group of people whose job it is to review the plans, progress, storyboards and early reels of each project at regular intervals.  The braintrust group includes experienced people with deep understanding of movies and audiences.  They give the project director clear spoken feedback on what they like, what works, what doesn’t work and what they think is a problem.  They do not prescribe solutions, fixes or ideas and they have no authority to mandate changes.  How to fix the issues raised is the responsibility of the project director and their creative team.

The role of the braintrust is advisory.  It is benevolent, it wants to help and has no other agenda.  The film itself is under the microscope, not the director.  As Catmull puts it, “You are NOT your idea.” If there is an argument it is there to excavate the truth. No one tries to win.  Interestingly, the forceful character of Steve Jobs was never invited to join a braintrust meeting.

Why is it necessary?  Because every movie director becomes lost in their project.  They become immersed in the detail.  Where once they saw the forest, they can now only see trees.

Catmull draws this analogy. Pixar is a hospital.  The movie is a patient.  The director is the doctor in charge.  The braintrust is group of other doctors and experienced clinicians.  They ask questions and add their ideas.  They are striving to find out what is wrong with the patient and help them to recover.

Even with all these good intentions and practices in place, Catmull found that he had to continually strive to eliminate the barriers to candour in the meetings and across the company.

Very few organizations operate at the high level of creativity needed in Pixar where every project was a clever, innovative and original animation.  But every organization has projects, systems and practices which need candid feedback.  We all need to find ways to increase candour.

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This post was previously published on Destination Innovation.

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