Pixar’s “Dream Retreats”

In our best-selling book, The Disney Way, we write that “Dream Retreats Inspire Creativity.” The “dream retreat” frees people from their daily routines and places them in an atmosphere that encourages a “childlike” expression of their dreams. Many of our clients have derived enormous benefits from allowing their employees to gather off-site to begin a planning process for creative change that ultimately revolutionizes a culture.

In our soon-to-be-released book, Innovate the Pixar Way, we describe how the original Toy Story team came together in a “dream retreat” to bring to life a story about buddies—guys who might have had a rocky start to their relationship but who became friends for a greater cause. They were living the theme song…You’ve Got a Friend in Me!

This month, John Lasseter spoke to a group at the first annual D23 Convention (Bob Iger, President and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, decided to organize a “Disney fan” convention dubbed D23 – the “D” for Disney {obviously!} and “23” for the year 1923 when Walt Disney launched his studio.) during which he described how he and his Toy Story “buddies” gathered for a retreat to create the widely anticipated Toy Story 3’s main story, themes and new characters. He discussed how the story of Andy growing up and going to college was inspired by his own real life experiences in sending his now grown children off to college. (Toy Story 3’s release on June 18th, 2010 will be here before we know it!)
Pixar’s founding values of collaboration and mutual respect were solidified during the process of making Toy Story in the early 1990s. As Pixar co-founder, Alvy Ray Smith, explained to us, “If you are going to have a really talented group of people, it’s really important to have mutual respect and dignity across the technical and graphical divide.” Creative people flourish when they unite in a trusting environment to forge new frontiers. And certainly, in their “dream retreats”, the Pixar Toy Story “buddies” create stories that last forever.