Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Bill Speaks in Curitiba, Brazil on October 5, 2010 – Article translated from Portuguese to English via Google Translator

06.10.2010 | 00:01 | Breno Baldrati
Communicating by errosRSSImprimirEnviar emailReceba news by celularReceba boletinsAumentar letraDiminuir letraOnze films, eleven hits and, for many, a few classics. The history of Pixar, producer of animated films like Toy Story, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, it should serve as inspiration for Brazilian firms, the American consultant Bill Capodagli, author of Behind the Scenes at Pixar. He did talk yesterday on the first day of October. Mondays Management, done by SAF University Center. To Capodagli, who studied three Brazilian companies to prepare for the event, the great lesson of the Pixar executives to the country is the "fun atmosphere." He said in his research, rarely a Brazilian official described his day job as fun. "Sometimes you have to do crazy things with his team's work," he says. See key excerpts from the conversation with Gazeta do Povo.
In the book, you said quite Pixar's philosophy of encouraging employees to see the world through the eyes of a child. What this means for a company?
As children, we dream about anything within the reach of our imagination. There comes an age when we start thinking more like an adult, and creative thinking is limited. Pixar allows its employees to develop this time of childhood imagination. I think most organizations would do this.
How? What are the incentives for that to happen?
There are several ways, and they are listed in the book. One of the crucial things that organizations should teach is improvisation. Teaching employees to react to a stimulus in the right way. The question is not what my boss would like me to say now, "but talk about his true feeling about a given subject. Create an atmosphere of fun is also important. John Lasseter [a key Pixar animators] says that a lot, "one works hard here at Pixar and many, many hours are committed to produce an animated film." But he points out that employees also have much fun, and is so that creativity flows.
The two founders of Pixar, Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith, the book says, believe that "art is a team effort." What makes Pixar and how companies can improve working together?
The greatest thing about teamwork is collaboration. All members of a team are as important as everyone else. Ed Catmull says that it is often questioned about why Pixar always have great ideas. He always replies that he agrees, arguing that you can give a good idea for a mediocre team and they can spoil it. Likewise, you can give a mediocre idea to a good team and they can turn it into a great animated film. He believes it's all a matter of having a good team and all members have responsibilities, even small ones. The main thing is to make everyone feel they are contributing to the success of the final result.
This also has to do with the autonomy of employees?
Yes, the continuing directors making the decisions, but everyone can give a two cents. Another most important thing that you see on Pixar and does not happen much in other organizations is transparency in decision making. There they are made of a clear and transparent to all the employees.
And why do companies have so much trouble with this question of transparency?
For decades we have promoted leaders who carry that image of being the toughest, who make things happen. The youngsters come on the market and seeing it begin to imitate. At Pixar, this cycle was broken. Companies need to understand that this business model no longer serves the world today.
His lecture speaks specifically of how Brazilian companies can learn from Pixar. In his research on the companies here, what most impressed him?
I researched three main businesses: Embraco Bematech and Neogrid. In Embraco, one of the interesting things I saw was the company's collaboration with universities. They work to prepare students for the real world, not to the world of textbooks. And 40% of new hires come from these partnerships with universities. In Neogrid, one of the things they do very well is the communication of their objectives. Many companies put their mission and values to employees, spend time to define them, but do not internalize these issues. The mission and values become just words on paper. In Neogrid, they have regular meetings to reinforce these values and mission of the organization. Companies need to do that anymore. We can not implement a value in just one meeting. You have to constantly reinforce the idea.
From what you observed, what companies here can learn from Pixar?
Creating an atmosphere of fun. I think that no employee of the companies I've heard described his day job as fun, except the research team and development of Embraco. There, in the "park" as they call this area, employees are even encouraged to spend several hours a week on projects that may not even have any relation with the company's product lines. I think having fun.
How to create this fun environment?
You have to let it happen naturally. Do some crazy things and strange with your team also helps. One thing that Pixar does is lead staff for a ride once in a while. For example, take them to an art gallery and then make them think about how art is like the product they sell.

 

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