Thursday, August 16, 2012
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Bill Capodagli–Featured Keynoter for Manufacturing Innovation 2012
Bill Capodagli will be a featured keynote speaker at Manufacturing Innovation 2012 (MI2012) in Orlando on May 9th. This 4-day event is produced by Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and brings together over 700 manufacturers, industry experts, and MEP field staff to gain valuable information on the latest trends and technologies facing U.S. manufacturers. This event is designed to truly bring the “voice of manufacturing” and “voice of government” to an open, educational and sharing environment that makes a measurable impact on U.S. manufacturing.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Innovate the Pixar Way for Filmmakers
The PIXAR Method: Tricks of the Hit Machine
By John Ott
photo by: JD Hancock
At the time of writing, PIXAR has released its 12th number one box office film, Cars 2. In an industry that expects one out of ten releases to be hit films, their critical and box office track record is unprecedented. Not even the early Disney studio had such a run of success.
You could credit the talents of people who work there, from Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter on down. They are immensely talented people, to be sure. But there are plenty of people with talent in Hollywood. Why has no other studio had the same success?
I believe that PIXAR has certain unique methods that help them craft superior films. And the good news is, because PIXAR began as an outsider company, many of these methods are well within reach of the indie filmmaker. Here are a few new tricks from the old toys…
Perturbate the Model
While a single writer/director is usually the prime creative force behind each PIXAR film, all of the films are regularly subjected to “brutally honest” critiques while in development from a group known as the Brain Trust. The original members of the Brain Trust were Lasseter, Pete Docter (Up, Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-E) and the late Joe Ranft. The group now reportedly includes other directors and creatives like Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3) and Brenda Chapman (The Prince of Egypt). As you can see, the story must withstand scrutiny from a collective with a massive movie IQ.
Finance wizards have an expression: to perturbate the model. They test how models of markets would react in this or that extreme situation. The creative wizards at PIXAR do exactly the same thing. Before they ever start animating a story, it has been rigorously tested. Does this or that plot point make sense? What are the characters’ goals? Is this unique and original? While the ultimate creative decisions rest with the filmmaker, the ones that survive the perturbations from PIXAR’s Brain Trust ultimately result in a stronger story.
But what can an isolated filmmaker do without access to the PIXAR Brain Trust? Start your own. Regularly focus-testing projects with other filmmakers whose opinion you respect is invaluable and now, thanks to social networking, simple to do. Go to some local film festivals or filmmaker events meet other filmmakers and start your own Brain Trust.
Be Willing to Set Projects Aside
If you put years of your life into developing a project, but it just wasn’t ready, would you be willing to put it aside? Walt Disney did this — many times. As someone with the privilege of going through Disney’s archives, I’ve had a chance to see many projects that were delayed or never came to fruition. Disney often resisted commercial pressure to rush a film into production, and guess who else has this habit? John Lasseter, Disney worshipper.
“I’ve got Disney blood running through my veins,” he has been quoted as saying. “I do what I do because of Walt Disney.” [The Sunday Times October 2009] Even before PIXAR had a track record, he threw out the original story for Toy Story and started again from scratch, even though doing so jeopardized a deal with the Disney Studio to help release it. We know from our perch in the present that it all worked out, but at that time, the pressure must have been enormous.
Following Walt Disney’s lead, Lasseter and other executives at PIXAR have taken steps to make such a hard call a easier. They keep a lot of projects in development. This is expensive, but it means they get a choice of projects when the production pipeline is ready.
Most successful indie filmmakers do something similar, if on a smaller scale. They “keep irons in the fire” and are “willing to kill their babies” if it serves the ultimate creative goal: making a great movie.
Play in the Sandbox
When bestselling business authors Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson analyzed the corporate culture of PIXAR, they observed a childlike sense of fun in every aspect of the company. One of the keys is the way collaboration is used to constantly “plus” projects. PIXAR employees build on each others’ ideas like kids working to build a massive sandcastle.
Their takeaway: “Innovation does not come from a miraculous revelation … it comes from habitual, nonstop collaboration.” As PIXAR employees eat breakfast cereal (provided free), they can sit around like kids at the breakfast table and bounce ideas off one another. Then they can adjourn to a secret room with a hidden door that opens by pressing a button under a statue (I’m not making this up) as they continue to work on it.
As a filmmaker, you have to feel free to experiment, unleash the imagination that was so strong in childhood. I’m not saying a bowl of Frosted Flakes is the best way to do that. But whatever sort of environment is a creative sandbox for you, make it happen.
There are plenty more PIXAR methods that deserve to be cloned by filmmakers, but I’ll leave it here for now. See you in the sandbox!
John Ott is a writer, filmmaker and founder of the website Making the Movie
MasteringFilm, powered by bestselling Focal Press authors, leading filmmakers, industry experts, and our editorial and marketing team (who live and breathe film every day). We believe creativity has an endless shelf life, and we are passionate about providing you the best resources that help give a longer shelf life to your creations.
Focal Press has been a leading publisher of Media Technology books for 70 years. We provide essential resources for professionals and students in many areas including: film and digital video production, photography & digital imaging, audio, animation, broadcast, theatre and web.
We are committed to publishing high quality books filled with practical hands-on information, dealing with cutting-edge and converging technologies from the experts in the field. You will find practical solutions to problems, examples you can apply to your work, and valuable insights that will help you keep up-to-date in these highly competitive fields.
We deliver to you the techniques that have proved successful for professionals, and inspire you to go further with your craft. Our books demystify ever-changing technologies and help you gain success.
Focal Press – learn, master, create
Saturday, August 27, 2011
“Dreams and Dreamers” SHARE Keynote Review
On Monday, August 8, SHARE President, Janet Sun took the stage to welcome SHARE attendees and introduce keynote speaker Bill Capodagli of Capodagli Jackson Consulting.
SHARE was proud to host over 1,000 Enterprise IT professionals in Orlando, Florida, August 7 – 12, 2011, for a week filled with deep-dive discussions into the latest industry developments, engaging networking events and new professional connections. SHARE attendees selected from over 500 technical sessions offered during the week, engaged with over 40 industry exhibitors in the Technology Exchange Expo and mingled with fellow IT users to discuss mutual interests and solutions.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
BILL CAPODAGLI’S VIDEO FROM THE 13TH World Human Resources Congress in Montreal
Finally….we have a link to clips from Bill’s Sept, 2010 keynote in Montreal:
http://www.portailrh.org/StudioRH/fiche4.aspx?p=444886
Words of Welcome from Canada’s Prime Minister
The human resources management sector has certainly been affected by the deteriorating global economic environment in recent months. This slowdown is suited to a period of reflection, encouraging us to explore new avenues adapted to current realities. The holding of this event is of particular relevance, providing a unique opportunity for human resources specialists from throughout the world to address these issues.
This three-day congress will enable participants to share with their colleagues and discuss innovative measures to help recovering economies face today’s challenges. I have no doubt that this conference will touch on new approaches and markets that will help stimulate the economic recovery and strengthen the critical human resources management sector.
On behalf of the Government of Canada, I would like to congratulate the organizers on their outstanding work. I wish all the participants a very productive congress.
The Prime Minister of Canada, 
Steven Harper
Monday, May 9, 2011
CUNA REVIEW of BILL’S KEYNOTE - DREAMS AND DREAMERS: HOW TO INNOVATE LIKE WALT DISNEY AND THE PIXARIANS
Excerpt from:
My Top 5 Takeaways from the CUNA HR/TD Conference/www.creditunionmagazine.com
By Michelle Greear, vice president, learning and development, for Technology Credit Union, San Jose, Calif.
April 29, 2011
Number 4. Everyone has something to learn and something to teach.
Bill Capodagli’s presentation on innovation was inspiring and timely. He highlighted the importance of the story, setting, role, and backstage as we partner with our corporate enterprise to achieve goals and improve efficiencies.
HR/TD can help whittle away departmental silos by advocating for cross-functional mentors, coaches, and subject matter experts who can see outside the lines and play nice in the sand box.
Working with adults is similar to working with kids. Kids like toys, and so do adults. Kids like to move around, interact, and see how things work. So do adults. Kids like stories, color, and visual stimulation—so do adults.
Note to self: learn Prezi.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Orange Leaders Embrace Innovate the Pixar Way
Excerpts from the What is Orange blog…How do you emphasize MILESTONES?
Posted on http://www.whatisorange.org 5/5/11 by Bre Hallberg
Milestones come and go whether we’re prepared for them or not. So, why not spend a little bit of time planning for those moments in life AND preparing the parents of the kids in your ministry for the milestones that they’re going to encounter?
This month we’ll be discussing how church leaders can better partner with parents to become more actively involved in key events that mark milestones in their kids’ lives. And on a personal note, we’re going to be talking about how to make the little stuff in life count, and be intentional about celebrating even the smallest milestones.
We know that you lead in several ways at any given time. You lead yourself, you lead volunteers, you might lead a staff, and you often lead up. So, here’s what we have in store for you to accomplish each of these tasks:
PERSONAL LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
How does this happen every single week? Sunday just won’t slow down. But don’t allow that to interfere with the investment you make in yourself as a leader. Go ahead and grab your number two pencil to mark some personal time each week this month to invest in your own leadership development—20 minutes should do it. We’ve already got a plan for you, so making the time is the first step to accomplishing it.
BOOK REVIEW:
Innovate the Pixar Way by Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson
Pixar isn’t exactly known for “little things,” but they certainly ARE known for their creativity. And one of the keys to this creativity is finding unique ways to celebrate the workplace— making even small details a big deal. Capodagli and Jackson share this unusual approach with readers so that you can also celebrate and create in your own work environment.
REAL LIFE:
Pixar
Back to the big screen! We’re going to be taking a very practical look at how Pixar celebrates, brainstorms and creates. Check out the details behind their work environment and staff culture that make this company so unique. Then, discover how you can apply those to your ministry environment.
About Orange Leaders
It’s a gathering of leaders who are passionate about engaging churches and families to influence the faith and character of the next generation. They focus their web content around the concept of Orange.
Orange is a secondary color, created when you combine two primary colors—red and yellow.
Orange is what red and yellow can do when they combine efforts. If you paint only with red, you will get what only red can do. If you paint only with yellow, you will get what only yellow can do. But when you paint with red and yellow, you’ll get new possibilities, fresh solutions and vibrant outcomes.
They believe the warm heart of the family can be represented by the color red, and the bright light of the church can be represented by the color yellow. When these two entities combine their efforts for the sake of the spiritual growth of the next generation, the result is Orange.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
EBSCO Reviews Innovate the Pixar Way
Today, many American companies are highly risk averse and are taking a short-term view of business. Greater focus on innovation is needed to make companies more competitive. In Innovate the Pixar Way, Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson discuss how leaders at animation giant Pixar have cultivated an innovative culture. They identify numerous ways that organizations can create their own “innovation playgrounds.” While researching the sources of Pixar’s innovative genius, the authors examined the company’s culture, leadership, teaming, and training. Organizations that are both innovative and profitable require a delicate balance between two very different characteristics: 1) childlike dreaming and 2) task-driven execution. Pixar has been successful at achieving this balance.
EBSCO Publishing is an experienced information solution provider and the largest aggregator of journals and periodicals in the world. In addition to providing resources to support the complete information technology needs of the world’s largest corporations and government agencies, EBSCO is:
- One of the 200 largest private companies in the United States, as reported by Forbes
- A chief resource used in the top twelve ranked MBA programs, as reported by Financial Times
- A leader in providing outstanding information technology solutions for the world’s most-recognized companies and industry leaders for more than 60 years
With a combination of creative editorial, technical, and business skills and operations, EBSCO Publishing provides an outstanding collection of resources. This includes proprietary content, as well as book summaries and reports for learning professionals with selected articles from top magazine and journal publishers.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Justify Blog Review of Innovate the Pixar Way
It’s been a while since we’ve talked book reviews, but we finished reading “Innovate the Pixar Way” by Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson this weekend. To summarize in a few points as possible:
- The book was pretty light on the history of Pixar
- The artwork, pull-quote text and some chapters come across almost condescending, but mostly it sounds like they’re trying too hard.
The whole premise of the book when I picked it up was to get an inside look at Pixar Animation Studios, to really have in-depth interviews with their staff or past employees. It wasn’t so much that as it was a compilation of quotes and tidbits compiled from other video and text interviews conducted with key staff over the years. And while it wasn’t the job of this book to run you through the whole history of Pixar, the amount of text supplied to educate the reader on Pixar could be picked up from Wikipedia.
To be honest, I didn’t like this book. It read very vaguely with whispy high-flying ideas on how to innovate and be creative by having fun at work and letting employees be creative with their office space and not getting tied up in your failures. All good ideas, but not practical if your business has less than a few million in the bank.
One good takeaway was a look at Disney and Walt Disney himself, alongside Ed Catmull and Jon Lasseter of Pixar. The concept of scrapping work that was merely “good enough” to take advantage of “great work” is valid, important and arguably the most important lesson of the book. The authors give good examples, accounts and stories to further this concept well.
In all, a pretty light book on Pixar from a detail standpoint; there’s nothing new to be read here that can’t be surmised from articles, videos and interviews already on the Internet.
Bill and Lynn say, “He’s right about the book being ‘pretty light on the history of Pixar.’ (If you want to read a book about Pixar’s history, pick up droidMAKER or The Pixar Touch.) He’s wrong about needing ‘a few million in the bank’ to practice the principles. In the early days of Pixar, they were operating in the red and STILL found ways to jazz up their offices, keep team spirit soaring, and encourage fun in the workplace. Lastly, the purpose of this book was not to provide a Pixar cookie cutter approach to developing an innovative culture, but rather to spark one’s imagination for producing a dream, believe, dare, do culture that is right for each reader’s organization. As Bill says in his keynote presentations, ‘Innovate, don’t Imitate. It’s hard work. There’s no instant pudding.’”
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Innovate the Pixar Way Book Review from Italy
"…your book started a real waterfall of ideas to adapt the Pixar approach to our company and set our business goals. Before reading your book, we tried to innovate our products/services; after this ‘catalyst event’, I’m sure that the real innovation can come from people!”
Alessandro Rogora, IT Consultant, Busto Arsizio (VA), Italy
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
SALESFORCEXP FEATURES INNOVATE THE PIXAR WAY
To Infinity and Beyond
Pixar-inspired innovation can make your meetings a hit
By Staff
As published in: SalesForceXP - November-December 2010
In their book Innovate the Pixar Way: Business Lessons From the World's Most Creative Corporate Playground (McGraw-Hill, 2010), authors Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson latch on to Pixar Studios' commitment to excellence through imagination.
"It makes no difference if you are making a movie that takes four years or serving a customer that takes four minutes, you have only one chance to deliver that magical, magnetic, enchanting experience for your customer," the authors state.
Because a company's creativity begins during planning sessions, here are three ideas from Capodagli and Jackson that will help your team improve its innovative process during team meetings:
1. Take field trips. Some may be related to particular projects you're working on, while others will feel completely disconnected. In preparation for the animated feature "Cars," Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter and 11 animators rented white Cadillacs and traveled Route 66. To obtain ideas for designing the "Cars" movie characters, Lasseter visited the actual design studios of several automotive companies.
2. Bring in an outside guest speaker. Have your team spend an afternoon learning how to cultivate bonsai trees, or how to prepare an Italian dinner, or how to make classical music relevant to today's youth. The key is to get the team to expand their thinking outside their normal comfort thinking zone.
3. Conduct quarterly "Gong Shows." Years ago, the Disney organization had something called the "Gong Show," which was patterned after the old TV game show and provided an opportunity for anyone in the company to pitch new film ideas.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Is One Genetically Predisposed to Being Creative?
The same thing is true in the “grown up” corporate world. If we tell our employees exactly how to do their jobs, they will respond in similar ways to the unengaged fifth graders. It’s so simple, but yet so hard (at least for some) to trust people to use their common sense in performing their jobs and continuously learn by exploration and discovery. Energized and engaged workforce = results that may surprise even the employees themselves!
Nurturing creativity really does begin with trust. If we are all born creative, we need an environment that unleashes our natural tendency to try out new things and take risks. Pixar president Ed Catmull knows very well that creativity is both a mental and social process that takes both individuals and teams. Ed emphasizes the importance of “set(ting) people up for success by giving them all the information they need to do the job right without telling them how to do it.” Think about this. If you go to great lengths to establish a culture that sets people up for success, why would you need to micromanage anyone? These Pixarian-type cultures are few and far between…but they surely do unleash that childlike potential that we humans have always possessed.
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