Disney Animation and Pixar president, Ed Catmull, recently sat down with Tavis Smiley for a 14-minute interview (UPDATED: Link removed as it is no longer active on PBS’ site) during the late-night PBS talk show. The discussion touches on several moments from Pixar’s history (the relative ease with which Toy Story 3 was created) and even touched on the recent successes of Disney’s Frozen. But the real power of the interview comes when Ed talks about bolstering a team, seeking creativity, and what happens if the team synergy isn’t clicking as it should.
Additionally, we really appreciated the honest discussion surrounding failure in an organization. Ed mentioned that although failure may be a hot topic in today’s business world, we may not be able to be truly honest about tackling failure due to our earlier life lessons. Of course, many of these lessons, insights, and talking points are also discussed in Catmull’s new book, Creativity, Inc., which we are currently reading as part of our Pixar Post Book Club.