“was so fundamental to creative work. Employees were spread out over four floors,” — Ed Catmull Creative work Copy Share Image
“You’ll never stumble upon the unexpected if you stick only to the familiar.” — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
“Fear of change—innate, stubborn, and resistant to reason—is a powerful force.” — Ed Catmull Fear Copy Share Image
“the process of coming to clarity takes patience and candor. In” — Ed Catmull Clarity Copy Share Image
“For all the care you put into artistry, visual polish frequently doesn’t matter if you are getting the story right.” — Ed Catmull Artist Copy Share Image
“The most productive creative sessions allow for the exploration of myriad trains of thought.” — Ed Catmull Creative Copy Share Image
“So, when our two like-minded overlords demanded a list of names of people to lay off, Alvy and I gave them two:… — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
“For me, this discovery was bracing. Being on the lookout for problems, I realized, was not the same as seeing problems.” — Ed Catmull Discovery Copy Share Image
“The goal, then, is to uncouple fear and failure—to create an environment in which making mistakes doesn’t strike terror into your employees’… — Ed Catmull Failure Copy Share Image
“if you identify too closely with your ideas, you will take offense when they are challenged.” — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
“My view was that we were all so far from achieving our goal that to hoard ideas only impeded our ability to… — Ed Catmull Finish line Copy Share Image
“one of my core management beliefs: If you don’t try to uncover what is unseen and understand its nature, you will be… — Ed Catmull Faith Copy Share Image
“most people interpret this assertion is that mistakes are a necessary evil. Mistakes aren’t a necessary evil. They aren’t evil at all.… — Ed Catmull Creativity Copy Share Image
“What interests me is the number of people who believe that they have the ability to drive the train and who think… — Ed Catmull Fitness Copy Share Image
“The more time you spend mapping out an approach, the more likely you are to get attached to it. The nonworking idea… — Ed Catmull Approach Copy Share Image
“Believe me, you don’t want to be at a company where there is more candor in the hallways than in the rooms… — Ed Catmull Business Copy Share Image
“It was management’s job to take the long view, to intervene and protect our people from their willingness to pursue excellence at… — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
“FRANK TALK, SPIRITED debate, laughter, and love. If I could distill a Braintrust meeting down to its most essential ingredients, those four… — Ed Catmull Love Copy Share Image
“The Braintrust, which meets every few months or so to assess each movie we’re making, is our primary delivery system for straight… — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
“studios down. (He also thought, frankly, that making us the stewards of both entities would guarantee that Pixar’s traditions didn’t get overtaken… — Ed Catmull Business Copy Share Image
“But if you push the ownership of problems down into the ranks of an organization, then everyone feels free (and motivated) to… — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
“In most companies, you have to justify so much of what you do—to prepare for quarterly earnings statements if the company is… — Ed Catmull Business Copy Share Image
“At Pixar, Toy Story 2 taught us this lesson—that we must always be alert to shifting dynamics, because our future depends on… — Ed Catmull Disney Copy Share Image
“Every morning, as I walk into Pixar Animation Studios—past the twenty-foot-high sculpture of Luxo Jr., our friendly desk lamp mascot, through the… — Ed Catmull Culture Copy Share Image
“Teach Others Who Weren’t There Even if everyone involved in a production understands what it taught them, the postmortem is a great… — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
“Many of the rules that people find onerous and bureaucratic were put in place to deal with real abuses, problems, or inconsistencies… — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
“To view lack of conflict as optimum is like saying a sunny day is optimum. A sunny day is when the sun… — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
“Your employees are smart; that’s why you hired them. So treat them that way. They know when you deliver a message that… — Ed Catmull Honest people Copy Share Image
“I’ve always been intrigued, for example, by the way that many people use the analogy of a train to describe their companies.… — Ed Catmull Fitness Copy Share Image
“FOR MOST OF us, failure comes with baggage—a lot of baggage—that I believe is traced directly back to our days in school.… — Ed Catmull Failure Copy Share Image
“I heard a delightful—and possibly apocryphal—story about what happened when the British introduced golf to India in the 1820s. Upon building the… — Ed Catmull Golf Copy Share Image
“Many fear this side of the door. We crave stability and certainty, so we keep both feet rooted in what we know,… — Ed Catmull Certainty Copy Share Image
“Rather than trying to prevent all errors, we should assume, as is almost always the case, that our people’s intentions are good… — Ed Catmull Beauty Copy Share Image
“Here’s what turns a successful hierarchy into one that impedes progress: when too many people begin, subconsciously, to equate their own value… — Ed Catmull Animal instinct Copy Share Image
“I’m not trying to be modest or self-effacing by saying this. Pixar films are not good at first, and our job is… — Ed Catmull Creativity Copy Share Image
“You can’t manage what you can’t measure” is a maxim that is taught and believed by many in both the business and… — Ed Catmull Copy Share Image
