Creative Reaction

Supposedly it’s “common sense” that critical thinking suffocates creativity. Mark McGuinness has a great essay over at Lateral Action explaining how and when critical thinking plays a role in the creative process. Most importantly, he defines “creativity”, “creative thinking”, “critical thinking”, “criticism”, and “negative criticism”.

He also touches on a hugely important issue – that of corporate culture. Sadly, there are organizations that punish for mistakes, “wrong answers” and even attempts to innovate. (Click here for related articles.)

One company that successfully combines creativity and critical thinking is Pixar Animation Studios, in its extremely iterative process, where each animator’s work is screened in front of the entire department and all are encouraged to comment. (Now, you must first understand that a core value at Pixar is creating an atmosphere of trust, and people at all levels help one another.) According to Pixar President Ed Catmull these screenings offer many benefits:

1. Once people get over the awkwardness of showing their unfinished work, they become more creative
2. The director or creative leads can communicate important objectives to the group as a whole
3. creatives learn from and inspire one another to do their best

So Mark McGuinness is clearly on to something here; “the function of critical thinking is to make something better. Used wisely, your critical faculty is one of the most powerful creative tools at your disposal”

I’ve had this bookmarked for quite some time and it’s a story I return to again and again. This NYT article, which came out ahead of a book by the same authors, chronicles Pixar’s unprecedented success. It’s a shame that it seems to have been published to ride the coattails of the big news story that Disney was to acquire Pixar; because it detracts from the main point. Pixar’s success is built upon a creative, even nurturing environment, collaboration, and long-term relationships. And at the center of it all – Pixar University – where everyone, “whether an animator, technician, production assistant, accountant, marketer or security guard is encouraged to devote up to four hours a week, every week, to his or her education”. It’s no wonder Pixar employees talk of working at Pixar for the next twenty-five years. Every creative business should aspire to this!