Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull writes poetically about the whimsical atmosphere at The Steve Jobs Building, but he also claims that the atmosphere is not what makes Pixar special.
"What makes Pixar special is that we acknowledge we will always have problems, many of them hidden from our view; that we work hard to uncover these problems, even if doing so means making ourselves uncomfortable; and that when we come across a problem, we marshal all of our energies to solve it" (2014, p. x)
Does your PLC have this level of persistence when solving problems? If not, it's time to light a fire. We need this level of cooperation to make films and raise barns. Surely we need the same kind of collaboration to educate our children.
Catmull teaches us that we need to value our people in order to develop this kind of teamwork. At Pixar, "We start from the presumption that our people are talented and want to contribute. We accept that, without meaning to, our company is stifling that talent in myriad unseen ways" (2014, p. xv).
What a powerful statement! Does your leadership acknowledge that the school system stifles your teaching talent? How could schools tackle this problem? Catmull believes that "When it comes to creative inspiration, job titles, and hierarchy are meaningless" (2014, p. 4).
Does your school have brilliant educators who seem to have no voice? What is the human cost of that silence? Arts educators understand the power of the round table as a symbol of collaboration. We need to take a leadership role in breaking down the barriers that leave great ideas in the drawer. Our students deserve no less.
References
Catmull, E. and Wallace, A. (2014). Creativity, inc.: Overcoming the unseen forces that stand in the way of true inspiration. New York, NY: Random House
I truly appreciate the connections made in this post. I believe educators are wildly creative people and schools are places where creativity can be zapped rather than enhanced. The thing that makes the Pixar example so stellar is that no one single group is held accountable for the creativity. The Audio team has as much responsibility for the final product as any other team and can therefore comment on the story line or marketing or character images, etc. If this post were to fully align with the Pixar example, then it cannot be an isolated group that is singled out as being constrained. In truth, there are times when it's the students who are suffering the loss of creativity, or the leadership, and the list could go on. And all parties are part of impacting the others, positively and negatively. We are all one big organization and the challenge before us involves the relentless pursuit of 'problems hidden from view' and the openness to expose them, discuss them, and collaborate to resolve them in innovative and synergistic ways.
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