Through constraint the mind is free: PART 2

In his book, Creativity Inc,¹ Ed Catmull discusses how movies are made within Pixar and Disney Animation. He walks through the mental models and philosophies they use. One thing that stood out was his idea of "protect the new."

Whether it's the kernel of a movie idea or a fledgling internship program, the new needs protection. Business-as-usual does not. Managers do not need to work hard to protect established ideas or ways of doing business. The system is tilted to favor the incumbent. The challenger needs support to find its footing. And protection of the new -- of the future, not the past -- must be a conscious effort.

As he explains, it's easy for an organization to constantly strive toward efficiency, but that can destroy creativity. 

Making the process better, easier, and cheaper is an important aspiration, something we can continually work on -- but it is not the goal. Making something great is the goal.

When efficiency or consistency of workflow are not balanced by other equally strong countervailing forces, the result is that new ideas aren't afforded the attention and protection they need to shine and mature. They are abandoned or never conceived of in the first place.

As he explains, in order to protect the new an organization has to 

... foster the optimal conditions in which it -- whatever "it" is -- can emerge and flourish.

Creating "optimal conditions" doesn't mean that artists meander around omnipotently until inspiration strikes. As he goes on to explain throughout the book, a big part of "optimal conditions" is creating an overall organization that can foster new and creative ideas and then iterate and fine-tune those ideas into a cohesive story, and ultimately produce films under critical deadlines. It takes many different people working together, each doing specialized jobs.

So it's a balance between protecting the new and running an efficient machine. Because organizations strive for efficiency and optimization of production over time (especially publicly-traded ones) "protecting the new" has to be compartmentalized. Creativity can seem inefficient, which is worrisome, but it takes trust that it will develop given time.

Creativity demands that we travel paths that lead to who-knows-where. That uncertainty can make us uncomfortable. There is a sweet spot between the known and the unknown where originality happens; the key is to be able to linger there without panicking.

The point is that it's easy to try and always optimize, to become more efficient. But a framework has to be created that leaves time for new ideas. And while that might seem inefficient, it's important.

And then of course the inverse of "protecting the new" is that "the new" can't have all the space. It can't be too precious where time and resources have no bounds. Creativity is iterative. Sometimes an idea has to be ripped up, and tried again. A person has to keep coming back, keep showing up to work so to speak.

Once the "new" idea is there, it gets turned over and over by many people. This framework of protecting the new, but continuing to show up and iterate is a model of constraint. Constrain the efficiency and the space for new ideas. It takes balance.




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NOTES:

¹  Ed Catmull, with Amy Wallace, Creativity, Inc (New York: Random House, 2014).