It's not often I recommend a business book before it's even out (and before I've even read it) but Creativity Inc by (Pixar president and co-founder) Ed Catmull looks excellent. I've long been fascinated by how Pixar work, and have used them as an organisational culture exemplar for a good while. This 2008 HBR article on How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity is something that I've quoted from and referenced a lot. If this extract from the book (talking about how the 'Pixar Braintrust' can help projects go 'from suck to non-suck'), and reviews like this are anything to go by, it promises to be one of the best books ever written on building a creative organisation:
“Think about how easy it would be for a movie about talking toys to feel derivative, sappy, or overtly merchandise driven. Think about how off-putting a movie about rats preparing food could be, or how risky it must’ve seemed to start WALL-E with 39 dialogue-free minutes. We dare to attempt these stories, but we don’t get them right on the first pass.”
Creativity Inc is out on April 8th.
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