Create a Unique Playground.
Upon entering Pixar’s football-sized atrium, you might think to yourself, “what a waste of space!” But Steve Jobs’ vision was to design a building where people would interact naturally. Steve positioned the mailboxes, meeting rooms, cafeteria, and most importantly, the bathrooms in the center atrium. He realized that when people casually interact and have fun, good things happen. So rather than going off to the software coding, animation or production departments and spending the entire day there with little or no interaction with folks from other areas of the organization, it is nearly impossible not to run into employees from other departments throughout the course of a day.
Décor also contributes to a playful, fun atmosphere. The atrium at Pixar is decorated with larger-than-life statues of Pixar characters, concept paintings on the walls, with storyboards and color scripts in clear view. Pixar’s rolling, sixteen-acre campus also includes offices, studio and sound rooms, screening rooms, a lap pool, volleyball courts and a soccer field (which is being sacrificed for a new four-level building to provide expanded work/play space) – all of which makes for a welcome escape from the daily grind. As Pixar artist Nate Wragg told us, “It’s the freedom and encouragement to relax between deadlines and to take fun breaks when you are feeling tired that I feel really creates that fun atmosphere at work that most businesses lack.” What if you are a struggling company that doesn’t have the financial resources to allocate for grand entry halls and swimming pools? Prior to the success of Toy Story, Pixar Studios was housed in what Ed Catmull referred to as a “scrappy” cluster of buildings in Point Richmond, California. The company couldn’t afford to purchase theater seats for the animation screening room, so John Lasseter set his creative wheels in motion. Inspired by the counter-culture hippie décor of the Red Vic Movie Theater in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, John enlisted company-wide support to scout for hand-me-down furniture, and on his own time, ended up driving around in a rented truck to retrieve the discards. When all was said and done, John commented that Pixar now had “. . . the most ugly collection of 70s couches you’ve ever seen” and that the “room became kind of the soul of Pixar.” Isn’t that what any organization needs to discover – what drives an individual’s creative spirit? It doesn’t have to be an exorbitantly decorated room or a collection of costly “stuff” – it just has to be what employees feel represents who they really are.
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Think Play!
Each month, assign a “recess team” to dream up a fun experience. A favorite example of ours is Pixar’s Scooter Races. One day, John Lasseter brought his son’s scooter into work and began riding it around. Soon other employees showed up with scooters – and before long, there was a small fleet of them. Director Pete Doctor said, “. . . we got into these scooter races – there was a track mapped out, kind of a loop, and we’d time people and write the times on the wall. We all got into a very fierce competition over who could get the best time.” Today, the “scooter tradition” is still alive at Pixar – it’s commonplace to see someone buzzing by on a scooter. Plan an afternoon outing for your team to play together at a local park . . . recapture that childlike enthusiasm in your work life!
Allow personalized workspaces.
Encourage employees to demonstrate their creativity by decorating their individual offices, cubicles, desks or work areas. Pixar’s animation department looks a lot like the Munchkin set for The Wizard of Oz. The animators wanted work spaces different from the typical cookie-cutter corporate cubicles. Pixar purchased little cottages, and each animator decorated a cottage/office as he or she saw fit. The animation department might just be the second “happiest place on earth” (we all know Disneyland is No. 1!) with its fabulously decked out workspace – a tiki hut, pagoda bunk bed, and a parachute covering a line of cubicles that resembles a circus tent. Just about any wacky or wild, interesting structure has eventually found its way into the house of Pixar: a saloon; a 1960s den; a U-shaped restaurant booth; a barber’s chair and a pair of hair-dryer chairs from a beauty salon. Employees are very resourceful in developing their unique office designs . . . no matter how much or how little employees choose to spend on their own work spaces, they are just about as innovative as you can imagine! There’s also a plethora of quips and quotes spattering the offices of employees. One of the animators has this phrase of Ed Catmull’s tacked to his office door: “Every time you think something stupid’s going on, it probably is.” Just remember that allowing people to create their own unique “statement” of individuality goes a long way in fostering an environment of mutual respect and trust. Encourage workspace creativity – have a “most creative workspace of the month” contest.
Celebrate!
Make time for celebrations to note life’s milestones – a birthday, an anniversary, a graduation. Make time to pull out all the stops and showcase the talents and accomplishments of an entire team. Whenever a new Pixar feature film is released, it stages a “release celebration” – a black-tie luncheon event where employees don their finest to commemorate the film’s completion and to celebrate another dream come true. Your celebrations don’t have to be on par with the grand Pixar style of ceremonial hoopla. Just giving people a reason to get out of their offices to celebrate and connect with others in a unique and special way can do wonders for their morale.
Grant employees permission to be recognized for their work by “outsiders.”
Encourage your people to join professional associations in which they have an opportunity to display their work, gain peer and industry recognition for their accomplishments, and most of all, have fun. Pixar’s co-founder Alvy Ray Smith told us, “A lot of companies keep everything absolutely secret. We understood one of the reasons that we had some of the hottest talent in the business was not only because it was glamorous, but because we let these people get their form of glory. To publish in academic journals and get their fame . . . that’s more important to our kind of people than money.” Former Pixar employee, Lou Romano, shared with us that he believes working on artwork and projects outside the studio is “probably the single most important element that keeps people creative and productive in the workplace.”
Be a role model for mutual respect and trust.
The level of mutual respect and trust in your workplace is directly proportional to workers’ attitudes regarding play and fun. When the workplace is dominated by fear, emotions of disdain, animosity and apathy can thrive and grow – all of which are counterproductive to creating a playful, fun environment. Fish! is one of the most successful accounts of fun in the workplace – the story of Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, Washington. Our friend John Christensen, co-author of Fish!, (who also penned the foreword for our revised edition of The Disney Way) maintains that you simply cannot duplicate what the fishmongers do on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. John says, “if you don't have shared commitment and trust that make playfulness possible at work, it may not happen."
We have witnessed a company director attempting to mandate fun – behind his back, employees referred to it as “FFT” or “forced fun time.” Innovative thinkers resent being forced to have fun – and for that matter, anything else either. Certainly, fun and play are not tools to be taken out of the drawer once a month – they are attitudes that must be embraced, and without the underlying component of mutual respect and trust, they can never become internalized in any culture.
Laugh at yourself.
Leaders who demonstrate self-deprecating humor set the tone for workplace play and fun. Why is joking and not taking yourself too seriously important for leaders? Leaders need to be seen as authentic human beings – which leads us back, once again, to the values of mutual respect and trust. When leaders take themselves too seriously, they create a barrier – an emotional distance that fosters feelings of distrust within employees. Leadership requires an emotional connection, and cannot be facilitated by rigidity, fear and intimidation.
These lessons are a starting point for cultivating “magic” in your workplace – a stimulating haven where creativity abounds. Encourage your organization to be more like Pixar and Disney – corporate playgrounds where electric excitement fills the air, and individuals and teams are engaged with one another in the process of playing out each other’s ideas. This can happen if you build and continually rejuvenate an environment of mutual respect and trust . . . and HR can and should facilitate the process!
Begin by Dreaming like a child, Believe in your playmates, Dare to jump in the water and make waves, and Do unleash your childlike potential!
Bill Capodagli, President, Capodagli Jackson Consulting
Source : Effectif, volume 13, numéro 4, septembre/octobre 2010.
