Creatives, Culture, Enviroment

Blog Entry 6: Reflections on the Pixar Experience - How can school/work concretely encourage creativity?


In the entertainment industry, creativity cannot be anything less than essential that is why corporations like Pixar make an effort in extracting and inspriring creativity. According to the text, Pixar is able to foster creativity through the following efforts: empowering your creatives, creating a peer culture, and crafting a learning environment...


"Empower your creatives. Give your creative people control over every stage of idea development."

When it comes to work or organizations or any institution, I guess, there will typically be a hierarchy of power... president, vice, secretary and what not. There's someone on top, and someone at the bottom.

At Pixar, there are different teams that contribute, more or less, equally to a project. Their philosophy is that: "You get great creative people, you bet big on them, you give them enormous leeway and support..."

It reminded me of the King Arthur's round table. What if at work, instead of having a strict sense of who's at the seat of power, the company will establish a "round table" type of thing. This way, power to create or to contribute will be available to everyone. Everone becomes accountable and so everyone is encouraged to give it their best shot. I think there have been studies that prove that most people perform better if they know they will be accounted for (if this hasn't been proven yet, then I'm sorry). 

"Create a peer culture. Encourage people throughout your company to help each other produce their best work."
Pixar takes pride in the work ethics their employees have. They are said to support each other even if they are from different levels of the company. What the human resources sector of every company aims to do is to take care of its employees. Some companies hold Christmas parties, outings, and the like to form a bond between co-workers. I believe this is a good start for encouraging people to work together. This does not directly tell them to "work together" but it provides an avenue for them to start caring for each other. 


I guess it's the whole philosophical thing of the encounter with the face and discourse as inspired by Emmanuel Levinas. If each worker is able to engage in discourse with other co-workers they will be unable to "kill" or objectify or negate them basically because they value that person. Once they give value to a person, they will start caring about each other's performances and try to help each other out.


Of course you wouldn't want to see your friend get fired right?




"Craft a learning environment. Reinforce the minse-set that you're all learning-- and it's fun to learn together."
Who hasn't heard of the amazing Google office??? Google is just one of the select companies that have made a statement through the interior and exterior design of their work space. Red Bull has also adapted into the culture of using a creative environment to instigate creative thinking. 

Google Office

Red Bull Office

  Well of course, Pixar office is not out of the loop when it comes to using creative environment. 

Pixar Office

One of our sessions for Comm14 was held in SEC B Lecture room around 3 weeks ago and I've mentioned in class how it became so limiting and so influential to our way of thinking, at least that day. People are inspired by the things they see, smell or touch. When we have a light bulb moment, usually there is a stimulus that causes this and so if the environment is not conducive for creativity, no creative ideas can be formed. 


There is a strategy/ study known as Quantum Learning. Quantum Learning is "a powerful, engaging teaching and learning methodology that integrates best educational practices into a unified whole".  One of its many effects is the increased academic achievement. Another proven effect of QL is the improvement of students' attitudes toward the learning process. This new methodology was adapted by my high school, Elizabeth Seton School. 


The FADE model—Foundation, Atmosphere, Design, Environment —creates the context of Quantum Learning. These are the different phases where Quantum Learning could be tested. Quantum Learning begins with a strong foundation built on the principles of the 8 Keys of Excellence. It holds the beliefs that: All people can learn, people learn differently, and learning is effective when it is joyful, engaging and challenging. The 8 Keys of Excellence include: Integrity, Commitment, Failure Leads to Success, Ownership, Speak with Good Purpose, Flexibility, This Is It!, and Balance.

Quantum Learning creates a supportive physical environment that enhances and reinforces learning. Ideal learning environments include proper lighting, purposeful color, positive affirmation posters, plants, props and music. These elements are easy to include in one's classroom, and students enjoy learning more in a comfortable setting. What our school did was to place flower-bearing plants along the corridor to stimulate our sense of smell. The faculty also incorporated QL by holding exams with background music. They also set up some mural walls for us to be able to have a sense of freedom and we were able to express ourselves through it, it became a some sort of freedom wall that gave color to the environment. 

The key is to create empowering school environments that build engaging and dynamic communities of learning. The results are enhanced teacher capacity and increased student achievement. 

There are several ways in which a school or work place can encourage creativity and I believe the mere intention of any company or institution to do this can already inspire such.







Source:
Catmull, Ed.  “How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity.”  Harvard Business Review.  September 2008.
The Pixar Story
http://www.qln.com/what_is_quantum_learning.html

Bugtionary

SNIGLETS! So many possibilities... So much power! 

For this assignment, I've decided to come-up with things that apply to me or to my friends. These aren't necessarily things that bug me... they're just things that I notice on an almost-everyday basis. 

ENJOY!

7. Clicktation (click + temptation): noun. the urge to "click" on a retractable pencil or pen for n amount of times just for the sake of hearing the sound or for the sake of anti-boredom


6. Shwatch (shake + watch): verb. to shake the wrist in order to check the time on a very loose wrist watch


5. Bread-over: noun. the left-over bread edges when someone only wants the "white" part or the middle part of the bread, the ends of the bread loaf which is usually left in the package

4. Optalnista (optalmologist + fashionsta) noun. people who wear grade-less glasses or sun glasses (even in the dark) to look cool, smart or attractive

TOP 3

 

3. Substibrush (Substitute + Brush)

verb. to put on eye shadow with the use of bare fingers instead of brushes; to substitute brushes with something else

  

2. Bollution (Baller + Pollution)

noun. the inevitable discoloration of ballers or wrist bands due to pollution 
e.g. a white baller turning black

1. Make-down (inspired by the word make-up)

noun. cosmetics applied on face that does not help in making you look beautiful or concealing what you want to conceal; the act of applying make-up that will result into the collection of insults not compliments

e.g. mascara that got smudged and wet = black eye look or highlighted eye bags

Redirecting

Quack Quack

Just when I was about to write about who I consider creative, I remembered this video...

I guess as a business student, I find creativity in marketing plans or ads. I always wonder how they come up with such campaigns and if I can make something that creative some day. When I first saw this video, I was truly amazed with the concept or the thoughts put into this campaign, I was like... "How much more creative can you get???" 

I believe an effective marketing agent or consultant is an embodiment of what a creative person is, which is, as how Sir Ken Robinson would put it, someone who has original ideas that have value. The value of marketing campaigns can be reflected on profit or awareness or basically the reaction of the customers and it is not always easy to please them. With the conceptual age at hand, the market is more dynamic more than ever. The power lies not anymore on the business, but on the customer. What a customer wants now may not be what they want tomorrow and so businessmen are challenged to come up with marketing strategies that would create value for what they have to offer. Basically, marketing plans should be able to "sell" their product... of course the only way they will be able to do this is if they have the ability to be creative.

AFLAC Duck Campaign

As I've mentioned earlier, I find creativity in marketing campaigns and I think the AFLAC Duck Campaign shows how it is so. The case study basically presents how the mere use of senses can create a big idea. The company was struggling because not a lot of people knew about what the company had to offer or even the company itself.
Because of the poor brand recognition, the company decided to hire Kaplan Thaler Group (KTG), an ad agency. While some of the agents had some trouble memorizing the name AFLAC, they decided to practice saying it over and over again which made them notice how the name actually sounds like a duck quacking... and this is what arguably saved the company. Sir Ken Robinson said something like creativity occurs when there is an "interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things..." I believe this is what happened with the agency. The case does not specifically indicate who the came about the idea to make a duck the spokesperson for AFLAC, but I do believe and consider that person as a creative thinker. That person was able to see the name in a different way, and he was able to see an opportunity not everyone would be able to notice. His/ her idea was originally thought of, totally random and unexpected if i may add, and it resulted into a very high recognition for the company. This person was also able to engage into intersectional thinking which I understand basically as focusing on the quality of information not quantity. The Medici Effect of Frans Johansson expresses ideas on intersectional thinking and how it can be used in marketing and product development. He says in an interview that: "Increasingly I think that marketing and product development should be much more taking advantage of the diversity of cultures that exist in our society - leveraging the diversity we have globally. It’s not happening even remotely to the degree it should." Also, his book indicates how interdisciplinary approach can set a group apart which can lead to the discovery of more valuable things. KTG's agents were able to merge a simple idea, well it could be a pre-school idea of a quack, and a brand name. This opened a lot of possibilities for the company. They were able to draw a lot of gimmicks with just the premise that AFLAC sounds like a quack. I believe they were also able to carry out divergent thinking as they have produced many different ways to solve the problem and also different ways to look at it.

Sources:

http://marketing-case-studies.blogspot.com/2008/01/aflac-duck-2000-campaign.html

http://creativegeneralist.blogspot.com/2006/09/creative-generalist-qa-frans-johansson.html

School, Schmool

In grade school, I was very competitive. Education was about the grades and nothing else. I would always prioritize Math, Science and English over Music and Arts for the basic reason that the last two were only .6 units. That’s how the educational system made us operate, it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good either. Although Sir Ken Robinson’s “The Arts and Education Changing Track” was referring to US education system, it was very much like how it was in my school.

The crisis in the text lies in what I learned in my Leadership and Entrepreneurship class abroad. Creativity was given very much importance because of the ideas on leadership and innovation. In the past, Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests have been administered to predict someone’s capabilities to act as a leader. The only criterion for a good leader was the academic intelligence. Luckily, the multiple intelligences determined by Howard Gardner were given consideration. These multiple intelligences included the following: linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, musical intelligence, bodily- kinaesthetic intelligence, spatial intelligence, naturalistic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, and intrapersonal intelligence (Smith, 2008). These intelligences that are associated with the arts and what are called 'personal intelligences’ tell us that leadership encompasses various disciplines, these make up a transformational leader (Mandell & Pherwani, 2003). With this said, no leader can be transformative just by being academically excellent. And as the text states: “the current system doesn’t need to be improved; it has to be transformed”, we are in need of transformational leaders, those who give value to imagination, creativity and innovation. Basically, it is true that although the current education system pursues creating people who will be economically competitive, it does not produce such. 

As a Communications Technology Management student, I believe that creativity is what stimulates my academic learning. I've learned to look beyond my grades because I have engaged in other fields. I have learned to actually listen and appreciate lessons because of the different approaches taken by educators. 

Sources:

Mandell, B., & Pherwani, S. (2003). RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP STYLE: A GENDER COMPARISON. Journal of Business and Psychology , 17 (3).

Smith, M. (2008). Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences and Education . Retrieved January 27, 2011, from Infed: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm

What's Yours?

Date: November 12, 2010            Place: NSW, Australia

My childhood friend, Janelle, invited me to go a birthday party in the city (Sydney). Of course, the very sociable person that I am said yes to that offer. The train ride to get to Janelle’s was about three hours, I had to switch trains twice. From the university station in Newcastle called Warabrook, I had to transfer to Hamilton and then transfer again when I was in Strathfield. It was almost the end of JTA semester for me and finals week was coming up. I was deciding between spending my last few weeks focusing on studies OR making the most out of my JTA experience... I guess you’ve figured out what I decided to do. I’ve got my priorities straight! [Yes, that is sarcasm:)]

Sing-along. Back to the train ride, as I boarded the train from Hamilton, I noticed a group of young Samoans [can I just say, Samoans have nice bodies!haha. Disclaimer: they were wearing sandos]. I had around 170 minutes left to spare so I decided to sit near these youngsters, just in case they decide to be friendly. My train rides to Sydney were always with old people so you have to understand my enthusiasm for seeing people my age. After some time, they started playing songs like “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz and “Billionaire” by Travie McCoy. I was trying to sing along with them without letting them notice. I would like to think I’m a very musical person: I can TRY to sing...if I’m any good at it, that’s another story. After several songs, they started playing something I wasn’t quite familiar with. The song goes “There’s a pretty girl on the train... (something something) can’t stop looking at her...” Did I mention already how very modest I am? [Hahaha] I didn’t even bother to look around, I assumed they were singing about me [feeling, I know!]. I tried to hold it in but I couldn’t so I smiled without looking at any of them. I guess one of them saw me smiling because after that, one of them just stands up and says, “Hi! My name’s Chris, what’s yours?”

Ego-boost. I couldn’t help but giggle. It was a bit flattering [oh who am I kidding, it was very flattering] that someone would be interested in me. I felt very pretty that day [haha!]. I told him my name and he started asking questions. He noticed how my name was Christian-y. He was right: my name was actually derived from Our Lady of Lourdes. I told him about my family: I’ve got two sisters and two brothers; I’m the fourth child; I was the youngest until my brother was born seven years ago. He asked me about my age, he couldn’t believe I was only nineteen. He says I looked very mature; he wasn’t the first to say that. I guess it’s from hanging out with older people most of the time. I could be childish too though, especially when I’m hurt. Anyway, I was very friendly, as I’ve mentioned earlier, I’m quite sociable plus I don’t really mind talking to strangers when I was in Australia. I noticed that he had a rosary around his neck and a wooden bracelet with the pictures of Mary on them; he also had a tattoo. I try to notice everything. I like putting meaning into the smallest things which is probably why I tend to over think. We talked about religion for a bit because of the said bracelet and rosary, I told him how I’m part of Catholic youth organizations and how I serve at church. I couldn’t help but ask about his tattoo. I’m known to be the girl who has no filter (this translates to me being too frank, too honest and too talkative). I found out his tat was the name of his grandmother. I found it adorable, even if he thought I was judging him. I’m very open-minded even if I grew up with conservative parents. I don’t really like being judged so I don’t judge other people. I like thinking I can do whatever I want and that carpe diem is the way to live but sadly, there’s more to life that just me, myself and I. So I guess I should stop talking about myself now. :)