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Nine months before its fixed release date, Pixar realized that “Toy Story 2” wasn’t working. The story was rebuilt over a single weekend. That a studio can still say “This isn’t good enough” so late in the game has to do with a group that has its own name at Pixar: the Braintrust. Its most important feature is something it does not have – power. An example of the Team Principle of Safety.
Five Colleagues Who Tell the Truth
Situation
The Braintrust grew out of the work on “Toy Story” in the 1990s. According to Edwin Catmull, the studio’s longtime president, it formed around John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich and Joe Ranft: Lasseter noticed that he kept turning to the same four colleagues for advice. Later the group was expanded; its membership changes from project to project. Directors, writers and heads of story regularly screen one another’s unfinished films and give very candid feedback.
Connection to the team principle
It did not start with a method but with an experience: there are colleagues you can show unfinished work to. That is exactly where the principle of safety begins. Pixar then didn’t leave that to chance; it made it a standing institution.
The One Rule: No Power
Situation
The ground rule is this: the Braintrust has no authority to give orders. The director in charge does not have to act on its notes. Catmull explains why: whoever is responsible for the film should not have to walk into the room on the defensive. The process stands in contrast to the usual Hollywood model, in which the studio’s development executives give directors instructions. Pixar sees itself as a filmmaker-led studio.
Connection to the team principle
This is the heart of it. Pixar separates critique from decision. Whoever voices doubts has no power over the film; whoever hears them keeps the decision. That lowers the risk on both sides. Critics can be blunt because they overrule no one. The director can listen because nothing is being taken away from him. Safety here is not a feeling but a rule.
The Acid Test
Situation
“Toy Story 2” was originally planned as a direct-to-video production. On February 5, 1998, Steve Jobs announced that it would be upgraded to a theatrical release. After the promotional tour for “A Bug’s Life,” Lasseter concluded that the film wasn’t working. He took over as director, brought back the core team from “Toy Story” and reworked the story over a weekend. The film opened on November 24, 1999, and on a budget of $90 million grossed about $511 million worldwide.
Connection to the team principle
A team learns when it can name a mistake in time – even a big, expensive, late one. The studio itself credits this to its culture of candid critique. But that is Pixar’s own account, and it has a downside that shouldn’t be left out.
The Price and the Limits
Situation
The rescue came at a high cost. According to Wikipedia, by the end about a third of the staff were suffering from repetitive strain injuries. Catmull also describes how the attempt to transfer the model to technical teams failed: it only works, he says, where the group has no power and there is trust. When Disney bought Pixar in 2006 for about $7.4 billion in stock, Catmull and Lasseter brought the process to Walt Disney Animation as the “Story Trust”; the sessions there are said to be more polite.
Connection to the team principle
Three lessons can be drawn from this. First, safety in speaking up is no substitute for protection against overwork – a team can talk openly and still wear itself out. Second, you can’t simply copy the process. The meeting is only the form; without trust and without giving up power, it remains empty. Third, openness in one room says nothing about the climate across the whole organization. Safety has to apply to everyone, not just the inner circle.
Three Principles Behind It
Situation
In 2008, writing in the Harvard Business Review, Catmull named three principles: Creative authority rests with the project leaders. The culture is one in which unfinished work is shown and people help one another as peers. And the barriers between disciplines are taken down. Regular postmortems round this out.
Connection to the team principle
The middle principle is the principle of safety with its sleeves rolled up: showing unfinished work. If you only ever present finished work, you get praise or a no that comes too late. If you show it early, you get input while something can still be changed.
Key takeaways
Key Lessons
- Separate feedback from decisions. Set up a group that critiques openly but has no power to give orders.
- Leave responsibility with whoever leads the project. They have to hear the notes, not follow them.
- Make it a habit to show unfinished work – and go first yourself.
- Hold a postmortem after every project: What would we do the same way again, and what wouldn’t we?
- Check whom the openness applies to. A safe circle at the top doesn’t make a safe company.
Summary
Pixar turned an experience into a process: in the Braintrust, colleagues critique unfinished films very candidly without being allowed to tell the director what to do. Because critique and power are kept apart, it becomes safe to voice doubts and expose weaknesses. The account comes largely from the studio itself, and the model has its limits. At its core it shows the Team Principle of Safety: a team only learns when no one has to fear speaking up about a mistake or a doubt.