Recruiting and listening to frustrated individuals can tap into their untapped energy and drive creativity.
Creating an underdog mentality can fuel motivation and creativity by framing challenges as meaningful battles against a difficult enemy.
Deep dives
Challenging the Status Quo: Pixar's Approach to Innovation
Pixar reinvented how animated movies are made by coding characters on a computer instead of drawing them, which resulted in their first computer-animated movie, Toy Story. Brad Bird, a writer and director, joined Pixar to create The Incredibles by recruiting a team of misfits and focusing on solving animation problems thought to be impossible. This approach led to the film becoming Pixar's biggest hit yet.
Harnessing Frustration: The Power of Black Sheep
In various industries, frustrated and dissatisfied individuals often have ingenious ideas and solutions to problems that go unrecognized. By recruiting and listening to these black sheep, companies can tap into their untapped energy and drive creativity. Dissatisfaction, when coupled with support and commitment, can lead to productive problem-solving and innovation.
Motivating Underdogs: Fueling Creativity
Creating an underdog mentality can fuel motivation and creativity. By framing challenges as meaningful battles against a difficult enemy, like middle managers in the Navy or rival companies, individuals are driven to prove others wrong and go above and beyond to achieve success. Embracing just manageable difficulties can inspire and push individuals to extend their reach and achieve exceptional results.
Shaking Up the Bureaucracy: Empowering Junior Leaders
In the Navy, establishing rapid innovation cells empowered junior officers with disruptive ideas and encouraged them to challenge established wisdom. By recruiting and supporting individuals who challenge the status quo, organizations can facilitate bottom-up innovation and create a culture that values and embraces fresh perspectives.
Sharing something from our friends at the TED Audio Collective—an episode of WorkLife with Adam Grant. Adam talks about harnessing the power of frustrated people to shake up the status quo — just like Pixar did. If you'd like to hear more, they've got a brand new podcast out called Re: Thinking with Adam Grant. On the show, get a peek into the minds of some of the world's most creative people. This season they've got entrepreneur Mark Cuban, bestselling author Celeste Ng, Oscar-winning actor and producer Reese Witherspoon, neuroscientist Chantel Prat, Nobel laureate physicist Saul Perlmutter, and death-defying rock climber Alex Honnold. Listen at https://www.ted.com/podcasts/rethinking_with_adam_grant