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Creative Misfits


I recently listened to Worklife with Adam Grant podcast about “Creative Misfits”. Adam Grant is an organizational Psychologist and in this podcast he talks about value of outsiders in workplace. He focuses more on “blacksheep” inside the company that could unlock creativity and success. Turns out this has been “Pixar’s” success formula and they thrived on self-disruption. Grant interviews Brad Bird - a writer, animator and director at Pixar and was considered as misfit elsewhere before he was hired by Pixar. The podcast uncovers unconventional hiring practices at Pixar and encourages HR to explore full potential of human assets without falling into routine thinking. 


Pixar during its success, hired a “misfit/blacksheep”, Brad Bird. He was just fired from Disney and two other jobs as well. Pixar saw something in Brad despite his failures. I can’t imagine why would a company risk that in their popular times! After Brad was hired, he gathered blacksheeps like him inside Pixar for his first project instead of successful teams. They made “Incredibles” movie which won 2 Oscars and made $600M and is Pixar’s biggest hit. Pixar thus proved that the best time to disrupt your firm is when it’s doing extremely well. It is the best time as company has the capability to utilize all the resources. Usually during success, companies breed into “fat-cat syndrome”- where their success makes them complacent and they become resistant to try something new.The podcast talks about the following steps for companies to follow to be successful and creative:


Step 1
To avoid complacency, gather a team of disgruntled people.

Step 2
One should motivate these frustrated people and listen to their proposals and ideas to understand what they want to change. Grant them permission to attack what’s wrong at your firm.

 Step 3
Energize this team of disgruntled members and help them see themselves as “underdogs”. Underdog here is described as a “mindset” that will help one approach problems. If someone is positioned as underdogs and by telling them they’re not expected to be successful, they become most excited to fight. Not everyone can be an underdog. 

The person has to be frustrated by how things are and should have a desire to change it. It requires right messenger to tell them they are underdogs. If it comes from a very capable superior, they tend to undermine themselves and become unproductive. But, if it comes from someone who they don’t consider high of, they will be energized by the thought to prove them wrong and will challenge themselves. Also, the task has to be tough. It cannot be something simple. It has to be hard but should not be very certain of failure. Even if they fail to complete it, it will give them the confidence and ability to work beyond their previous capability.

Step 4
Finally, one has to maintain the underdog mindset in the firm with meaningful and challenging goals. The podcast mentioned Michael Jordan as an example. He motivated himself as an underdog and proved that people misjudged him by becoming the greatest basketball player.

That being said, one should be mindful of this approach and obviously cannot go around the workplace and tell everyone that they are underdogs to motivate them.

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