Assignment Task: You are a consultant working with a team of writers and artists at an animation studio. Typically, the studio develops a script or movie idea that it purchased externally. However, the management is inspired by the design thinking practices used at Pixar to internally create worlds, characters, and stories. For example, directors each pitch three ideas to the chief creative officer to be selected as the next project. Selected projects enter a long development phase that includes the design team going out to experience the environments that will be included in the film, communicating ideas and characters visually through storyboards and physical models, and providing iterative feedback to each other. You are excited to assist with this new direction. However, the team of writers and artists is hesitant. Creating the entire story (as opposed to buying a prospective script) seems daunting. Moreover, the team feels uncomfortable providing constructive criticism to each other, and management has, in the past, discouraged failure and mistakes.
1. How will you explain the design thinking process to the team?
2. What specifically can you do to foster a psychologically safe environment that rewards failure and speaking up?
3. If this was a virtual team, what would change about your approach?