Back in April The McKinsey Quarterly did an interview with animation director Brad Bird who was brought into Pixar in 2000 to direct the Academy Award winning The Incredibles.  

One comment that struck me to be very interesting is the value Mr. Bird places on “black sheep”— what he calls, “restless contributors with unconventional ideas.”

Often as a Creative on a business team I will find myself “blessed” with this very role.

Bird believes strongly in pushing his teams beyond their comfort zones, and even encourages dissent.

When Bird took on the Director role at Pixar he asked for all the black sheep animators, “I want artists who are frustrated. I want the ones who have another way of doing things that nobody’s listening to. Give us all the guys who are probably headed out the door.”

Bird gave these black sheep a chance to prove their theories, challenging the Pixar “purists” and in turn created cutting edge animation on the thinnest budget Pixar had experienced. Achieving the very thing Pixar had hoped by bringing Bird in, to shake up the status quo.

Having worked in enough corporations, all this leads me to ask, “Are you challenging the purists at your company?” Are you willing, like Bird, when told by animation purists they couldn’t animate a flying saucer in time, threaten to film a pie plate flying across the screen just to get the shot he wanted? That blasphemy got the animation purists thinking, anything to avoid an ugly pie plate zooming through their film. They found Bird’s solution along with countless more.

I can’t help but believe that in this economy black sheep are more important than ever.

Not just for creative but corporate leaders to listen to. Stop taking the “NOs” IT, sales and even marketing purists keep giving you and seek out those talented malcontents and find out what would they do to solve your company’s challenges.

I bet their answers scare the “purists” – and that’s the point.