Teaming at Disney Animation

- Case Analysis
Brief History of Walt Disney Animation Studios :
(Disney Animation)
 The Walt Disney Company most commonly known as Disney
is one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in
the world.

 Founded in 1923 in Burbank, California by Walt and Roy

Disney as a small Animation Studio.

 Initially Produced animated short films.

 First full length animated film Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs was released in 1937.

 Since then had produced more than 53 films. Few majors like
Fantasia, Pinocchio and Dumbo to Cindrella, Sleeping Beauty
and The Jungle Book.
Continued…
 In 1980’s created classics like The Little Mermaid,
Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King.

 Frozen, released in Nov-2013, was awarded the Oscar

for Best animated Feature Film & became the highest
grossing animated feature, worldwide of all time.

Oscar - Best Animated Feature Film

(1992)
Little Mermaid (1989) Beauty & Beast (1992)

Alladdin (1992) Lion King (1994)

How the Animation has evolved at Disney
 Initially, hand drawn style of animation was followed
at Disney, which has many stages and process, such
that Pinocchio, an example of this process was created
by a team that consisted of over 750 individuals, each
with a unique contribution.

 In the late 80’s Disney used computing to assist in the

creation of animation using the Computer Animation
Production Systems(CAPS). The Rescuers down under
released in 1990 was the first animated feature to be
made with CAPS. It brough Disney to the forefront of
hand drawn technique, advancing from the multiplane
camera with a digital computer equivalent for
unprecedented levels of complexity depicted in the
films.
 How the Animation has evolved at Disney
 By 2013, Disney animation contained a 30000 core computer
cluster for simulation and lighting, 6 petabytes of data
storage, a 1.5 megawatt data center, and over 1800
Macintosh and Linux workstations. Driving all of this
capability were 900 highly skilled artists, engineers and
scientists telling stories through words, music and images
with the most technologically advanced tools in the world.

 In 2014, Disney Animation created a film using computer

animation using Computer Aided Design (CAD). With this
Animators breathed performance into character by
animating the model to move the animated figure in a scene.
Traditional Management @ Disney Animation
 Traditionally, Disney Animation was more
structured and hierarchical.

 Work was highly dynamic but it wasn’t easy to

work across departments to innovate.

 The Systems department was organized into

relatively small groups, each consisting of 15-20
technical staff that exclusively worked with one
another. (Exhibit – 2).
 These small organisational groups worked on very
specific focused tasks and oftentimes, weren’t
included in the big picture business plans of the
company.
Traditional Management @ Disney

 In a traditional but very hierarchical manner,

management, separated from individual
contributors, coordinated projects from distance
which left them naïve to everyday issues.
Traditional Management @ Disney
 Instead of relaxed collaborative brainstorming
sessions, management held formal one-on-one
meetings with group members.
 The larger group would meet once in a while, but
the problem was by the time the formal meetings
occurred, any pressing issues has been resolved or
simply forgotten. This was inefficient.
 All technical decisions were made by managers
instead of the group members with actual hands on
experience.
 This type of organizational structure saw resources
rigidly separated into “Silos”
 Each Silo had its specific goals, processes and
resources, almost working independently of their
counterparts in other “Silos”
Traditional Management @ Disney
 Because of the Traditional management, there was
inefficiency which was caused by a lack of cohesion
and perspective.

 The same Management style that has been so

successful for Disney Animation – was beginning to
be a liavility due to lack of business agility.

 Even when it was obviously a need, resources

weren’t shared between departments. Inadvertently,
Disney had developed a structure where
departments became competitors.
Some Reasons for INEFFICIENCY
caused due to Traditional Management:
 Managers were solely evaluated on the performance
of their individual Silo.

 The managers had the incentive to focus on their

small group instead of focusing on the organisation
as a whole.

 Instead of an environment where the entire

company felt like a cohesive unit, the situation was
similar to rivals battling for limited resources.

 The same Management style that has been so

successful for Disney Animation – was beginning to
be a liavility due to lack of business agility.
Disney Animation – Pixar Animation Acquisition
 When Disney acquired Pixar in 2006, CEO Bob Iger
asked Pixar President Ed Catmull and Pixar Chief
Creative Officer John Lasseter to also take on
leadership of Disney Animation.
 In 2007, as part of their changes to their studio,,
Andy Hendrickson was hired as Chief Technical
Officer to transform the science of animation at
Disney.
 In 2010, Hendrickson recruited Jonathan Geibal,
who has worked with Disney for 10 years, as the
Director of Systems at Disney Animation.
 Later that year, Geibal Promoted Ron Johnson, who
had worked with Disney Animation since 2007 as
Senior Systems Engineer to Manager of Systems.
Change initiated for Betterment
@ Disney Animation by JONATHAN GEIBAL
 Taking inspiration from Catmull and Lasseter,
Geibal and Johnson restructured their team by
flattening the hierarchy. Their idea of teaming was
 to create a Dynamic organisation with the agility of
a start-up company
 Breaking down Traditional Silos and Matrix Model
Management Concept
 Empowering Engineers and
 Supporting Experimentation

 Use of Scientific Methods in reorganisation of the

structure, making changes one at a time.
Major Changes brought in by GEIBAL
 Structural Changes
 to improve the efficiency of the work performed
small autonomous teams of 6 people were used
 Team lead would be the person having technical
expertise with a vision for the area, and 80% of their
job is to work and 20% is establishing the vision and
evangelizing their ideas to stakeholders across the
studio.
 Employees could be assigned as primary and
secondary members to specific teams.
 The management team was also a six person group
made up of diverse set of managers who were
passionate about engineering and business
operations and who trusted and respected each
other.
 Structure and Workspace post 2010
WORKING GROUPS
EMPLOYEE TECH LINUX RENDER POST AUDIO ----
SUPPORT FARM PRODUCTIO VISUAL
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Bill LEAD Secondary ----
Carmen Primary ----
Carol LEAD ----
Helen Primary Secondary ----
Jose Secondary LEAD ----
Maria Primary ----
Ming Primary ----
Mukti Primary Secondary Secondary ----
Peter LEAD Secondary ----
Rajiv Secondary Primary ----
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Other Structural Changes
 Entire workspace for systems department was
reconfigured so that teams were collocated.
 Casual meeting spaces were embedded in technical
areas so that teams never had to schedule or
relocate to formal conference rooms to engage in
discussions.
 No private cabins were given as per position.
 Geibal and Jonson themselves left their cabins and
shifted to workspaces in the center of systems area.
 As new technologies emerged Geibal would
announce the prospect of a new team within the
Systems Department.
 Employees were shifted to different teams as per the
requirement.
Changes to Team Meetings:
 Informal communication was promoted.

 Small teams helped in fostering informal

communication.

 Teams had regular standing meeting every second

week, lasting for not more than 1 hour.

 Geibal conducted Systems staff meeting every other

week to broadcast all major events within the
studio. This was an open forum.
New Approach to Communication:
 Cross Communication across departments is the key
to success for the company.

 Yearly road maps of goals were created and

communicated to all team members.

 Open communication was promoted .

 Hallway communication were promoted to get

quick and better informed decisions.

 Apart from that , email and texting were used to

communicated with clients
Changes in Work Process and Work in Progress:
 “Creative Refinement” process which is used in
motion picture industry was introduced.
 Experimentation was promoted to generate as many
ideas as possible.
 Management interference was reduced to as little as
possible.
 Full autonomy was given to Technical teams in
selecting their hours, attire, office arrangements,
project management methodologies, team meeting
structure, and more.
 Idea was to create in House Twitter like channel for
communication.
 Measurement of Success was done in a manner to
remove the metrics that might produce “wrong
behaviours”.
Changes in Work Process and Work in Progress:
 Focus was to create relationship driven environment
instead of data or metrics driven.

 Geibal and Jonson also aimed at eliminating

position titles within the group.
Analysis of the Organisational Changes
 Align with Disney Core Values of Creativity and
Freedom
 Autonomy and Purpose was given
 Collective Climate Environment was developed.
 Team Efficacy, Team Regulation, Performance
Dynamics were main focus.
What is further needed
 Measurement of Achievement- In the name of team
culture and team dynamics individual achievement
should not be shadowed.
 Motivation- Alongwith team individual motivation
should be kept in mind to make more cohesive and
motivated team
 Transparency- Team leads should be transparent to
ideas and innovations alongwith identifying
individual talents.
 Team conflicts – keep an eye on in team conflicts
and competitions.
Conclusion :
 With the work need and environment team based
organization is the most appreciate organizational
structure Disney has to utilize their employees to
full potential by improving innovation and
creativity via effective and informal communication.
 The above changes will bring efficiency in the
company.
Thank you for your patience

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