Shit Show: The Phrase I Learned at Pixar

On Wednesday, I was lucky enough to be invited back to give a second Good Boss, Bad Boss talk at Pixar.   I love Pixar. Not just because they are so cool, but because of the deep and relentless commitment to quality and humanity. If you have not heard it, I urge you to listen to this Fresh Air interview about Toy Story 3 -- if you listen closely to how they approached their work, you can hear almost everything you need to know about design thinking and leading creative work.  As one little example, which illustrates "Failure Sucks But Instructs," note that they had 60 different drafts of an especially crucial scene.  Also, as an illustration that creative people and companies have a kind of "storehouse" of rejected ideas that they keep trying to apply to new problems (sort of like a bin of old parts), listen to the example of Lotso, a character who was invented but discarded for an earlier film but who worked great in Toy Story 3 (See Andy Hargadon's book if you really want to dig into this perspective).

I could go on and on, but this post is about the new phrase I learned at Pixar.  I was speaking at an internal event, which was meant to help people at Pixar get to know each other better (I am going to omit names so I don't break any confidences). Before my talk, there was a hilarous interview with a Pixar insider, and one of the best parts was when she was asked her favorite swear word.  She mentioned a traditional one, but then added her new favorite was "shit show."   As with the rest of the group, I was quite taken with it.  Of course, shit show is already in the Urban Dictionary.  There are 13 definitions, but I like the most popular best:

A description of an event or situation which is characterized by an ridiculously inordinate amount of frenetic activity. Disorganization and chaos to an absurd degree. Often associated with extreme ineptitude/incompetence and or sudden and unexpected failure. Similar: fiasco clusterfuck

"The picnic turned into a real shit show because that bozo decided to throw rocks at that hornet's nest."

As I joked to the audience, while I have resisted doing a sequel to The No Asshole Rule, I am a bit tempted to do a book called The No Shit Show Rule!

Comments

[Derak Berreyesa]

I think it's a great title for you next book. I would love to see the different examples of "Shit Shows" you would include. That term has actually been in my vocabulary for a while now. The one I really like from this post is "Failure Sucks But Instructs". This is so true and put so eloquently.

[Christian Fey]

It is pretty impressive how many meetings start off with a positive note and degenerate off to a "shit show!" Anytime people choose to have meetings in any professional activity (obviously most purely social events turn into shit shows by their very nature) there should be clearly outlined goals and objectives so that people don't sit there and feel as though they are wasting their otherwise precious time.

[Bob Sutton]

Joe, Bret, and David,

I appreciate the support, but I am not sure I have another book with a dirty title in me.. on the other hand, I am terrible at predicting my own future behavior...

Bob

[Bret Simmons]

Bob, please write "The No Shit Show Rule"!!!

[davidburkus]

It could sell.

[Joe Marchese]

I think you have found the title for your next book, but no regrets about going from 'that asshole guy' to 'that shitshow guy'.:)