<p>I see some interesting parallels in this story and <em>The Phoenix Project.</em>  (Spoilers ahead for the book, if you haven't read it read this anyway :))</p>

<p>I take it the title for "Notes Day" comes from the term of art in Hollywood, where "notes" are constructive criticism about a work.  In this story, Catmull plays the part of Parts Unlimited CEO Steve Masters.  Catmull accepts that he can learn from his employees how to do a better job, as Masters does in <em>Phoenix Project</em> when he does his public mea culpa and apologizes to Bill Palmer.</p>

<p>In a sense, Catmull is <em>also</em> Brent- he's a major constraint.  If his time was so precious, it meant that Pixar was struggling to delegate authority.  It seems  Catmull was critical to every decision, rather than able to set large-scale goals and leave it to employees to figure out how to achieve them.</p>

<p>An event like this might work well at some companies, less well in others.  I think it's the key idea behind Notes Day that is most valuable: accountability and transparency from the highest levels of management to the last employee.  That value can be spread throughout a company in a variety of big and small ways.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-05-10T20:18:40.200Z
2017-05-10T20:18:40.200Z
Dave Swersky
<p>In his book <a href="http://www.creativityincbook.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Creativity, Inc</a>, Ed Catmull mentions a practice originating in movie business, when directors would receive feedback on their movie in progress, so called "<strong>Notes</strong>". At <a href="https://www.pixar.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Pixar</a> he was in charge of the company and that was his "movie" and in essence he envisioned a similar way to receive feedback on running the business. It was an event carefully planed in advance where all employees would take a day off from their work and use their creativity to improve how things are done. It was called "<strong>Notes Day</strong>".</p>

<p>Creativity, Inc and Pixar <a href="https://articles.bplans.com/pixar-inspired-guide-managing-creative-company/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">inspired other creative companies</a> to adopt some of the same management practices. Here is a <a href="http://nofear-community.com/blog/?p=1279" rel="nofollow noreferrer">brief article</a> on some of the basics. One such creative company adopting Notes Day as practice is Deeson as you can read in <a href="https://www.deeson.co.uk/blog/deesons-pixar-inspired-notes-day" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this blog</a>. Even tech companies follow suit, this is an <a href="https://slackhq.com/leadership-lessons-from-ed-catmulls-creativity-inc" rel="nofollow noreferrer">article by Slack</a> on being inspired by Ed Catmull's ideas.</p>

<p>A place where I've experienced it personally is Cisco Meraki, former startup and now a business unit of Cisco, which is still operating independently, much like Pixar after being acquired by Disney. Notes day is a big event every year, the entire engineering organization plans a 4 day off-site event with engineers from all around the world coming to HQ for the week and then joining us at the offsite. The event helps build teams, foster new connections, propagate culture and a whole day is dedicated to planing, discussing and presenting projects that yearly improve many of the aspects of our day to day lives. Preparations start much earlier in the year and every year the format is tweaked a bit, the design team always takes a huge part and Sean Rhea is traditionally the driving force behind the event. You can read some more in a <a href="https://meraki.cisco.com/blog/2017/06/notes-day-a-glimpse-into-merakis-engineering-culture/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">blog article</a> by Adam Berman.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-09-26T09:58:27.363Z
2018-09-26T09:58:27.363Z
Jiri Klouda
<p>Lately I am hearing about more and more companies adopting the Pixar concept of a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-04-08/pixar-chief-describes-crisis-with-growth-under-disney" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Notes Day</a> and I was wondering what exactly is a Notes Day, what would be a good format for such event and mainly if it could be successfully used in a DevOps inspired transformation of a company?</p>

<terminology><culture><conferences><transformation>
What is a Notes Day and can it be used in DevOps transformation?
Jiri Klouda
# What is a Notes Day and can it be used in DevOps transformation?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-05-03)

Lately I am hearing about more and more companies adopting the Pixar concept of a [Notes Day](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-04-08/pixar-chief-describes-crisis-with-growth-under-disney) and I was wondering what exactly is a Notes Day, what would be a good format for such event and mainly if it could be successfully used in a DevOps inspired transformation of a company?

**Tags:** terminology, culture, conferences, transformation


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2018-09-26. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

In his book [Creativity, Inc](http://www.creativityincbook.com), Ed Catmull mentions a practice originating in movie business, when directors would receive feedback on their movie in progress, so called "**Notes**". At [Pixar](https://www.pixar.com) he was in charge of the company and that was his "movie" and in essence he envisioned a similar way to receive feedback on running the business. It was an event carefully planed in advance where all employees would take a day off from their work and use their creativity to improve how things are done. It was called "**Notes Day**".

Creativity, Inc and Pixar [inspired other creative companies](https://articles.bplans.com/pixar-inspired-guide-managing-creative-company/) to adopt some of the same management practices. Here is a [brief article](http://nofear-community.com/blog/?p=1279) on some of the basics. One such creative company adopting Notes Day as practice is Deeson as you can read in [this blog](https://www.deeson.co.uk/blog/deesons-pixar-inspired-notes-day). Even tech companies follow suit, this is an [article by Slack](https://slackhq.com/leadership-lessons-from-ed-catmulls-creativity-inc) on being inspired by Ed Catmull's ideas.

A place where I've experienced it personally is Cisco Meraki, former startup and now a business unit of Cisco, which is still operating independently, much like Pixar after being acquired by Disney. Notes day is a big event every year, the entire engineering organization plans a 4 day off-site event with engineers from all around the world coming to HQ for the week and then joining us at the offsite. The event helps build teams, foster new connections, propagate culture and a whole day is dedicated to planing, discussing and presenting projects that yearly improve many of the aspects of our day to day lives. Preparations start much earlier in the year and every year the format is tweaked a bit, the design team always takes a huge part and Sean Rhea is traditionally the driving force behind the event. You can read some more in a [blog article](https://meraki.cisco.com/blog/2017/06/notes-day-a-glimpse-into-merakis-engineering-culture/) by Adam Berman.


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### Answer by username_1 on 2017-05-10. Score: 4

I see some interesting parallels in this story and *The Phoenix Project.* (Spoilers ahead for the book, if you haven't read it read this anyway :))

I take it the title for "Notes Day" comes from the term of art in Hollywood, where "notes" are constructive criticism about a work. In this story, Catmull plays the part of Parts Unlimited CEO Steve Masters. Catmull accepts that he can learn from his employees how to do a better job, as Masters does in *Phoenix Project* when he does his public mea culpa and apologizes to Bill Palmer.

In a sense, Catmull is *also* Brent- he's a major constraint. If his time was so precious, it meant that Pixar was struggling to delegate authority. It seems Catmull was critical to every decision, rather than able to set large-scale goals and leave it to employees to figure out how to achieve them.

An event like this might work well at some companies, less well in others. I think it's the key idea behind Notes Day that is most valuable: accountability and transparency from the highest levels of management to the last employee. That value can be spread throughout a company in a variety of big and small ways.


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