Leading a Creative Culture w/ Ashley Elmore of Meow Wolf

People Business w/ O'Brien McMahon

Ashley Elmore is the Vice President of Human Resources at Meow Wolf, an arts production company that creates immersive, multimedia experiences that transport audiences of all ages into fantastic realms. In this conversation, she shares lessons learned from building and perpetuating a creative, collaborative culture.
Mentioned on the Show

• Watch Origin Story, the Meow Wolf Documentary: https://meowwolf.com/about/origin-story (film trailer on YouTube here)
• The Meow Wolf website: https://meowwolf.com/
• Ashley Elmore at Meow Wolf: https://credits.meowwolf.com/people/ashley-elmore/

Timestamps

(1:24) - Welcoming Ashley
(1:53) - What is Meow Wolf?
(4:21) - What is the culture like at Meow Wolf?
(6:03) - How do art and business meet in the organization?
(8:51) - What are Meow Wolf's values?
(10:02) - What does creative collaboration look like and how do you foster it?
(11:37) - Do you have any other examples of what "giving creation space" looks like?
(13:20) - Where did the idea for giving downtime for a week come from?
(15:54) - What is "provocative playfulness"?
(18:43) - How do you navigate the polarity of creativity and profit?
(23:03) - How does the organization approach broader social and/or political topics?
(27:53) - How does leadership communicate with employees?
(30:10) - How often are you talking about your values?
(32:12) - How and what do you celebrate?
(34:43) - Who’s driving the celebrations?
(37:59) - How do you treat and deal with failure?
(42:14) - Is there anything else about Meow Wolf that we didn’t talk about that makes it a special organization?
(43:18) - Does working in a creative organization bring out the creativity of non-creative employees?
(46:52) - What are your personal creative pursuits?