What aspects of building high performance teams did Gryglak use to make breakthrough progress?

Project Teams HOT FROM PRACTICE 11.2 Putting Ford on Fast Forward* Adam Gryglak was given mission pressure, the engineers played jokes on each other impossible: deliver an all-new Ford building full-size snowmen decorated with machine diesel engine in less than 36 months. parts on each other's desks. Gryglak encouraged The challenge was all the more daunt- friendly competition. After hitting a critical desion ing in that in the past Ford had out- milestone the team organized a Pinewood Derby sourced the design and manufacture of diesel engines contest. Pinewood Derby is a famous Cub Scell to Navistar. Not only did he have to meet a ridiculous event where young boys whittle toy cars out of wood deadline, but he also had to build an in-house engine and race them down a ramp. These were engineers from scratch. Gryglak, the chief diesel engineer, knew not Cub Scouts, so instead of wooden cars, the that success depended on short-circuiting the design engineers milled cars out of aluminum. Some of process at Ford. So he put together a team of hun- the cars even had remote controls and engines. gry engineers, moved off-site, and shielded the team The fun culture paid off. The new Ford diesel engine from anxious top management. He called the project was completed on time to critical acclaim. The engine Scorpion after the heavy metal band the Scorpions. was the first of its kind to use state-of-the-art antipol- Progress was immediate. Specialists who were lution technology that met new federal standards. used to working only with their own kind became It also had the best fuel economy in its category familiar with what the other engineers were up to. and wouldn't need significant maintenance for "We saved months by knowing hourly what the other 300,000 miles. The engine was featured in the guys were thinking and what their problems were," best-selling F-150 line of trucks and was considered says Pat Morgan, a veteran Ford engineer. "The result one of the keys to Ford's comeback. was that the engine fit into the truck perfectly the first time, and that almost never happens." Gryglak also realized that engineers work harder *Putting Ford on Fast Forward," BusinessWeek, October 26, and smarter when they are having fun. To relieve 2009, pp. 58-59.Page MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP the carmaker can get new models from blueprint to showroom as fast or faster Putting Ford on than its rivals. Going offsite inevitably made executives anxious. But Gryglak's pitch got a better reception than Fast-Forward it might have, say, five years ago, when turf-obsessed managers tended to look unkindly on heterodoxy. In October 2006, Gryglak began recruiting his team To outrun rivals, company engineers revamped of engineers. He discovered that not everyone was eager the development process for a new pickup engine to work beyond the bounds of Ford's familiar environ- ment. Some engineers craved structure. "We had people By David Kiley and make it better to suit our target." self-select out because they Adam Gryglak had what seemed like Gryglak's task was doubly difficult. weren't comfortable working an impossible task: deliver an all-new For one thing, Ford had previously out - outside their comfort zone," Ford diesel engine in 36 months. Ford sourced the design and manufacture of says Gryglak. But others couldn't wait was way behind schedule, so the time the engine, known as the Powerstroke, to be asked. Ken Pumford, an engineer frame was a year faster than usual. to truck and engine maker Navistar. from Ford's Kentucky truck plant, Gryglak, the chief diesel engineer, What's more, the Powerstroke brand moved from Louisville to Dearborn, knew he'd never meet his deadline Mich., to join the project. without short-circuiting the usual de- It wasn't long before the benefits velopment process. So he put together began to emerge. Specialists used a team, moved off campus, and kept to working only with their own kind his second-guessing bosses at bay.- became more familiar with what Gryglak called the project Scorpion other engineers were up to. "We saved (after the heavy metal band the Scorpi- months by knowing hourly what the ons) and came up with a logo featuring other guys were a menacing mechanical insect. The team's Scorpion mascot, thinking and what In mid-September, on schedule named for the their problems were," and to strong reviews, Ford unveiled heavy metal band says Pat Morgan, a the new Super Duty pickup-powered veteran Ford engi- by Project Scorpion's engine- at the had eroded in recent years because of neer. "The result was that the engine Texas State Fair. Gryglak had shown quality problems. Gryglak didn't just fit into the truck perfectly the first that the classic skunkworks model need to design and build an engine time, and that almost never happens." pioneered by Lockheed-Martin in the in-house from scratch - he needed to The team also let go of certain Ford- 1930s could help Ford protect its flank, vastly improve it if Ford were to keep isms. The company has long forced in this case the highly lucrative market dominating the market for large pick- suppliers to adapt their technology in for contractor-grade pickup trucks. ups, which in good years have gener- hundreds of time-consuming ways to "We have a good product-develop- ated much of its overall profit. Ford specifications, Engineers, after ment system," Gryglak says. "The key Like all big companies, Ford has a all, justify their paychecks by com- was to respect what we have and the strict product -development hierarchy. ing up with engineering tweaks. With people who run it, deconstruct it a bit, It works well enough nowadays that time short, the tear learned to trust BUSINESSWEEK | OCTOBER 26, 2009Gryglak: His bosses forced themselves to stay in the background suppliers more. For example, Ford let team only every four to six weeks tioning, but he got the green light. the German company Bosch work on instead of the usual weekly or biweekly The new Super Duty truck goes on the engine's antipollution device with intervals. "It was tough for me to do." sale in the spring. Ford says the engine minimal reengineering for its own sake. he says. "But to keep [ the project ] on will be the first of its kind to use state- track. I convinced my bosses it would of - the art antipollution technology FUN AND GAMES be better to leave them alone." Fascetti that meets new federal regulations. Freed from the rigid atmosphere of says things got tense when Team Scor- The truck also will have the best fuel Ford's tech center, the engineers let pion decided to build the engine out of economy in its category and won't need themselves have fun. They played a lighter material that would make the significant maintenance for 300,000 jokes on each other, building full-size truck more fuel - efficient. Doing so was miles. The best part, says Tony Hud- snowmen, decorated with machine more expensive, with a greater risk of son, a Project Scorpion engineer, is that parts, on one another's desks. Gryglak failure. By the time Fascetti and his own the team pulled off what initially had also encouraged friendly competition. bosses found out, the decision had been seemed impossible. "That," he says, In August 2007, after months of R&D made. Gryglak faced some tough ques- "will give us license to do it again." BWI but before starting to build the engine, the team organized a Pinewood Derby competition. Design and mechanical Business Exchange engineers, of course, weren't about to whittle cars from wood the way Cub Read, save, and add content on BW's new Web 2.0 topic network DERFUL MACHINE Scouts do. They milled cars out of alu- minum. Some had remote controls and Busting Bureaucracy electric motors. In his 1990 book Adhocracy: The Power to Change, Robert H. Waterman delined "adbocracy" as "any organization form that challenges the bureaucracy in order to As the team worked in isolation, embrace the new. It cuts through organizational charts, departments, functions, job Gryglak's bosses had a hard time stay- descriptions, hierarchy, and tradition like a hot knife through butter." ing in the background. Bob Fascetti, Ford's chief engineer of big engines, To read an excerpt from the book, go to http://bx.businessweek.com/change- management/reference/ forced himself to check in with the