Leadership 7th Edition by Andrew DuBrin, Ann Fisher, Andrew DuBrin

Exercise 14

If you reach Adam Gryglak, chief diesel engineer at Ford Motor Co. on the phone, you will hear a one-word greeting: "Diesel." His greeting reflects his enthusiasm for what he and his team were accomplishing, the development of a turbocharged diesel engine (the Power Stroke) for the 2011 Ford Super Duty. "The bar was raised for this new diesel and the Power Stroke team did a fantastic job meeting performance and durability targets," Gryglak said. His team, located offsite, included engineering, design, manufacturing, and purchasing which helped get the job done quickly. Grylak's can-do attitude impresses both members of his team and visitors to his project.
To build team spirit, Gryglak code-named the diesel Scorpion, after his favorite rock band. The team logo, a mechanical scorpion designed from engine components, was inserted on internal reports. Spirit at Team Scorpion reached such a high level that team members played jokes on each other, including building a full-size snowman decorated with machine parts and placed on the desks of team members. The team organized a Pinewood Derby competition, but milled cars out of aluminum instead of pinewood. A few of the miniature vehicles had remote controls and electric motors.
In building the new engine, Gryglak spearheaded the risk of using a lighter material that would add to fuel efficiency. (The risk was that the engine would not work properly.) The Super Duty truck developed with the Power Stroke diesel engine was the first of its kind to use the state of the art antipollution technology that meets current federal regulations. The fuel economy is well above average and the truck will require only routine maintenance for the first 300,000 miles.
Tony Hudson, a Project Scorpion engineer, was quite enthused about Grylak's leadership as well as the team effort. He said that the team accomplished what initially had seemed impossible. "That will give us license to do it again."
Why was team spirit important to accomplishing the mission of building a new truck engine?