If you haven’t seen Ford v Ferrari, I highly recommend it. The thumping of engines almost gives you the feel you can smell the exhaust pumping out of these beautiful cars. After viewing the movie, besides wanting to immediately buy a sports car, I noticed several parallels to Agile and how Ford in fact did beat Ferrari by using the Agile mindset and exercising agility!
-Henry Ford Speech (Establishing the culture of empowerment and innovation)
In a scene early in the movie, Henry Ford stops the production of Ford cars, followed by addressing his production staff with an empowering speech. He states something along the lines of: “I want you all to walk home tonight and come back with an idea to innovate. If you don’t have an innovative idea, don’t come to work”. In this scene, he is establishing a culture of empowerment to innovate. In addition, this screams the “burning platform” (the need to change or you will go extinct). In this case, if Ford Motors did not come up with an innovative idea to remain competitive, they would vanish as a car company. He wanted to hear from his employees and he effectively (at that moment) flattened the organization creating a Holacracy to create innovation (anyone could bring an idea to Mr. Ford). Henry Ford established the culture for his employees; enabling bottom up thinking (not top down). Of course, this set the stage for one of his most innovative car ideas ever; the creation of the Ford Mustang, a revolutionary sports car.
-The Red Envelope (Agile destroys bureaucracy)
There is a scene in the movie when Caroll Shelby (the designer of the GT40) witnesses a red envelope being passed around through roughly 3 hands in the lobby of Mr. Ford as he patiently waits to meet with the man. What Mr. Shelby was witnessing was bureaucracy at its finest. The slogging of paperwork on top of paperwork; from one hand to another; meaningless to all, providing zero value to the client; wasting time minute by minute. It is as if almost Mr. Shelby reflected on “working product (fast car) over comprehensive documentation (the red envelope)” in this scene (you can see it in his eyes!). With this realization, Caroll convinces Mr. Ford to allow him a direct call line from Mr. Shelby to Mr. Ford; effectively eliminating the slow, valueless waste of bureaucracy and allowing direct communication (Individuals and interactions!). This scene illustrates how Agile destroys useless bureaucracy. If we are to think of Henry Ford as the ultimate client and Caroll Shelby as a team member; this is how close and constant feedback should be with the client to build a great product!
-Plans Change! "Responding to change over following a plan! "
There are several scenes in where “plans changed”. In one of the scenes you can hear a pit crew member yelling frustrated, “he is not following the plan!”, where Mr. Shelby coolly states “Plans Change”. The most evident of plans changing is towards the end of the movie, where Ken Miles’ door is unable to close. This was totally unforeseeable and the crew had to “inspect and adapt” to the issue at hand to remain in the race. They effectively “responded to change” as issues arose and got back in the Ford v. Ferrari race!
-Inspect and adapting, experimenting to satisfy the client !
The most glaring parallel of Agile and this movie was the incremental improvement of the vehicle itself. The whole movie is based on incremental improvement of the GT40 Ford that ended up beating Ferrari. It was one failure after another. One of the cars built, burst into flames (talk about “fail fast!”); another, the brakes failed. However, the team continued to experiment with each small iteration of the vehicle; inspecting and adapting along the way (there is one scene Ken Miles is staying up late thinking of improvements to the vehicle). The final product being that GT40 that Caroll Shelby takes Henry Ford II for a ride in. The client, Henry Ford, is in literal tears of how well built the vehicle is and how impressed he is by the product built; incremental improvement indeed!
Conclusion, you should strive to have your client weeping at the working product you deliver (maybe not weep, but they should be very very happy!).
The movie was a fascinating analogy and story you can leverage while explaining Agility and Agile. This is a great story on how to effectively become more agile (establish an innovative culture, empower employees, remove useless waste, experiment, fail fast, inspect/adapt, tight communication with the client and team, and understand “plans change!”). With this story in mind, maybe will see many more organizations passing the finish line in 1st place; checkered flags and Agility for all!
Good luck!
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