Indeed, in their first days together, Experienced Leader Challenge participants make plaster casts of their faces, and then decorate the masks to show what kind of leader they'd like to become. They also get in touch with their bodies as expressive instruments by dancing daily. They come to class with a written story about the kind of leader they want to become and about how achieving that vision will be of value to them in their life beyond work. It's pretty puffy stuff. It doesn't sound much like Ford at all -- and that's the point.

Talkin' (and Walkin') Revolution

It's Friday afternoon at the Leadership Development Center, and Stew Friedman is ready to send his latest New Business Leader graduates out into the world. While promising to reunite for dinner, the graduates and their teachers gather for a picture. "Say, 'Revolution!' " Friedman calls out. "Revolution!" the group shouts back. A voice from the back pipes in: "Say, 'QIP!' " "QIP!" returns the chorus, amid laughter.

These people are pumped. Many have worked until midnight every night, all week, refining their quantum ideas. They've been charged with wreaking change on Ford, and they're taking the order seriously. They feel a new sense of permission, a sense that anything goes. "I've got this idea that could transform the company," Kris Rogers says, "and no one is telling me that I can't try it out."

Jason Harvey will now return to his marketing post at Lincoln Mercury's Irvine, California headquarters -- and to his vision of inventing a frequent-customer club that would reward points for purchases. "I always wondered, 'How do I bring this idea to the big boys?' " says Harvey, 30. "Now, not only do I have an idea that can change the company, but I also have license to pursue it."

Of course, Friedman and his colleagues are pleased with this reaction; it is exactly the sort of focused passion that they had hoped to instill in their leaders. Yet, the transformation of Harvey and his peers also presents Ford with some intriguing challenges.

Most important of which: How will Ford sustain all of this energy? Friedman's initiative has won the support of Nasser and other top executives, but it hasn't had time to take hold among the ranks. "The transformation is happening person by person," says Philip Mirvis, a respected change consultant who has helped design and teach the Experienced Leader Challenge. "It holds the promise of redefining, companywide, what work is and how it gets done, and of becoming the way that Ford does business. But we're still far from that."

Ford's solution, in essence, is to flood the system with new leaders: 36 this week, followed by 36 more next week, and 36 more the week after that. It has to happen quickly, so that the fervor of the first wave doesn't fade by the time the next wave arrives. Even at this quick pace, it will take Ford several years to build a critical mass of converts throughout the ranks. So about once a year, it must repeat the Business Leadership Initiative, in order to refocus the organization on the mission of its new leaders.

But therein lies another question: What happens when 36 New Business Leader participants a week -- almost 2,000 a year -- try to implement their projects? How will all of those ideas mesh with existing initiatives and with the thousands of other projects that come out of the Business Leadership Initiative? How will employees balance their many ideas with the day-to-day work at hand?

Simply put, Ford risks facing organizational anarchy. It risks compromising its mission in a frantic rush to action. Even though Friedman speculates that many individual projects will quickly die off, he worries about this prospect and is considering strategies to channel creativity without killing it off. But make no mistake: Ford wants chaos. After all, it beats the alternative. Says Friedman: "Our old way of getting things done needs to change." And it will -- 36 leaders at a time.

Keith H. Hammonds (khammonds@fastcompany.com), a Fast Company senior editor, is based in New York City. Contact Stew Friedman by email (sfriedm2@ford.com).

Sidebar: The Grassroots Leadership Agenda

Nancy Gioia, a chief program engineer at Ford, heads a team of engineers, designers, marketers, and purchasing managers who work on the Ford Thunderbird. A Capstone graduate and a key senior executive, Gioia has been with the company for almost 18 years.

But Gioia has another job: She's a mentor to participants in the New Business Leader and the Experienced Leader Challenge programs. On the first morning of a recent NBL session, she sat down with six participants to review their Quantum Idea Projects and to offer feedback. This is what she told them.

Always stretch.