When I was in college, I remember how one of our biggest fears was showing up at a ‘sausage fest’. For those unfamiliar with this expression, a ‘sausage fest’ meant a party where men vastly outnumbered women. I don’t think I need to explain why this was important.
Looking back, I realize that the heightened wit of the term ‘sausage fest’ perhaps obscured the wisdom of my fellow young men. Outcomes are better when there is a good mix of men and women and what the academics have probably spent decades proving via studies and experiments was probably based on a drunken hypothesis generated ten minutes before arriving at a keg party. I’m struggling right now to come up with a situation where I would consider it a positive to learn that the men outnumbered the women in a given group, team, or organization responsible for achieving good outcomes.
This somewhat ridiculous line of thinking came to mind recently when I watched this Ford commercial. The premise is simple – the world is changing and we will therefore require something innovative and different to thrive in the new future. More importantly, Ford will build this future by leveraging the aggregated resources of its great company. We viewers are treated to a series of scenes in this commercial of just what these resources are: machines and labor, wisdom and creativity, men and... woman?
Yup, woman. Just one, by my count, at least among the ten or so people I can definitely see well enough to make a distinction. (Women will be applauding from the crowd, though, sometimes from the front row.)
Folks, Ford is going to build the future, and if this commercial tells us anything, the ratio of men to women involved in the effort would make even the most beer-thirsty college freshman roll his eyes and go home. The problem isn’t the fact of the ratio, it’s that we all know what leads to good outcomes. For some reason, the business bros at Ford forgot the first thing a lot of us learned in college - a good future is merely a matter of avoiding the sausage fest at the frat house next door.
