So far, Mao's plan seemed to be working. But there was no way that China could keep up that growth, especially without some backsliding into capitalism. So, Mao came up with a terrible idea called the Great Leap Forward. Mao essentially decided that the nation could be psyched up into more industrial productivity. Among many other bad ideas, he famously ordered that individuals build small steel furnaces in their backyard to increase steel production. This was not a good idea. First off, it didn't actually increase steel production much.