Elon Musk’s 6 rules of productivity totally make sense! Don’t follow rules, follow principles…
Global (13 December 2022) – Elon Musk allegedly emailed the Tesla staff with his six productivity rules. Apparently, it leaked and is now being rapidly shared on social media.
1) Avoid large meetings!
“Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time. Please get [out] of all large meetings unless you’re certain they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them very short.”
- Large meetings waste valuable time and energy.
- They discourage debate
- People are more guarded than open
- There’s not enough time for everyone to contribute
- Don’t schedule large meetings unless you’re certain they provide value to everyone.
2. Leave a meeting if you’re not contributing.
“Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren’t adding value. It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.”
If a meeting doesn’t require the following, then your presence is useless:
- Input
- Value
- Decisions
3. Ditch frequent meetings
“Also, get rid of frequent meetings unless you are dealing with an extremely urgent matter. Meeting frequency should drop rapidly once the urgent matter is resolved.”
Use meetings to:
- Collaborate
- Attack issues head-on
- Solve urgent problems
But once you resolve the issue, frequent meetings are no longer necessary. You can resolve most issues without a meeting.
Instead of meetings:
- Send a text
- Send an email
- Communicate on a discord or slack channel
Don’t interrupt your team’s workflow if it’s unnecessary.
4. Be clear, not clever… drop the jargon!
“Don’t use acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software or processes at Tesla. In general, anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication. We don’t want people to have to memorize a glossary just to function at Tesla.”
Choose words that are:
- Concise
- To the point
- Easy to understand
5. Communication is KEY!
“Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job done, not through the ‘chain of command’. Any manager who attempts to enforce chain of command communication will soon find themselves working elsewhere.
“A major source of issues is poor communication between depts. The way to solve this is allow free flow of information between all levels. If, in order to get something done between depts, an individual contributor has to talk to their manager, who talks to a director, who talks to a VP, who talks to another VP, who talks to a director, who talks to a manager, who talks to someone doing the actual work, then super dumb things will happen. It must be ok for people to talk directly and just make the right thing happen.”
6. Use common sense!
“In general, always pick common sense as your guide. If following a ‘company rule’ is obviously ridiculous in a particular situation, such that it would make for a great Dilbert cartoon, then the rule should change.”
If a company rule doesn’t:
- Make sense
- Contribute to progress
- Apply to your specific situation
Avoid following the rule with your eyes closed.
Don’t follow rules. Follow principles.
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