7 tips for productivity by SpaceX and Tesla boss Elon Musk

Elon Musk gets a lot done. The 46-year-old entrepreneur and CEO is revolutionising the space-flight industry with SpaceX, his aerospace manufacturing and space transportation services company. He celebrated the first launch of his SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on February 6. Musk is also transforming the world of the electric car at his company Tesla, and pushing neuroscience and transportation forward at Neuralink and the Boring Company. How Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, makes and spends his US$20 billion fortune As SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell said at this month’s 2018 TED Conference, Musk’s goals were a lot to keep up with. “When Elon says something, you have to pause and not blurt out, ‘Well, that’s impossible',” she said. “You zip it, you think about it, and you find ways to get it done.” Recently, Musk reportedly announced to Tesla employees that he wants to adopt a 24/7 shift schedule to get production for Tesla’s Model 3 electric car on track. In an email obtained by news website Jalopnik, Musk explained a number of changes in the works for Tesla. Tesla’s Shanghai factory could take luxury cars up a gear in China He’s asking for quite a lot, so at the end of that email, he offered employees a list of his own productivity recommendations. From those tips, it’s clear that Musk is clearly not a fan of meetings, bureaucracy, hierarchy, or any system that impedes immediate communication. Get rid of frequent meetings, unless you are dealing with an extremely urgent matter Elon Musk CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Musk prefers people to apply common sense to the task at hand. He also told staff that if they had any ideas for making work at Tesla better and more efficient, they should let him know. Here are the seven productivity tips Musk offered in the letter, in his own words. 1. Large-format meetings waste people’s time “Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time. “Please get [rid] of all large meetings, unless you’re certain they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them very short.” Tesla CEO Elon Musk reveals the ‘biggest mistake’ of his career 2. Meetings should be infrequent unless a matter is urgent “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.” 3. If you don’t need to be in a meeting, leave “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.” Say hello to Porsche’s first all-electric production car 4. Avoid confusing jargon “Don’t use acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software, or processes at Tesla. In general, anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication Elon Musk “In general, anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication. We don’t want people to have to memorise a glossary just to function at Tesla.” 5. Don’t let hierarchical structures make things less efficient “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.” Tesla challenged by Cadillac with a power cord 6. If you need to get in touch with someone, do so directly “A major source of issues is poor communication between [departments]. “The way to solve this is allow free flow of information between all levels. It must be OK for people to talk directly and just make the right thing happen Elon Musk “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.” 7. Don’t waste time following silly rules “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.” Want more stories like this? Sign up here. Follow STYLE on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter This story originally appeared in Business Insider.

7 tips for productivity by SpaceX and Tesla boss Elon Musk

The entrepreneur, 46 – revolutionising space travel, transforming electric cars and pushing neuroscience – offers ideas to Tesla staff on boosting efficiency