In 2018, Elon Musk sent every Tesla employee a memo that took authority away from their managers and handed it to …
Elon Musk laid out a blunt set of productivity rules for Tesla employees, urging them to cut unnecessary meetings, avoid complicated jargon and communicate directly. In an April 17, 2018 email to Tesla staff, Elon Musk argued that employees should not waste time sitting in meetings where they add no value. He also warned managers against forcing communication through a strict chain of command. The email has surfaced after an X user shared it in an X (formerly Twitter) post to which Musk replied in an affirmative yes.In the email, CEO Elon Musk called excessive meetings “the blight of big companies” and said large meetings should be removed unless they clearly provide value to everyone attending. He also advised employees to leave meetings or calls as soon as it becomes clear they are not contributing. “It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time,” Musk wrote.
Here’s the memo Elon Musk sent to Tesla employees
“Btw, here are a few productivity recommendations:• 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.• 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.• 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.• Don’t use acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software, or processes at Tesia. 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.• 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 departments. The way to solve this is to allow the free flow of information between all levels. If, in order to get something done between departments, 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.• 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 there is something you think should be done to make Tesla execute better or allow you to look forward to coming to work more (same thing in the long term), please send a note to (redacted).Thanks for being such a kickass team and accomplishing miracles every day. It matters. We are burning the midnight oil to burn the midnight oil.Elon”
