Here are his six rules:
1. Reduce the frequency of meetings
According to Musk, “excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time.”
To make meetings more effective, he suggests fewer of them unless there’s an urgent matter to address.
2. Leave meetings that aren’t valuable
Similar to rule one, if an employee finds they cannot contribute successfully to a meeting then they should be allowed to leave with no repercussions.
“It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time,” Musk says.
The best way to communicate effectively is to be direct about what you’re saying, this means “don’t use acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software, or processes.”
4. Don’t use “chain of command” to communicate
“Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job done,” Musk toells employees.
He finds it unnecessary for lower-level employees to communicate issues through the chain of command, rather than approaching a person directly.
“Any manager who attempts to enforce chain of command communication will soon find themselves working elsewhere”
5. Use common sense
While it may seem obvious, some people need a reminder to use common sense in most situations.
Musk uses the example of following a “company rule” that would be “obviously ridiculous in a particular situation.”
6. Avoid big 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.”
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But then Musk recently required his mostly brainworkers to work long or longer hours, and stop all WFH – this is never going to get the best out of them, especially the best of them – see the following Reuter’s report
It comes after almost half of the social media giant’s staff were laid off as part of a major overhaul following the billionaire’s takeover of the company.
Are his expectations realistic?
Digital wellbeing and peak performance researcher Dr Kristy Goodwin says humans are not biologically designed to work long hours at high intensity
She told SBS News that Musk’s expectations would not be realistic for most employees – “From a neuro-biological perspective, the prefrontal cortex – the part of our brain that does the heavy lifting – really only has a maximum of four to six hours of battery life per day,” she said.