In April 2018, Tesla was at a critical juncture – oh wait, that’s redundant – Tesla is always at a critical juncture. Well, at the time, they had only produced 30K cars (as of June 2019, they’ve produced 420K+) and wanted to improve their precision, profitability, and productivity.

Elon Musk sent an email out to Tesla, verified by CNBC (thank you) and shown in its full glory here. The bulk and beauty of the email was his thoughtful disdain of meetings. Musk was making a clear statement that meetings – and more generally, poor communication – wastes time. Musk’s direct quotes in blue italics:

Reduce meetings (frequency and size)

1. 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. 2. 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. – Elon Musk

Blight. Nice, harsh word. Yes, I agree; bureaucracy kills productivity. Lack of founder’s mentality. Getting rid of all large meetings sounds like Amazon’s rule that meetings should have no more attendees than could be fed by 2 pizzas. Not scientific, but that sounds like 6-8 folks max.

Add value or leave

3. 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. – Elon Musk

This is aggressive. I like it, but it’s aggressive. After 20+ years in corporate America, I have never done this. Nor would I. My mom did not raise me to act this way. Interns, and new folks – please don’t do this – unless you have built up enough career capital to pull it off. Even then, playing with fire. And yet, WOW. This is exactly right. Corporate cultures need to be LEAN, thoughtful, and outwardly focused. Meetings to “gain alignment” are necessary, but what a drag.

Talk directly

4. 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. 5. 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. . . It must be ok for people to talk directly and just make the right thing happen.  – Elon Musk

BOOM. Acronyms and jargon create familiarity for those “in the know”, but creates a communication barrier for new hires and contractors.

BOOM. Talk directly to the relevant people. Don’t become a consulting mailman – merely packaging the story, reinterpreting it, or becoming a cc: re: fwd: king/queen. Add value. Find the real people doing the work. Go to the place. GEMBA.

Tips to eliminate meetings

• Walk the halls (or direct message) to see if a 5 min conversation can resolve it immediately.
• If it is an informational meeting (just updates), see if a comprehensive email will suffice.
• Clarify the purpose of the meeting, and see if you can respond by email or prepare your input asynchronously. Send them resources or links, to see if that answers the questions

Tips to improve / reduce meetings

• Ask for a meeting agenda, make sure there’s a reason you/others are attending.
• Develop a culture of no-nonsense meetings; start on time, save the chit-chat for a social gathering, go through the agenda, take great notes, table unrelated topics, finish early.
• Write up meeting minutes well: clear, organized, actionable, worth reading.
• Ask if there is any pre-work that can be done individually, before the meeting.
• Have a standing meeting (no chairs), or a walking meeting (outside, around the building).
• Develop a trusting and flexible culture where information flows and decisions are made
• Stay busy; if you are really cranking out work, you’ll unselect yourself for meetings.

What other meeting tips do you have? Peter Drucker would have approved. He famously said, “Meetings are a symptom of bad organization. The fewer the meetings the better.”

Related posts:

• Tuckman: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing
• Peter Drucker said, “Meetings are a symptom of bad organization.”
• Links