Elon sent this to all Tesla employees in november 2022. I added rule 0.
- Establish a culture of open, blameless communication
- Spend time solving problems not assigning blame
- Mistakes that become errors are manifestations of an underlying vulnerability in the systems and processes
- 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
- Your presence is useless iff a meeting doesn't require your
- input
- value
- decisions
- It’s not rude to leave a meeting but it’s rude to waste people’s time.
- Communicate with colleagues directly
- Not through supervisors or managers
- Fast communicators make fast decisions
- Fast decisions = competitive advantage
- Avoid nonsense words and technical jargon as it slows down communication
- Choose words that are:
- Concise
- To the point
- Easy to understand
- Don’t sound smart. Be efficient.
- There’s no better way to waste everyone’s time
- 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.
- If a company rule doesn't:
- Make sense
- Contribute to progress
- Apply to your specific situation
- Don’t follow rules. Follow principles. Avoid following the rule with your eyes closed.