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Tim Kuehn's avatar

Elon Musk has some epic rules for meetings and stuff:

1 No large meetings unless they’re of value to the entire audience. Keep them short.

2 Don’t have frequent meetings unless the matter is truly urgent. Resolve it; stop meeting.

3 If you are not adding value to a meeting, walk out or drop off the call.

4 Don’t use acronyms and nonsense words for objects, software, or processes.

5 Avoid any terms that require explanation, because they inhibit communication.

6 Communicate directly with individuals rather than through a chain of command.

7 Any manager enforcing chain-of-command communication will be fired.

8 Don’t follow any “company rule” that doesn’t make common sense.

9 Ideas that increase productivity or happiness are always welcome.

From https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/elon-musks-management-advice-is-so-freakin-brilliant-that-i-threw-away-37-business-books.html

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Admired Leadership's avatar

Wow, a few of these seem hard to enforce or live with. Wondering how #3 actually plays out?

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Tim Kuehn's avatar

For #3 - if the CEO mandates leaving meetings / calls where your presence is not required, I'd think it'd be fine - if you can't see a reason for you to stay ask if there's anything else you may be needed for and if the answer from the other people is "no" then off you go.

For #6 - hierarchial orgs like the military and firefighting the chain-of-command rule may not work, for structured orgs you'd want personnel to let their higher-ups know of a change so their situational awareness remains fully informed.

For #9 - Since rules rarely fit all situations and if one assumes their workforce has a decent head on their shoulders then this should work fine. If someone abuses this policy I'm confident competent management could figure out appropriate corrective action.

What other ones would you find challenging?

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Admired Leadership's avatar

You listed the ones.

Leaders giving permission for people to drop off if they aren't adding value is a great idea. The ego of the person who originally set the meeting invite is likely the one who will have the difficulty with the implementation.

Thanks for your detail, Tim!

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