Elon Musk’s “chain of command” rule will help companies in the coronavirus crisis

In 2018, a letter from Elon Musk to Tesla employees circulated in the media, in which he shares the company’s progress, as well as tips on how to be productive. Inс believes that one of these tips can help companies maintain a leading position during the coronavirus crisis. AIN.UA publishes an abridged translation of the material.

In his speech, Tesla’s CEO gave his employees several recommendations for improving productivity. Among them were the following:

Communication should follow the shortest path to achieve the goal, not through a “chain of commands”. Any executive who tries to establish a chain of command in communications will soon be working elsewhere.

The point is that in many large companies communication is too long: it can follow from one employee to another through a chain of managers. According to Musk, such a chain should be as short as possible. If communication takes a long time, the company, especially in a difficult period, weakens due to the long adoption and implementation of decisions.

In 2020, with many companies shifting their employees to remote work, communication between teams has become more important than ever. This is why breaking the chain of command may be the best way to keep it productive.

This problem becomes even more acute when employees are forced to work using only Slack, Asana, Zoom and other tools – it becomes more difficult to communicate information to management.

Musk advises not to attach too much importance to the chain of commands, as this can harm:

In times when business is under pressure, nothing that harms the company and the ability to communicate should live.

Source: ain.ua