A leaked email has revealed some of Elon Musk’s ideas for boosting production of his latest Tesla Model in coming months.

In order to crack down on unacceptable performance of some of Tesla’ contractors, Mr Musk has offered several tips to improve productivity.  They include:

• Cancelling large meetings, or keeping them “very short“
• Avoiding acronyms or nonsense words
• Sidestepping the “chain of command” to get the job done – managers at Tesla who insist on hierarchies will, apparently, “soon find themselves working elsewhere“
• Ignoring the rules if following them would be ridiculous.

And in citing large meetings as the “blight of big companies” he suggests:

• Walk out of a meeting if it’s not serving a useful purpose.  “It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.”

I do agree with him … in part.  Pointless meetings are a waste of time.  But it takes a brave person to just up and walk out of one.  Perhaps if you’re Mr Musk, you can do that more easily … and for the rest of us?  I wonder what some good, honest, communication might be worth, some setting of expectations at the outset of a meeting, some checks and measures along the way to make sure that everyone’s needs are being met?  And more than that, how about someone in the chair who can manage the meeting effectively?  The very best meetings I’ve attended have always been the best because of the influence and skill of the person leading them.

I guess, simply put, you might say that good meetings require good leadership.