Latest / Go Big with Gib Podcast / Ep 64. Ruthless Productivity Hacks for Your Business

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Ep 64. Ruthless Productivity Hacks for Your Business · Go Big with Gib Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Go Big With Gibb podcast, where we talk to professionals, business owners and entrepreneurs about their big wins.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Hey guys, and welcome to this episode of Go Big With Gibb.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I'm Gibb Irons, your host.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the show today.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: A few days ago, I read an email that Elon Musk sent to Tesla employees and in that he talks about six tips for increasing productivity.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: I found the email to be very insightful and I wanted to share it with you and share with you some of my insights.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: So here are the six tips.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Number one, he says avoid large meetings.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Please get out of all large meetings unless you're certain that they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case, keep them very short.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: I've always believed in this.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I think you know getting my entire staff together.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: While it's kind of cool to have like a boardroom feel, I believe that a lot of the folks in the room are not actually participating in the discussion.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Getting rid of large meetings is a way to increase productivity and I tend to agree with that.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Number two no frequent meetings, he says.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Also get rid of frequent meetings Unless you are dealing with an extremely urgent matter.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Meeting frequency should drop rapidly once the urgent matter is resolved.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: So no large meetings, get rid of frequent meetings.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Number three, he says leave a meeting if you're not contributing.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Walk out of a meeting or drop a call as soon as it is obvious that you aren't adding value.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: It's not rude to leave.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: It is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: This, I thought, was really interesting, because I can't tell you how many Zoom calls I've been on since COVID and in-person meetings where I felt like I wasn't really bringing anything to the table.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: And, as the CEO of the company, if my presence is not required, I need to be doing other things and I need to be focused on my highest and best use.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: The fourth thing that Elon talked about was don't use technical jargon.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: He basically says speak plainly.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: We don't want people to have to memorize a glossary just to function at Tesla.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: And number five, he says communicate directly instead of through the hierarchy.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: His exact words were communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job done, not through the chain of command.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: And the sixth rule is follow logic, not rules.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: In general, always pick common sense as your guide.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: If following a company rule is obviously ridiculous in a particular situation, then the rule should change.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: My office has adopted these policies for several years and we really don't have any large meetings.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: We don't have frequent meetings.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: We keep everybody on task, working on what they can do to be as productive as possible, and, in a firm where a large portion of our income is based on billable hours, we want folks focused on billing hours.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: We don't want them sitting in administrative meetings that are simply wasting their time.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Another catchphrase that I use with my employees is be brief, be bright and be gone.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: If you're an employee and you're working in a company and you want to be successful, the best thing you can do is come to the table with great ideas, express them in a very brief manner and then go away.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: This will help to increase productivity.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: If you can remember those three tips, it was from 2018 when Elon wrote the message to all Tesla employees, and it's a great read, very interesting, and I hope you can apply some of these principles in your business.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us today.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I look forward to seeing you next time.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to this episode of Go Big with Gibb.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: If you haven't already, go follow us on social media at Gibb Irons.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: We'll see you next time.