New strides in internal communication may step on toes

High-tech big thinker Elon Musk is at it again. He’s trying to change the world.

Already well known for changing the technology of the automotive and aerospace industries, Musk now is trying to change the way internal communication happens in business; specifically his business, Tesla.

This summer Inc. magazine published an email from Musk that encouraged employees to forgo traditional chains of command to streamline problem solving. He advises moving away from the silo-style fiefdom approach by encouraging direct interaction among departments without the need for management intervention.

He opines that the old approach serves only to enhance the power of managers, while not serving the company as a whole.

“Instead of a problem getting solved quickly, where a person in one dept talks to a person in another dept and makes the right thing happen, people are forced to talk to their manager who talks to their manager who talks to the manager in the other dept who talks to someone on his team. Then the info has to flow back the other way again. This is incredibly dumb. Any manager who allows this to happen, let alone encourages it, will soon find themselves working at another company. No kidding."

Strong words from this non-traditional business leader.

Musk wants his employees to speak to whomever they need to, whenever they need to.

“You can talk to your manager's manager without his permission, you can talk directly to a VP in another dept, you can talk to me, you can talk to anyone without anyone else’s permission,” he wrote.

The goal is problem solving, not ego management. But can this theory of information dissemination work on the shop floor?

Information in any business flows outward in five directions:

1. Down from managers.
2. Up from workers.
3. Horizontally between workers.
4. Diagonally between departments.
5. Externally to those outside of the business.

To work on a shop floor, Musk’s model likely is situational. A manager doesn’t need to be summoned for tool replacement, but if the machine crashes, he must be made aware of the situation because it can affect other workers, processes, WIP, and delivery schedules.

The theory is sound. We quite often spend too much time discussing work, which leaves us not enough time for performing work, raising stress levels and creating errors. This is what Musk is targeting.

Now if he can only solve the mystery of the perpetually empty office coffee pot.