In a recent WSJ interview with Tesla CEO Elon Musk the media largely focused on his move from CA to Texas, but Elon also talked about four major questions that leaders should ask for achieving breakthrough in innovation.
After analyzing the WSJ interview, Minda Zetlin at Inc. notes that creating innovative products is “absolutely learnable” according to Musk. In the end, the path to innovation all comes down to answering a few simple questions.
1. Have you tried it?
2. How can you make it better?
3. Are you wasting time in conference rooms?
4. Are you leading from the front?
1. Have you tried it?
“Step number one would be: try. And have you tried and have you tried hard? And if you haven’t tried hard, try hard. It’s not some mysterious thing. It’s basically just be like an absolute perfectionist about the product that you make [or] the service that’s provided,” Musk said emphasizing the question if you have tried it.
2. How can you make it better?
Regarding this second question Elon said, “Seek negative feedback from all quarters; from customers, from people who aren’t customers. Like, ‘Hey, OK, how can we make this better?’ Just get out there on the factory floor, get out there in the stores, talk to customers, think about what would you love to have. If you don’t love it, don’t expect others will either.”
3. Are you wasting time in conference rooms?
“When I have spent too much time in a conference room, that’s generally when things have gone awry. And when I got to spend time on the factory floor, or really using the cars, thinking about the rockets, that’s where things have gone better.” He adds, “If you find yourself spending a lot of time getting presentations and reviewing spreadsheets, you’re barking up the wrong tree,” Elon said about wasting time in conference rooms.
4. Are you leading from the front?
“I find that if I am engrossed in the details of the issues, this does not result in [the staff] feeling worse, but feeling better. They’re, in my experience, more energized. The troops are going to fight a lot harder if they see the general in the front lines than if they think the general is in some cushy situation. Get out there on the goddamn front line and show them that you care, and that you’re not just in some posh office somewhere,” said Elon about his type of leadership.
#Tesla
#ElonMusk
#Innovation
This is Armen Hareyan from Torque News. Please follow us at https://www.TorqueNews.com and https://twitter.com/torquenewsauto for daily automotive news.
Reference
Evannex https://evannex.com/blogs/news/elon-musk-recommends-asking-yourself-four-simple-questions-to-achieve-breakthrough-innovation
WSJ https://youtu.be/V1nQFotzQMQ
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