Elon Musk just revealed his secret to reducing waste.  This advice comes from the man whose accomplishments include; reducing the cost of space flight, revolutionizing automobile manufacturing and eliminating 80% of the workforce of X (formally Twitter) without compromising its’ operational integrity. Although the process is simple, Elon admits to having completed these steps out of sequence more times than he cares to remember.  If one of the most successful and influential businessmen of our time is guilty of this, it’s likely that you are too.  Here are the steps that Elon shared on the Lex Friedman Podcast.

1. Question
2. Delete
3. Optimize
4. Accelerate
5. Automate

Question The Process

While this should be the easiest step in the process (asking a question), it’s oddly enough one of the most difficult for an organization to objectively perform.  For those who were present for the design of a process that is currently under review, they undoubtedly will make justifications for why the process is necessary.  

It’s critical to remove emotional ties to processes and not use cost, time spent or age as justification for their existence.  This is where working with an objective and creative third party, such as a consultant, can be immensely beneficial. 

For processes subject to review, Elon will often perform the task himself so he understands it and can demonstrate why it is inefficient.  This is a brilliant display of leadership as it portrays that no task is beneath anyone. It also backs his recommendations with authority as he has hands-on experience with the process he wants to change.

Delete the Process

This is the most critical step in the process and one many project teams would never consider – but you must ask yourself, can this be deleted? 

The memories of senior project teams are scarred from being reprimanded for deleting processes that had to subsequently be put back into place.  They falsely assume that the re-work was inefficient and thus, should be avoided at all costs – a gross overcorrection. 

If you identify process steps which can be deleted, then you’ve proven that the process contains inefficiencies.  If you aren’t forced to put things back into the process, then you were too conservative in your deletion efforts.  How else would you know that you deleted enough? 

Project participants and executives are likely to be averse to the idea that you will delete something that you know will have to be put back in.  This is where communication from an effective Project Manager is critical in setting the expectation that this is a desired outcome.  Elon’s benchmark when performing this at his companies is that if at least 10% of a process isn’t added back after the fact, then you did not delete enough.

Optimize the Process

Elon Musk, who has worked with some of the most talented engineers in the world, points out that the most common mistake of smart engineers is optimizing or automating something that shouldn’t exist.  Sometimes, it’s best to omit members of your process team from the first 2 steps, as their biased objections may stimy the efficiency gains from questioning and deleting processes.

If you still have a process left after the latter steps, now you can begin letting your engineering team apply their skills at optimizing what is left.

Accelerate the Process

“Any given thing can be sped up”, says the man who has designed a Tesla car that can reach 60 MPH in under 2 seconds – and he’s right.  After you’ve optimized a process to the best of your ability, what steps can you apply to simply make your necessary, optimized process work even faster? 

Let’s imagine that Leadership has a strategic initiative to improve data processing from T+2 to T+1.  The engineering team has optimized code to the best of their ability and all prior steps have been completed.  Now would be the proper time to consider a hardware upgrade if that will achieve the project goal.  Product Managers will be armed with the ammunition to make a compelling argument for the investment thanks to the methodical and data backed steps taken thus far.

Not all accelerant solutions will be this simple.  Thus, it is critical to have a project leader who encourages project members to think creatively.  How easily would it have been for a member of the SpaceX team to say that it would be impossible to catch a descending rocket with a pair of oversized chopsticks?  Instead, the company fostered an environment that encouraged the team to find answers to “How?”.  You can too.

Automate the Process

The final step in this efficiency algorithm is to identify where manual interventions are occurring, and seek to automate them wherever possible.  Those responsible for a particular task will naturally be reluctant to agree that a task can be performed without them. 

However, many project teams have more work than they can handle and manage a never ending backlog.  Rather than always assuming that automation results in termination, teams should be encouraged to identify areas of potential automation as their skills can be applied to more productive tasks.

If your team is concerned with the wasted effort of having to add back more than 10% of deleted processes, ask them how much more inefficient it would be to automate, speed up and optimize a process before ultimately deciding to delete it.  Are you interested in learning how to effectively apply these principals to your organization?  Schedule a complimentary consultation with one of our experienced business advisors today!