6 ms·

Elon's recent email[0] to employees in response to higher injury claims in the Fremont factory is probably relevant [0]: > “No words can express how much I car

Elon's recent email[0] to employees in response to higher injury claims in the Fremont factory is probably relevant [0]: > “No words can express how much I care about your safety and wellbeing. It breaks my heart when someone is injured building cars and trying their best to make Tesla successful. Going forward, I’ve asked that every injury be reported directly to me, without exception. I’m meeting with the safety team every week and would like to meet every injured person as soon as they are well, so that I can understand from them exactly what we need to do to make it better. I will then go down to the production line and perform the same task that they perform. This is what all managers at Tesla should do as a matter of course. At Tesla, we lead from the front line, not from some safe and comfortable ivory tower. Managers must always put their team’s safety above their own.”

gist 9y ago
> and would like to meet every injured person as soon as they are well It's 'caring theater'. He thinks he is the President meeting with people getting the purple heart for service. Such utter bullshit. [1] [2] [1] The fact that he says he wants to be personally involved in the process is what puts it over the edge. I mean he is running how many companies? [2] And to front run any legal or PR issues. Create an emotional block for the harmed to take things a step further. "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer".
- manmal 9y ago
  I'm quite sure he is doing internal PR, keeping up the team morale. It's not so much about caring (aka patronizing), but more about giving workers the feeling that they are all rolling up their sleeves together. IMO it's the only strategy that keeps teams together in times of high stress. People become very sensitive to "boss issues" if the work or workload sucks. To prevent burnout, workers have to feel that they are cared for, and their work appreciated. I'm sure you were in such a high stress situation yourself before - if team spirit stays intact, you feel strong and maybe even euphoric. As soon as things go downhill, you will soon think of bailing out.
  - emodendroket 9y ago
    One way of making workers feel unappreciated is to run your factory in such a way that more of them are injured than in similar facilities run by your competitors.
  - gist 9y ago
    > but more about giving workers the feeling that they are all rolling up their sleeves together Sure and maybe to show his appreciation he will invite all of them to use some of the great things that he gains or has that they don't (material or otherwise) for the herculean effort. They aren't all created equal and his equal we all know that. Would think especially the factory workers on the floor. And I am a owner and not a worker. So this isn't about the downtrodden or me feeling abused in a similar situation. Hasn't happened. It's about being realistic and quite frankly in all honesty jealousy of someone that can flip such stuff which I was never able to do even if it would benefit me. Couldn't be that dishonest. Not saying that it isn't an effective technique (your point). It is.
  - maxerickson 9y ago
    Yes of course it is PR. The thing people are wondering about is whether it is disingenuous bullshit PR.
- gordon_freeman 9y ago
  Please look past the reasons you have described. What Elon is saying is that he will personally meet the injured workers and hear from them what happened with the process and why the injury happened. Then he'd go back to the process by performing it himself and find the root cause. He will then make sure that these processes are improved so no such incidents happen again. I read similar stuff in The Toyota Way book where workers kept complaining to the management about poor manufacturing processes leading to the injury and poor quality incidents and then the management made sure these processes are constantly improved (Kaizen).
  - gist 9y ago
    > Then he'd go back to the process by performing it himself and find the root cause. Right. That is what I am calling out. The fact that he will do this is ludicrous and certainly not anywhere near the best use of his time. We are not talking about a small mom and pop or lean startup with limited resources. > and then the management made sure these processes The CEO of Toyota? Almost certainly not. Undercover boss type things or spending a few hours in a call center or store or anywhere to get a seat of the pants feel for things? Sure.
    - hwillis 9y ago
      In both Tesla and SpaceX it's part of the culture that safety worries are elevated to very high levels very quickly. There was one guy (vet, nontechnical something or other) in SpaceX who was fired for abusing this, but what struck me most about the story was how he was in repeated contact with the technical person directly under Musk before he went directly to Musk himself. It seemed like that had all been fine, and he was only fired after refusing to let it go with Musk (plus IIRC he was basically out of his depth with the issue). Musk is ultraproductive and works very closely with his employees. Tesla only has two factories; it's on a much more manageable scale than something like Toyota.
- rustynails 9y ago
  And what would you have him do? Let's assume for a moment, he's telling the truth. He's tried to improve assembly process. He's asked to personally be in the loop. He's said he'll do the task himself to make an assessment. Alternatively, if he lies, that's another matter. He has made a commitment and he can be measured against that. Don't get me wrong. Nobody is so naive to believe everybody's perfect. However, I'll give Musk the benefit of the doubt and watch closely. We need to move back to a philosophy of objective fact, unambiguous statement of intent, being measured against that intent. If you have value to add, please do. However, throwing Machiavellian observations into the ring is unlikely to provide value unless something was missing from the article or you can tie it to an objective fact.
manmal 9y ago
He is definitely trying to instill leadership by showing that he is "one of them": http://blog.startwithwhy.com/refocus/2015/07/management-vs-leadership.html http://blog.startwithwhy.com/refocus/2015/07/management-vs-l...
spenrose 9y ago
"relevant"? Sure, it's relevant, but let's dig in a bit. The article presents on the record statements that assert Musk's statement does not reflect Tesla managerial practices and priorities in the factory. So, some possibilities: 1) The article is BS and Musk's statement reflects the real state of Tesla manufacturing-labor principles. 2) Musk's statement and the article are both accurate and work habits will change, which means Tesla will voluntarily reduce output. No worries, they have lots of capital and can afford to slow the rollout. 3) Musk's statement and the article are both accurate but Musk is being undermined by mid-level managers he can't control. Poor hapless ineffectual Elon. 4) Musk's statement is deceptive PR. He is in control and forced to choose between hitting ship targets (widely reported as crucial to Tesla's survival) and reducing worker injuries, he is choosing the former.
- emodendroket 9y ago
  Real head scratcher.
- ori_b 9y ago
  4) Musk didn't realize how bad things were, had an "Oh shit" moment, and decided to fix it.
  - spenrose 9y ago
    I meant for 2) to cover that, but your phrasing is helpful.
pmoriarty 9y ago
Is any independent party actually going to hold Musk to account on this, to make sure he and his managers do and continue doing what he says? Or is this just going to be a news blip that's forgotten as Tesla's stock surges and Musk makes other sensational news? Are there any consequences for failure here?
- snovv_crash 9y ago
  I know there was a similar safety push at Anglo Gold mines in South Africa. The biggest policy change was that a board member or C-level officer had to be the one to inform family, in person, of any employee deaths. Suddenly safety was a number one priority, and employee deaths dropped by an order of magnitude. As for Musk? Well, considering that he's spent time in the past sleeping at the assembly lines to make sure stuff is going well, I don't see him reneging on this.
peterwwillis 9y ago
"Going forward, I’ve asked that every injury be reported directly to me, without exception" Does no one else see how this is an intimidation tactic?
- gpm 9y ago
  No... Are you claiming that meeting Elon would be intimidating and the 'threat' of that would prevent people from reporting injuries at all? For anything even remotely serious that seems unlikely to have an impact, if you're injured enough to need medical care I don't think that "management will find out" is going to dissuade you from making whatever reports you need to get medical care. Or do you mean he is intimidating the managers into taking injuries seriously? In that case, yes, I guess you could call it that. But I definitely support that sort of intimidation.
- 1123581321 9y ago
  It's the opposite of an intimidation tactic. If there are managers who hide accidents, line employees know they can go straight to Musk and a) get the safety issue dealt with, b) get the bad manager fired. A CEO of Alcoa famously required any injury to be on his desk within 24 hours and some high level executives were fired for not taking it seriously when the information emerged through indirect channels. The ultimate result was dramatically improved safety for ~10,000 employees. Elon Musk is certainly taking a page from Alcoa's playbook here.
  - peterwwillis 9y ago
    That's correlation, not causation. Reporting an injury to a CEO does not reduce injuries, it just keeps the CEO informed. In Alcoa's case, the safety record improved because the CEO made safety the number one priority over even profits, and this led to a culture shift that examined small inefficiencies and led to improved quality as well as improved safety practices. Reducing harm requires actually implementing a harm reduction strategy. Informing the CEO of every single injury can tell them when the plan isn't working [as they receive each report], but it also fails to tell them it is working, because they don't necessarily know why they aren't hearing reports. You don't need to personally receive these reports as a CEO. This is just Musk being a control freak. Usually, CEOs implement policies like "inform me immediately every time X happens" because they don't want to get caught off guard when something bad happens. I dealt with a similar thing at a previous job, and it definitely instilled fear in a lot of people, but it never addressed the cause of the concern. Churning on injuries to reduce specific causes of specific injuries is not a culture shift, it's reactionary.
j45 9y ago
Doing the task himself on the production line is a key differentiator that separates the rhetoric to being able to have realizations that people on the floor already have had. Managers may know how to manage, but the best people who know how to do the technical job, and how to do it best are always the folks on the production line.

gist 9y ago

> and would like to meet every injured person as soon as they are well It's 'caring theater'. He thinks he is the President meeting with people getting the purple heart for service. Such utter bullshit. [1] [2] [1] The fact that he says he wants to be personally involved in the process is what puts it over the edge. I mean he is running how many companies? [2] And to front run any legal or PR issues. Create an emotional block for the harmed to take things a step further. "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer".

manmal 9y ago
I'm quite sure he is doing internal PR, keeping up the team morale. It's not so much about caring (aka patronizing), but more about giving workers the feeling that they are all rolling up their sleeves together. IMO it's the only strategy that keeps teams together in times of high stress. People become very sensitive to "boss issues" if the work or workload sucks. To prevent burnout, workers have to feel that they are cared for, and their work appreciated. I'm sure you were in such a high stress situation yourself before - if team spirit stays intact, you feel strong and maybe even euphoric. As soon as things go downhill, you will soon think of bailing out.
- emodendroket 9y ago
  One way of making workers feel unappreciated is to run your factory in such a way that more of them are injured than in similar facilities run by your competitors.
- gist 9y ago
  > but more about giving workers the feeling that they are all rolling up their sleeves together Sure and maybe to show his appreciation he will invite all of them to use some of the great things that he gains or has that they don't (material or otherwise) for the herculean effort. They aren't all created equal and his equal we all know that. Would think especially the factory workers on the floor. And I am a owner and not a worker. So this isn't about the downtrodden or me feeling abused in a similar situation. Hasn't happened. It's about being realistic and quite frankly in all honesty jealousy of someone that can flip such stuff which I was never able to do even if it would benefit me. Couldn't be that dishonest. Not saying that it isn't an effective technique (your point). It is.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  Yes of course it is PR. The thing people are wondering about is whether it is disingenuous bullshit PR.
gordon_freeman 9y ago
Please look past the reasons you have described. What Elon is saying is that he will personally meet the injured workers and hear from them what happened with the process and why the injury happened. Then he'd go back to the process by performing it himself and find the root cause. He will then make sure that these processes are improved so no such incidents happen again. I read similar stuff in The Toyota Way book where workers kept complaining to the management about poor manufacturing processes leading to the injury and poor quality incidents and then the management made sure these processes are constantly improved (Kaizen).
- gist 9y ago
  > Then he'd go back to the process by performing it himself and find the root cause. Right. That is what I am calling out. The fact that he will do this is ludicrous and certainly not anywhere near the best use of his time. We are not talking about a small mom and pop or lean startup with limited resources. > and then the management made sure these processes The CEO of Toyota? Almost certainly not. Undercover boss type things or spending a few hours in a call center or store or anywhere to get a seat of the pants feel for things? Sure.
  - hwillis 9y ago
    In both Tesla and SpaceX it's part of the culture that safety worries are elevated to very high levels very quickly. There was one guy (vet, nontechnical something or other) in SpaceX who was fired for abusing this, but what struck me most about the story was how he was in repeated contact with the technical person directly under Musk before he went directly to Musk himself. It seemed like that had all been fine, and he was only fired after refusing to let it go with Musk (plus IIRC he was basically out of his depth with the issue). Musk is ultraproductive and works very closely with his employees. Tesla only has two factories; it's on a much more manageable scale than something like Toyota.
rustynails 9y ago
And what would you have him do? Let's assume for a moment, he's telling the truth. He's tried to improve assembly process. He's asked to personally be in the loop. He's said he'll do the task himself to make an assessment. Alternatively, if he lies, that's another matter. He has made a commitment and he can be measured against that. Don't get me wrong. Nobody is so naive to believe everybody's perfect. However, I'll give Musk the benefit of the doubt and watch closely. We need to move back to a philosophy of objective fact, unambiguous statement of intent, being measured against that intent. If you have value to add, please do. However, throwing Machiavellian observations into the ring is unlikely to provide value unless something was missing from the article or you can tie it to an objective fact.

manmal 9y ago

He is definitely trying to instill leadership by showing that he is "one of them": http://blog.startwithwhy.com/refocus/2015/07/management-vs-leadership.html http://blog.startwithwhy.com/refocus/2015/07/management-vs-l...

spenrose 9y ago

"relevant"? Sure, it's relevant, but let's dig in a bit. The article presents on the record statements that assert Musk's statement does not reflect Tesla managerial practices and priorities in the factory. So, some possibilities: 1) The article is BS and Musk's statement reflects the real state of Tesla manufacturing-labor principles. 2) Musk's statement and the article are both accurate and work habits will change, which means Tesla will voluntarily reduce output. No worries, they have lots of capital and can afford to slow the rollout. 3) Musk's statement and the article are both accurate but Musk is being undermined by mid-level managers he can't control. Poor hapless ineffectual Elon. 4) Musk's statement is deceptive PR. He is in control and forced to choose between hitting ship targets (widely reported as crucial to Tesla's survival) and reducing worker injuries, he is choosing the former.

emodendroket 9y ago
Real head scratcher.
ori_b 9y ago
4) Musk didn't realize how bad things were, had an "Oh shit" moment, and decided to fix it.
- spenrose 9y ago
  I meant for 2) to cover that, but your phrasing is helpful.

pmoriarty 9y ago

Is any independent party actually going to hold Musk to account on this, to make sure he and his managers do and continue doing what he says? Or is this just going to be a news blip that's forgotten as Tesla's stock surges and Musk makes other sensational news? Are there any consequences for failure here?

snovv_crash 9y ago
I know there was a similar safety push at Anglo Gold mines in South Africa. The biggest policy change was that a board member or C-level officer had to be the one to inform family, in person, of any employee deaths. Suddenly safety was a number one priority, and employee deaths dropped by an order of magnitude. As for Musk? Well, considering that he's spent time in the past sleeping at the assembly lines to make sure stuff is going well, I don't see him reneging on this.

peterwwillis 9y ago

"Going forward, I’ve asked that every injury be reported directly to me, without exception" Does no one else see how this is an intimidation tactic?

gpm 9y ago
No... Are you claiming that meeting Elon would be intimidating and the 'threat' of that would prevent people from reporting injuries at all? For anything even remotely serious that seems unlikely to have an impact, if you're injured enough to need medical care I don't think that "management will find out" is going to dissuade you from making whatever reports you need to get medical care. Or do you mean he is intimidating the managers into taking injuries seriously? In that case, yes, I guess you could call it that. But I definitely support that sort of intimidation.
1123581321 9y ago
It's the opposite of an intimidation tactic. If there are managers who hide accidents, line employees know they can go straight to Musk and a) get the safety issue dealt with, b) get the bad manager fired. A CEO of Alcoa famously required any injury to be on his desk within 24 hours and some high level executives were fired for not taking it seriously when the information emerged through indirect channels. The ultimate result was dramatically improved safety for ~10,000 employees. Elon Musk is certainly taking a page from Alcoa's playbook here.
- peterwwillis 9y ago
  That's correlation, not causation. Reporting an injury to a CEO does not reduce injuries, it just keeps the CEO informed. In Alcoa's case, the safety record improved because the CEO made safety the number one priority over even profits, and this led to a culture shift that examined small inefficiencies and led to improved quality as well as improved safety practices. Reducing harm requires actually implementing a harm reduction strategy. Informing the CEO of every single injury can tell them when the plan isn't working [as they receive each report], but it also fails to tell them it is working, because they don't necessarily know why they aren't hearing reports. You don't need to personally receive these reports as a CEO. This is just Musk being a control freak. Usually, CEOs implement policies like "inform me immediately every time X happens" because they don't want to get caught off guard when something bad happens. I dealt with a similar thing at a previous job, and it definitely instilled fear in a lot of people, but it never addressed the cause of the concern. Churning on injuries to reduce specific causes of specific injuries is not a culture shift, it's reactionary.

j45 9y ago

Doing the task himself on the production line is a key differentiator that separates the rhetoric to being able to have realizations that people on the floor already have had. Managers may know how to manage, but the best people who know how to do the technical job, and how to do it best are always the folks on the production line.