Driving Performance through focused Motivation.
When asked what makes a high performing team I would say "empowering individuals to take ownership of their performance and responsibility for their self-development." However, to achieve this, organisations have to be structured in a way that individuals can take on this ownership and responsibility. It was therefore interesting to listen to Joe Justice, who operated agile at Tesla explain the organisational structure at Elon Musk's most successful endeavour.
Before I go any further, I want to state that I am using the current information I have available on Telsa to explore this topic. I have been wrong, in the past, about the publicised structure and ethos of an organisation being in conflict with reality, namely at Google and Netflix. Therefore, this is what I currently understand at Tesla.
As reported in an article by Dana Hull & Demetrios Pogkas in Bloomberg "Musk has long expressed contempt for rigid reporting lines. The company he has shaped in his image continues to prioritize nimbleness and flexibility over a clear chain of command, even as its workforce ballooned in recent years." According to Joe Justice, Tesla tries to operate as a flat line structure with its focus on individual ownership of the role and the ability to succeed within it.
The primary need for hierarchy within an organisation comes from individuals inability to self organise and self manage. The first-ever organisational chart dates back to 1855 when building rail tracks in the US. Due to the introduction of the telegram in 1844 the increased speed of Information became problematic when it was not being managed efficiently. The chart solved this by having daily responsibilities for managers, who, in turn, had to provide reports on their operations. The irony here is the organisational chart was created to slow the pace of information, where now its purpose is to speed up an organisations pace.
Elon's contempt for rigid organisational structures has resulted in him removing managerial layers at Tesla and replacing them, where possible, with AI. They have gone some ways to achieve this by creating an app for every area of the business, 25 in total. This allows for continuous, in real-time, feedback.
Unfortunately, the majority of organisations, the mere mortals, can't replace the human form of managers with AI, nor would they want to. A Manager's predominant role is to give constructive feedback on productivity and value add to the organisation. To maximise individual input and company growth you need to ensure a fast feedback loop so your team knows as near to instantaneously the value of their current input.
Elon Musk is not wrong about organisational layers slowing down the pace of progress. Alongside that, not all managers are created equal. My own father who was once the boss of BAE Systems in Prestwick, where he oversaw 3000 individuals in the building of aircraft, had a general rule "show me a bad employee and I will show you a bad manager" Of course, there are exceptions to the rule but most people don't get up in the morning wanting to do a bad job.
The reality is if a specific manager is not objective or invested in his team, it can cause issues of bottlenecking within the department or suppression of talent due to insecure ego. What has to be a non-negotiable in all managers is what's more important; "for it to be right or for them to be right?".
The key requirement in management is ensuring their most dominant skill is managing people. Although some would argue that another key skill is their ability, at a high level, to do the job they are managing. I don't believe this is a requirement but more a desirable. Take Alex Ferguson, for example, arguably the greatest football manager of all times, yet very average player.
We all know the hardest part of any organisation is people management. Therefore, anyone whose job it is needs to have an innate drive and motivation for it. Essentially it should be the most enjoyable and rewarding part of their job. Lastly, ensuring a large part of their role is focused on managing people and not filled with other distracting and time-consuming responsibilities.
To understand an employee's motivation is to focus on 3 key areas; Drivers (what make them want to do the job) Barriers (what stops them) and Hooks (what helps them be continuously productive)
What's most important to understand is what drives them. Always remember it's not a one size fits all approach. When I worked in Welfare to Work and we would meet clients for the first time, our job was to re-engage them by understanding their 'driver. What I found is 1) everyone is motivated by something 2) those motivations are individual. If you are able to tap into their motivation, the individual, more often than not, will move forward quite independently.
The responsibility for recognising the barriers lies mainly with the organisation. You need to set individuals up for success. Primarily, they need to have the necessary resource and processes, as well as clear communication channels to effectively do their job.
Lastly, hooks are derived from rewards, development and incentives; feedback (constructive criticism and positive reinforcement), succession planning, annual pay reviews, benefits, learn & development opportunities, wellbeing programmes, amongst other things. All of these will help individuals be continuously productive and motivated in their roles.
In applying the 'driver, barrier and hook' approach to your team, then regardless of your organisational structure or use of AI, you will move towards the desired outcome of achieving progress at pace.