Elon Musk's Order of Operations

Introduction

When I think about efficiency, I don’t just see it as a business concept. I see it as a principle that drives progress, clarity, and purpose. Few people embody that principle in business quite like Elon Musk. He is known for his work ethic, his urgency, and his willingness to question everything. Beneath all the headlines and hype, there’s a specific framework he uses to make processes efficient, what I call his order of operations.

These aren’t just management tips. They’re rules for how to think. He once said, "The most common error of a smart engineer is to optimize a thing that should not exist." I  walk through his five-step order of operations, the same system he uses across SpaceX, Tesla, and every other company he has built. Each step reveals something deeper about how efficiency works and why it matters.

Step 1: Question Every Requirement

His first rule is simple: "Question every requirement. Each should come with the name of the person who made it. You should never accept that a requirement came from ‘they’ or ‘the department.’" This is the starting point of efficiency: questioning everything that has been accepted as “the way it’s done.”

In most companies, processes pile up over time. Someone creates a rule, a form, or an approval step, and no one questions it again. He refuses to accept that. He believes every rule, every design, and every line of code needs to earn its place. When you stop questioning, you start decaying. Progress ends when assumption begins.

Questioning doesn’t mean being difficult; it means caring about truth. It means stripping things down until only what’s necessary remains. In business, that means asking: Who decided this? Why is it required? What problem does it solve? And if it didn’t exist, would it truly matter?

His companies operate with urgency, but that urgency is only productive because it’s directed toward what is essential. Without questioning, urgency becomes chaos. With questioning, it becomes precision.

Step 2: Delete Any Part or Process You Can

Once everything has been questioned, the next step is to delete anything you can. He once wrote, "If you don’t end up adding back at least 10% of what you deleted, you didn’t delete enough." That might sound extreme, but it is what keeps his organizations lean. Deleting is an act of courage. It means removing safety nets, cutting traditions, and simplifying systems that once seemed critical.

Most people fear deleting because it feels like losing progress. But in reality, deleting is often the only way to create progress. Every unnecessary process carries a cost in time, focus, and energy. When you remove what doesn’t matter, you give attention back to what does.

He doesn’t see change as loss; he sees it as refinement. Efficiency isn’t about doing more with less; it’s about doing only what truly matters. In any business, this mindset is powerful. Whether it’s a production line, a meeting structure, or a design process, deletion forces clarity. It tests what is truly essential to the mission.

Step 3: Simplify and Optimize

The third step is to simplify and optimize. This is where many people start, but he makes it the third step for a reason. He says, "Don’t optimize something that shouldn’t exist." Most engineers, managers, and even leaders jump to optimization first. They polish broken systems instead of removing them. But if you optimize too early, you are just making inefficiency faster.

Once you’ve questioned and deleted, then you simplify. Simplifying means removing friction. It’s the art of clarity: making things easier to understand, easier to build, and easier to communicate. He often emphasizes that complexity is the enemy of speed.

This step is the balance point in his order of operations, the shift from destruction to construction. The first two steps are about elimination. This one is about rebuilding what remains, but in its purest form. Efficiency is intelligence applied to simplicity. It’s not about how smart the system looks; it’s about how effortlessly it works.

Step 4: Accelerate Cycle Time

Once the system is lean and simple, then and only then do you speed it up. His fourth step is to accelerate cycle time. That means shortening how long it takes to go from idea to execution, from prototype to product. But he warns, "If you’re digging your grave, don’t dig faster."

Acceleration without the earlier steps is dangerous. If you move fast without clarity, you multiply waste. But once the foundation is clean, acceleration becomes a multiplier of progress.

This is where urgency matters. He pushes his teams hard, not because speed alone is the goal, but because it exposes weakness. If a system breaks when it’s sped up, it wasn’t designed well enough. Acceleration is the test of truth. When you speed something up, its flaws reveal themselves. And if it still holds together, you know you’ve built something real.

In business, moving quickly forces learning. It keeps energy high, ideas alive, and teams accountable. His order ensures that speed never replaces reason; it follows reason.

Step 5: Automate

Finally, he says, "Only automate after you’ve done all the other steps." Automation is the last step, not the first. This is one of the most misunderstood parts of modern business. People love to automate because it feels like progress: machines doing the work, software handling the process. But he also said, "Excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. Humans are underrated."

Automation amplifies whatever system you give it. If the system is broken, automation just makes the mistakes faster and more expensive. His approach flips the usual mindset. He doesn’t see automation as innovation; he sees it as confirmation. It’s what you do when the process is already perfect.

True efficiency doesn’t come from technology; it comes from understanding. Automation is the final expression of that understanding.

Philosophy Behind the Five Steps

These five steps; question, delete, simplify, accelerate, and automate, form a loop of constant improvement. They aren’t one-time rules. They’re a discipline of thinking. He applies them to engineering, but they work for almost anything: design, management, even personal productivity.

His companies are famous for their urgency and intensity, but underneath that is a structure, a mental process that demands truth from every decision. It’s not just about moving fast. It’s about moving correctly.

Closing Reflection

In business and in life, it’s easy to get lost in optimization. We tweak, refine, and polish, but sometimes the most efficient thing we can do is start from zero. His order of operations forces you to do that. It reminds us that progress starts not with addition, but with subtraction.

When you question everything, delete what doesn’t matter, and rebuild with purpose, acceleration and automation stop being goals and start being outcomes. True efficiency isn’t about doing more, but about doing what’s right, faster and with meaning. His order of operations isn’t just about engineering rockets or cars; it’s about engineering thought.

Efficiency isn’t just a business principle. It’s a moral one. It’s how you respect time, energy, and truth in everything you build.

"If you don’t question requirements, you’re doomed to follow rules that make no sense." - Elon Musk

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