Elon Musk's as an Example of Conflict Solution in Organisations

Elon Reeve Musk born in South Africa in 1971, was the son of Maye Haldeman Musk and Errol Musk. He spent his early childhood in South Africa, and at the age of 10, he developed an interest in computers. “He taught himself how to program, and when he was 12 he made his first software sale—of a game he created called Blastar”. At age 17, he moved to Canada to attend Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. “After two years he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he extended his studies to complete a double major in physics and economics”. “After leaving Penn, Elon Musk headed to Stanford University in California to pursue a PhD in energy physics”. “He left that program to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams in the worlds of the Internet, renewable energy, and outer space” (Blazek, 2016, para.5).

There are times when an organization will have to constantly cope with unfamiliar situations in order to survive and stay competitive. The ability of the leader to lead and manage change in an organization is very crucial. Due to the increased competition in the business world, problem solving, and decision making is very important to resolve the problems the team is facing and to achieve the desired objective. Consensus building, and negotiation is a process by which a decision is made between two or more parties without involving in an argument. Many a times situations arise in an organization which requires a mediator or the leader to resolve conflicts. The following paper demonstrates how Elon Musk has managed the above qualities of being a leader.

“Instigated by the actions of a charismatic, strategic, or transformational leader, people in an organization may become aware of the need for change. In other words, a leader may inspire people with a vision of a better future that is sufficiently attractive to convince them that the old ways of doing business are no longer adequate” (Lussier & Achua, 2012, p. 415). “Idealized influence, also known as charisma, is the degree to which the leader serves as a confident powerful role model, appealing to followers on an emotional level (Judge & Piccolo, 2004). Elon demonstrates his confidence in his ideas in the simplest way possible: by putting his money where his mouth is. In Silicon Valley-the world’s epicenter for start-ups and innovation-other businessmen who see success similar to Musk’s use their experience in creating successful startup to convince investors to fund their high-risk endeavors, Elon does not. Instead, he “walks the talk” by investing his own personal fortune into his projects in a do-or-die fashion. This provides a charismatic model of the appropriate behavior he expects to see from his followers” (Asher, 2016, para.). “What are the most significant problems humanity faces?” (Musk, 2015). “… the three that came to my mind were space exploration, the internet and clean energy” (Musk, 2015).

While most industries are still waking up to the realities of global warming and some are still ignoring it, Musk has been working to solve these growing problems for more than a decade. His goal to change the world and the course of humanity is inspiring. He sets high standards for the other industries, whether on earth or on space. His contribution in the field of aerospace, sustainable energy and humanity is revolutionary. “This phase is also known as cognitive restructuring because it is where the actual change takes place. The key at this stage is developing new attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviors based on new information. Here, people look for a leader with an inspiring vision” (Lussier & Achua, 2012, p. 415). “Inspirational motivation is the degree to which the leader articulates a vision that is appealing and inspiring to followers (Judge & Piccolo, 2004). In what was arguably the greatest display of leadership in the history of Silicon Valley, Musk rose to the occasion when his company SpaceX suffered a catastrophic loss during the third launch of its Falcon 1 rocket, resulting in both a failed mission and lost NASA payload.

Musk’s response was to walk over past over the press and address his company directly. In his speech he first drew attention to the flawless execution of the first (and most dangerous) stage of the rocket, then announced he had just secured funding for 2 additional launches, and then he went on to rally his beaten and demoralized team to focus on the work ahead aby promising to them, “… for my part I will never give up, and I mean never” (Musk, 2008). Here is the response of the company as described by Dolly Singh: “I think most of us would have followed him into the gates of hell carrying suntan oil after that. It was the most impressive display of leadership that I have ever witnessed. Within moments the energy of the building went from despair and defeat to a massive buzz on moving forward instead of looking back. This shift happened collectively, across all 300+ people in a matter of not more than 5 seconds” (Singh, 2014).

They immediately identified the probable cause of the accident, manufactured an entire new rocket in 6 weeks and launched the world’s very first privately built rocket to achieve Earth orbit just after 7 weeks after the crash. It was a 100% successful launch and landing. This authentic display of character won over his followers and solidified their faith in him as their leader; it was not Elon who built the second rocket in 5 weeks after all, it was his employees. This demonstration of leadership is just one of the many examples where Elon demonstrates his ability to articulate his vision and commitment in such a way that he leaves each and every one of his followers inspired to take on challenges after even they thought there were down for count” (Asher, 2016, para.)

Refreezing Phase

“For any change to become routine and accepted into the everyday practices of an organization, the change process must follow through to the final stage of refreezing the new change. A variety of strategies may be adopted to achieve this, including new rules, attitudes, traditions, regulations, and reward schemes to reinforce the new changes and maximize the desired behaviors of all organizational members.” (Lussier & Achua, 2012, p. 416)

“Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster” – Elon Musk

“Don’t be afraid of new arenas” – Elon Musk

There comes a time in the world every once in a while, where a person changes everything for the course of humanity. They are often identified as a visionary because they work for the future. One such visionary is Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, CEO of Tesla, Chairman of SolarCity & Co-chairman of OpenAI. Self-driving cars have become a reality. The autonomous car revolution has been led largely by Elon Musk and his company Tesla. While other companies were still testing their technology, Tesla cars had already got this ability which left people in a delightful shock. Of course, he didn’t do it alone and of course most of the work was probably done by engineers and software developers but a visionary like Musk is very much necessary at the helm to get things moving and moving fast. Today, Tesla self-driving cars have driven well over 200 million miles and have in some cases saved lives where a human behind the wheel might not have been able to. Musk also claims that he will deliver fully autonomous cars by the end of 2017. One day, driving will have been a thing of the past.

There is no denying the damage we have done to the environment through our unchecked use of fossil fuels. It has resulted in global warming, climate change and everyone’s worried about the polar ice caps melting. Elon Musk, as chairman of SolarCity, is helping to bring affordable solar power to the masses. Till now, solar power used to cost a lot but thanks to technological advancements in the field and mass production of solar systems, solar power is now cheaper than fossil fuels. SolarCity offers solar roof (in the photo above), Powerwall (to collect the solar power and help you live off the grid), and affordable solar panels, so that we can utilize the biggest energy source of the Earth i.e. the Sun.

Musk believes that humanity should build a second home as soon as possible. This is because we might never know when the next extinction phase is going to happen. He has chosen Mars as our next home and is spearheading an effort to colonize it and establish a self-sustaining human population on it within the 21st century. The first manned missions are planned in the 2020s. This goal in itself is beyond visionary. It’s simply something else.” (Rungta, 2016, para.) Musk has not only brought a revolutionary change in the various fields, but his attitude, beliefs and visionary make people believe in him and work together as a team in an organization to make it happen. Leaders can impact the performance of a team not only by their effective leadership, but also by influencing the underlying processes of a company. Elon perfectly fits the bill in the change management process.

Elon On Problem Management & Decision Making

There are various decision-making models as stated in the US Army War College, Strategic Leadership Primer such as Incremental, Polis, Garbage Can, Bargaining, Participative and Rational model. These models walk us through the process of problem solving. Elon Musk has his own approach towards tackling the problem and deciding a solution and his approach does not particularly fall into any of the above models.

“The inventor and engineer Elon Musk who started four billion-dollar companies uses six questions anytime he needs to come up with an idea, solve a problem, or decide whether to start a business. He uses the process as his own version of the scientific method” (Jackson, 2017, para.) It's 'the scientific method,' Musk said. 'It's really helpful for figuring out the tricky things.' He describes his process this way, according to Strauss:

1. 'Ask a question.'
2. 'Gather as much evidence as possible about it.”
3. 'Develop axioms based on the evidence, and try to assign a probability of truth to each one.'
4. 'Draw a conclusion based on cogency in order to determine: Are these axioms correct, are they relevant, do they necessarily lead to this conclusion, and with what probability?
5. 'Attempt to disprove the conclusion. Seek refutation from others to further help break your conclusion.'
6. 'If nobody can invalidate your conclusion, then you're probably right, but you're not certainly right.'

I think Elon’s decision making can be closely related to the rational model of decision making. He considers the rational approach which is often used when addressing complex matters in strategic planning. He defines/identifies the problem, examines the potential causes and carefully selects an alternative and implements them and finally monitors the execution of the plan.

Negotiation is a method by which people settle differences. It is a process by which compromise, or agreement is reached while avoiding argument. In any disagreement, individuals understandably aim to achieve the best possible outcome for their position (or perhaps an organization they represent). However, the principles of fairness, seeking mutual benefit and maintaining a relationship are the keys to a successful outcome. The point of negotiation is to try to reach agreements without causing future barriers to communications. (Consensus Building & Negotiation Slide Deck number 2) “Elon Musk’s deal for SolarCity has driven some of his shareholders into insane mode. Musk made a bold power play with his company Tesla Motors (TSLA, +1.60%), where he is CEO, offering to buy SolarCity (SCTY, +0.00%), where Musk is chairman. Musk isn’t the first CEO to merge two of his companies, but the move is unusual because of his unique relationship to Tesla and SolarCity: Musk is their largest shareholder, owning more than 20%, of each. On top of that, SolarCity’s CEO Lyndon Rive is also Musk’s first cousin.

Because of the blindingly obvious conflicts of interest (which don’t end there—more on that later), Musk went out of his way to head off accusations of self-dealing and nepotism. In the announcement of the deal, Musk recused himself from voting on the deal both as a board member and as a shareholder. A majority of Tesla and SolarCity’s non-Musk shareholders will have to vote in favor of the deal in order to approve it, Musk told analysts on Wednesday.” (Wieczner, 2016, para.). “We’ve tried to do this in a way that’s as fair as possible, and really going beyond what’s legally required to make it not just legally correct, but morally correct,” Musk said.

From the above incident we can see that Elon has considered the various rules of negotiation such as to separate the people from the problem, distinguish between interest and positions, and to pursue fairness. He viewed the problem that had to be resolved rather than to defeat his cousins who own SolarCity. I believe Elon has excelled in most of the stages involved in consensus building and negotiation. Elon is a transformational leader and his uncompromising standards for hard work, perseverance and innovation has revolutionized three of the biggest industries on this planet.

Conclusion

Change is inevitable in any organization in today’s world. Business these days are becoming highly competitive and volatile. It is necessary to have a leader who can help the organization to move forward in the right path. The leader should serve as a powerful role model appealing to followers. The leader should have a visionary which inspires the followers and should be able to lead and manage change. Problem solving, and decision making is very critical in any organization. It is a process of perceiving and resolving a gap between a present situation and the goal to be achieved. It is necessary to resolve the problem from its root cause. The terms problem solving, and decision making are similar and are used interchangeably. The steps taken in problem solving walks us through the process of decision making. Here the leader chooses one or more possible solution to achieve the desired objective. The process of resolving a conflict in an organization is a challenging task for the leader. We should get down to the root cause of the issue and discuss and negotiate towards a win-win outcome so that none of the parties involved in the conflict feel biased towards the decision.