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Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder

The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder

By Robert I Sutton, Robert I Sutton, and Huggy Rao

"Every organization is plagued by destructive friction: the forces that make it harder, more complicated, or downright impossible to get anything done. Yet some forms of friction are incredibly useful, and leaders who attempt to improve workplace efficiency often make things even worse. Drawing from seven years of hands-on research,.

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Book Information

Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publish Date: 01/30/2024
Pages: 304
ISBN-13: 9781250284419
ISBN-10: 1250284414
Language: English

What We're Saying

December 12, 2024

The 40 books on this year's list of best business books provide a bastion against the tide of overwhelm that we all feel, grounding us with clear-eyed practical and practiced ways to do the work that will effectively bring positive change to our own personal and professional spaces and places. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

January 31, 2024

The Wisdom of Slowing Down

By Robert I Sutton, Huggy Rao

Leaders often prioritize eliminating friction, but it's essential to slow down when necessary, according to Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

January 30, 2024

January 30, 2024

By Porchlight

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Full Description

The definitive guide to eliminating the forces that make it harder, more complicated, or downright impossible to get things done in organizations. Find out why Adam Grant says "If every leader took the ideas in this book seriously, the world would be a less miserable, more productive place."

Every organization is plagued by destructive friction. Yet some forms of friction are incredibly useful, and leaders who attempt to improve workplace efficiency often make things even worse. Drawing from seven years of hands-on research, The Friction Project by bestselling authors Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao teaches readers how to become "friction fixers." Sutton and Rao kick off the book by unpacking how skilled friction fixers think and act like trustees of others' time. They provide friction forensics to help readers identify where to avert and repair bad organizational friction and where to maintain and inject good friction. Then their help pyramid shows how friction fixers do their work, from reframing friction troubles they can't fix right now, so they feel less threatening, to designing and repairing organizations. The heart of the book digs into the causes and solutions for five of the most common and damaging friction troubles: oblivious leaders, addition sickness, broken connections, jargon monoxide, and fast and frenzied people and teams. Sound familiar? Sutton and Rao are here to help. They wrap things up with lessons for leading your own friction project, including linking little things to big things; the power of civility, caring, and love for propelling designs and repairs; and embracing the mess that is an inevitable part of the process (while still trying to clean it up).

About the Authors

Robert I. Sutton is an organizational psychologist and professor of Management Science and Engineering in the Stanford Engineering School. He has given keynote speeches to more than 200 groups in 20 countries, and served on numerous scholarly editorial boards. Sutton's work has been featured in the New York Times, BusinessWeek, The Atlantic, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, and Washington Post.

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Robert I. Sutton is an organizational psychologist and professor of Management Science and Engineering in the Stanford Engineering School. He has given keynote speeches to more than 200 groups in 20 countries, and served on numerous scholarly editorial boards. Sutton's work has been featured in the New York Times, BusinessWeek, The Atlantic, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, and Washington Post.

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Huggy Rao is the Atholl McBean professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Science, the Sociological Research Association, and the Academy of Management.

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