The Friction Project

Author Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao
Narrator Sean Patrick Hopkins
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Publish Date 1 January 1970
Run Time 8 hours and 44 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Business and Management, Business strategy, Management and management techniques, Working patterns and practices.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

No organization is totally free from destructive friction; the forces that make it harder, more
complicated and sometimes downright impossible to get things done. Drawing on years of research and featuring case studies on the likes of Uber, Netflix and Boeing, The Friction Project teaches readers how to become 'friction fixers'.
Stanford professors Sutton and Rao unpack how we should think and act like trustees of others' time. They provide friction forensics to help readers identify where to avert and repair bad friction, and where to maintain and inject good friction. Their help pyramid shows how friction fixers do their work, which ranges from reframing issues they can't fix in the short term, to ultimately redesigning and repairing organizations.
The Friction Project is the essential guide to understanding and resolving workplace difficulties, and establishing a thriving culture of positivity and productivity in their place.

'Hard to put down and easy to like' - Tim Harford, author of The Data Detective and host of Cautionary Tales

©2024 Huggy Rao & Robert I. Sutton (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

Sutton and Rao take us on a delightful tour of bad emails, infuriating subscriptions and labyrinthine hiring processes – and they show us how to fix it all. Hard to put down and easy to like, this is a business book to savour.

Tim Harford, author of The Data Detective

This is the ultimate guide to diagnosing and fixing the problems in your organization. If every leader took the ideas in this book seriously, the world would be a less miserable, more productive place.

Adam Grant

Sutton and Rao show how leaders who pay attention to friction – which kinds are helpful and which are not – can equip these people with the right tools, build their trust, and make incredible progress as a result.

Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, former President of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, and author of Creativity Inc

Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao have spent the last decade studying the causes and remedies for friction troubles at a wide range of companies. They’ve distilled their lessons to help you and your team make the right things easier and the wrong things harder in your company. Every executive, investor, board member, and leader should buy The Friction Project.

Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn and Partner at Greylock Partners

Sutton and Rao have given us a thousand gems, each an invaluable insight on its own … I guarantee that their profoundly humane arguments will win your hearts, change your behavior, and transform your companies.

Amy C. Edmondson, Professor, Harvard Business School, Author of Right kind of wrong: The science of failing well

The idea of leaders as friction fixers is dynamite … Sutton’s and Rao’s insights in The Friction Project offer leaders at all levels important tools and real-world examples to recognize the role that both kinds of friction can play in their organization’s success.

Shantanu Narayan, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Adobe

If you dream of freeing your people and organization to focus their time on what really matters, The Friction Project is the book for you. More than ever today we need more nimble, innovative, customer centric, and human organizations. Eliminating needless friction is at the heart of that quest, as Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao show in their wonderful new book.

Herminia Ibarra, The Charles Handy Professor of Organisational Behaviour, London Business School and author of Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, and Working Identity

A great and provocative read. As a business leader I never thought of leaders as ‘friction fixers.’ The Friction Project identifies when friction is and is not desirable. It’s packed with real-world examples from varied organizations, their frictions, and above all, how the people who make repairs practice their craft.

Carlos Brito, CEO of Belron and former CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev

As I read this groundbreaking book, I imagined a future where every leader eliminates bad friction and harnesses good friction to build better organizations. Every manager MUST read The Friction Project to learn how, by leading through a friction lens, and using the practical solutions Sutton and Rao provide, they can create productive, innovative, and caring workplaces.

Tsedal Neeley, Harvard Business School; author of Remote Work Revolution and co-author of The Digital Mindset

Subtract friction and an organization will move faster, become more innovative and drive productivity gains. The Friction Project is a ‘how-to’ guide in a period of workforce transformation across sectors.

Donna Morris, Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer, Walmart Inc.

An entertaining and eminently practical guide by two Stanford professors about how to simplify, streamline and subtract the bad stuff that clogs up work and stifles productivity.

Financial Times

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