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The Friction Project by Robert I. Sutton & Huggy Rao
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The Friction Project

How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder
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Narrator Sean Patrick Hopkins

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Length 8 hours 44 minutes
Language English
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Summary

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


ยฉ2024 Huggy Rao & Robert I. Sutton (P)2024 Penguin Audio

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Reviews

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Expand reviews
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