Talks at Google

Ep440 - Bob Sutton & Huggy Rao | The Friction Project


Listen Later

Professors Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao visit Google to discuss their book "The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder." This book is a useful guide to eliminating the forces that make it harder, more complicated, or downright impossible to get things done in organizations.

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, Sutton and Rao teach readers how to become "friction fixers."

Sutton and Rao unpack how skilled friction fixers think and act like trustees of each 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. 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 & 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.

Visit http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ to watch the video.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Talks at GoogleBy Talks at Google

  • 4.1
  • 4.1
  • 4.1
  • 4.1
  • 4.1

4.1

123 ratings


More shows like Talks at Google

View all
The Tim Ferriss Show by Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig

The Tim Ferriss Show

16,178 Listeners

TED Talks Daily by TED

TED Talks Daily

11,186 Listeners

The McKinsey Podcast by McKinsey & Company

The McKinsey Podcast

400 Listeners

The Knowledge Project by Shane Parrish

The Knowledge Project

2,697 Listeners

Science Quickly by Scientific American

Science Quickly

1,391 Listeners

HBR IdeaCast by Harvard Business Review

HBR IdeaCast

181 Listeners

TED Tech by TED Tech

TED Tech

395 Listeners

Cold Call by HBR Presents / Brian Kenny

Cold Call

194 Listeners

Masters of Scale by WaitWhat

Masters of Scale

3,986 Listeners

Google DeepMind: The Podcast by Hannah Fry

Google DeepMind: The Podcast

198 Listeners

The Next Big Idea by Next Big Idea Club

The Next Big Idea

1,277 Listeners

Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques by Matt Abrahams, Think Fast Talk Smart

Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

836 Listeners

No Stupid Questions by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

No Stupid Questions

3,637 Listeners

Coaching Real Leaders by Harvard Business Review / Muriel Wilkins

Coaching Real Leaders

668 Listeners

HBR On Leadership by Harvard Business Review

HBR On Leadership

176 Listeners