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Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best... and Learn from the Worst -
The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't -
Weird Ideas That Work: How to Build a Creative Company -
Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management -
The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action
Stanford University
Robert I. Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering in the Stanford Engineering School, where he is Co-Director of the Center for Work, Technology, and Organization, an active researcher and cofounder in the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, an IDEO Fellow and an Honorary PeopleSoft Fellow. Sutton is also a member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Teaching and Learning, a multi-year project that brings together researchers and administrators to understand why there is a lack of evidence-based practices in education and to develop effective strategies for connecting research and practice.
Sutton received his Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from The University of Michigan and has served on the Stanford faculty since 1983. He has also taught at the Haas Business School and was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences during the 1986-87, 1994-95, and 2002-03 academic years. He has served on the editorial boards of numerous scholarly publications, and as an editor for the Administrative Science Quarterly and Research in Organizational Behavior. Sutton's honors include the award for the best paper published in the Academy of Management Journal, induction into the Academy of Management Journals Hall of Fame, the Eugene L. Grant Award for Excellence in Teaching, the McGraw-Hill Innovation in Entrepreneurship Pedagogy Award, the McCullough Faculty Scholar Chair from Stanford, and selection by Business 2.0 as a leading "management guru" in 2002.
Sutton studies the links between managerial knowledge and organizational action, innovation, and organizational performance. He as published over 90 articles and chapters in scholarly and applied publications.
Related Links: www.stanford.edu/dept/msande/people/faculty/sutton/index.html
Last Updated: Fri, Oct 29, 2010
Stanford Professor Bob Sutton suggests two strategies for dealing with team disagreements. Never knock down ideas during the brainstorming stage. And if a team decides to go with a decision you disagree with, be the hardest worker during the idea's implementation. By committing yourself to helping make the idea a success, if it does indeed fail in the end, you will know that it was indeed a poor idea.
Sutton talks about several important factors that turn people into jerks. He describes how being around many aggressive people will transform a person into a jerk. He also explains how pressure is a key contributor in building jerk behavior. 
While Sutton doesn't think there is a true method to differentiate a good idea from a bad one, there are ways to help improve the chances of success, the main one being consulting customers or potential customers.
Sutton explains that the majority of research money given to universities does not result in commercially viable products. However, continuing it is often more for the system than the result.
According to author Bob Sutton, when someone is placed in a position of power, three things can happen to cause "power poisoning": 1) The individual focuses on their own needs and concerns; 2) The individual focuses little attention on the needs of others; and 3) The individual often acts like the rules don't apply to them. Evidence is also mounting, says Sutton, that the more successful a manager is, the more likely they are to break the rules.
Sutton talks about different work places, such as law firms and hospitals, where there is a lot of jerk behavior among workers. He adds that there are some places where jerks are institutionalized. He notes, however, that there are other work places where being a jerk is inefficient.
Bestselling author and Stanford professor Bob Sutton offers insights from his book, Good Boss, Bad Boss</i>. Two important points: 1) Individuals in a position of authority will be under intense scrutiny from those they manage; and 2) Leaders receive disproportionally more blame and more credit for organizational performance. Sutton shares some surprising statistics related to this point, and explains that the best bosses work hard to remain in-tune with those they manage. 
Stanford Professor Bob Sutton discusses the "toxic tandem," which he defines as when bosses do not pay attention to their employees, while still being closely watched by those same employees. This asymmetry of attention can be devastating, and in this clip, Sutton shares an anecdote of one company team who anticipated layoffs just by reading their boss' unconscious behavior.
Does it ever pay to tell your manager what you really</i> think? Strength in numbers is the only way to wage war with an ineffective manager, says Stanford Professor and Good Boss, Bad Boss</i> author Bob Sutton. Banding together with like-minded co-workers offers better documentation and carries more of a punch than an individual approach.
Sutton shares what he believes is the single most important diagnostic question to ask within a creative organization: What happens if there is failure? He also believes that there is no real way to determine which ideas are good and which will fail.
According to author Bob Sutton, interviews are terrible predictors of what is going to happen in a working environment. However, there are some indicators to look for to determine if a prospective supervisor will be pleasant and effective. For example, listen to the number of "I's" versus "we's" the prospective employer uses when describing a project, advises Stanford Professor Bob Sutton. Are they a team player? Will they offer credit to others? An even better strategy is to find former employees and ask them about their day-to-day experience with the supervisor in question.
Robert Sutton, Professor of Management Science and Engineering in the Stanford Engineering School, and Co-Director of the Center for Work, Technology, and Organization, talks about different methods to recognize a jerk. He identifies jerks from a victim's perspective, studying different characteristics like yelling, abuse and screaming and looking at political backstabbing. Sutton says there are numerous ways in which jerks operate but he tends to focus on the damage done to the victim.
Some companies like Google allocate a certain amount of time to employees for creative projects outside of daily tasks. Sutton explains how this can work most effectively.
When trying to foster innovation within an organization, Sutton feels that sometimes the best management is no management at all. He also stresses that creativity means selling, not just inventing something.
Not only can some bosses be difficult to talk to, but there are a number of institutional structures in place that make it difficult for them to hear the truth. Stanford Professor Bob Sutton bullet points many documented human behaviors that make it difficult for managers to hear the whole story. For example, research shows that people like flattery - even if its false - and people tend not to like those who deliver bad news. 
Too often, when companies realize they need to innovate and bring creativity into their company, they spend time discussing it but not implementing it. Sutton talks about some examples of that type of situation.
A successful personal relationship must follow the 5:1 rule: for every unpleasant interaction, at least five positive interactions are needed to offset the negative one, says Stanford Professor and author Bob Sutton. Research in the workplace also shows that just one rotten apple - or someone who repeatedly proves to be selfish - can be contagion that severely reduces overall team performance. These contagions must be removed for the health and longevity of the team.
Stanford professor and author Bob Sutton covers a number of hallmarks and strategies of smart, in-tune bosses. While traditional management theory dictates constant monitoring of employees and processes, this may not be the best tactic, says Sutton. His research reports this is particularly true for bosses managing creative teams and employees. In these situations, over-management can backfire, often stifling creativity and innovation. 
Sutton illustrates two examples from his book "Weird Ideas that Work." He encourages people to ignore and defy superiors and peers, and suggests trying to learn anything from people who say they have solved the same problems you face.
Using Play-Doh and the Apple iPod as examples, Robert Sutton, Co-Director of the Center for Work, Technology, and Organization at Stanford University, explains that often creativity is simply making new things out of old ones.