Join us as Sutton and Rao teach people how to become “friction fixers.”

Sutton and Rao say 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. Sutton and Rao dig 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. Don’t miss their appearance on Jan 24 at 4:30 p.m. in the NVIDIA Auditorium, where they will be talking about the main ideas in their new book, The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder, which ships on January 30th, 2024.

This conversation will be led by Emily Ma and Ravi Belani, both lecturers in the Management Science and Engineering department at the Stanford School of Engineering.

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About Robert Sutton 

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. He is a frequent guest on various television and radio programs, and has written eight books including “The Friction Project,” (Macmillan 2024) and “Scaling Up Excellence,” co-authored with Huggy Rao, the bestsellers “The No Asshole Rule” and “Good Boss, Bad Boss,” and two edited volumes.

About Hayagreeva “Huggy” Rao

Hayagreeva “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.

He has written for Harvard Business Review, Business Week, and the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of “Market Rebels” and co-author with Robert I. Sutton of “The Friction Project” (Macmillan 2024) and the bestselling “Scaling Up Excellence.”

This appearance by Robert I. Sutton and Hayagreeva “Huggy” Rao is part of the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series. Join us virtually at youtube.com/ecorner as we bring founders, investors and industry influencers to center stage and invite them to share what it takes to become a disruptor.

Bob Sutton