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. In The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder, co-authors Robert I. Sutton, Ph.D. and Huggy Rao, Ph.D. draw from seven years of hands-on research to teach us how to become “friction fixers.”

The Friction Project unpacks how skilled friction fixers think and act like trustees of others’ time. The authors 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. 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 and frenzied people and teams.

Prof. Sutton is an organizational psychologist and Stanford professor (emeritus) who studies, writes, teaches, and speaks about the interplay between people and organizations. He has written more than 200 academic and practical articles and is a New York Times bestselling author of eight books. He is a co-founder of the Stanford d. School, Stanford Technology Ventures Program, and Center for Work, Technology and Organization.

Prof. Sutton will be in conversation with Liz Gerber, Ph.D. (FAN ’13, ’16), a professor of mechanical engineering at Northwestern University, co-director of Northwestern’s Center for Human Computer Interaction + Design, and faculty founder of Design for America.

This event suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded and available on FAN’s website and YouTube channel.