Bob Sutton
@work_matters
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Organizational psychologist @stanford and NYT bestselling author. 8 books including The No Asshole Rule, Scaling Up Excellence, and The Friction Project.
Stanford
Joined March 2010
"The Friction Project" has been my focus for 8 years Key lesson from my book with Huggy Rao: The best leaders are TRUSTEES OF OTHERS TIME, friction fixers with the will and skill to make the right things easier and the wrong things harder for others https://t.co/5LDZdFFB3X
amazon.com
The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder
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I would add that we need to use the brakes A LOT as well. The best race car drivers brake in the corners and take pit stops. And as Kahneman would say, when things are messed up or you are confused, slow down and figure out what is happening before you act.
"We should use more than just the gas pedal. We should also use the steering wheel." (@reidhoffman)
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We are losing our humanity. I am searching for an antidote -- and I need your help. My column about my new @washingtonpost column. Gift link.
washingtonpost.com
The challenge of our time is to recover what we have lost: in nature, and in our communities.
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This is what removing bad bureaucracy looks like. Friction-fixing can happen anywhere…warms my heart.
Putting out sidewalk tables and chairs for your business is easy: fill out a free form, learn the rules like keeping sidewalks accessible, and you’re good to go. No permit or free required. We want San Francisco’s businesses to bring our streets to life—just follow a few simple
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"When you throw shit at other people, some always end up on you in the process" Advice from a wise lawyer long ago. I remind myself of it more and more lately, as the vicious circle of angry times and ease of insulting and demeaning others on social media is so tempting to join
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Permitting reform means something different to everyone. Yet most agree that *something* must be done. In my debut for The Bully Pulpit, I broke down the history of where things went wrong, and highlighted what a deal should look like this Congress:
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Scam alert to friends. If you get an email from a Hotmail address "from" me, it is a scam. I do not have a Hotmail email, do not have cancer, and did not get 250K from the "The Administration of Federal Benefits." Delete the email--and don't give them any personal information.
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Does AI improve or undercut academic scholarship? Using AI increases both the quantity & quality of academic scholarship and reduces inequality: -Researchers using AI published 36% more papers -There is also rise in the journal impact factor of adopters’ publications -GenAI
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Thanks to Adam for justifying, even glorifying, titles of my “The No Asshole Rule” and “The Asshole Survival Guide” Plus my (censored) arguments on scaling “clusterfucks” with Huggy Rao. Our timid editor was offended, so we used “Clusterfugs.” Inspired by Norman Mailer’s “fugs”
Cursing is rarely a symbol of low class. It's often a mark of high authenticity. Evidence: Swearing predicts higher rates of honesty and integrity. It signals a willingness to prize candor over courtesy. A little profanity shows that you're being real and you do give a damn.
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I am honored to be inducted into the @thinkers50 Hall of Fame I'm delighted our 2025 "class" of 6 includes the late Frances Hesselbein: CEO of @girlscouts for 15 years, author of many books, and much much more Frances died in 2022 at 107 years of age https://t.co/7KwNyFc30g
thinkers50.com
Explore the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame, honoring distinguished management thinkers whose ideas have shaped modern business practices.
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Starting your company is one thing. Scaling it is another. Professor “Huggy” Rao shares his top five takeaways from his course From Startup to Scale-up, showing how to navigate the reinvention required to take a business to the next level.
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We spend too much time arguing like we're right—and too little time listening like we're wrong. Diatribes don't change minds. Productive disagreement depends on showing respect, curiosity, and humility. The most compelling teachers are the ones who are most eager to learn.
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Sure, he will eventually get one after getting a doctor's note. BUT note this a nearly perfect example of how friction is weaponized so that ideology trumps science.
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My 64 year-old brother-in-law was denied a COVID vaccine yesterday (in California). Even though his 65 year-old wife has cancer and is immunocompromised. A little evidence that Robert F. Kennedy is lying when says that people aren't being denied vaccines
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A fellow academic who just got back from a long vacation reports she has 4000 emails to "triage." Reminds of what @johnolilly first told me in 2000 or so and, last year, agreed it was still true: "email is the killer app of the Internet...both meanings."
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It is a 2014 article! Dear New Yorker social media team, you can do better.
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This isn’t new. Semi-clickbait. The evidence has been piling up for decades. Bean-counters like them because they are cheaper. Architects because they look pretty. Key finding: LESS collaboration!
A growing body of evidence suggests that the open office undermines the very things that it was designed to achieve.
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Got a pitch from a company that provides @amazon reviews to authors that pay them. I don't know if this is legal or not (they say it is), but it ain't kosher. I guess you can buy anything!
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Snake oil for the masses.
Does astrology work? While astrologers had strong confidence, their performance was indistinguishable from random guessing. Also, astrologers did not agree with each other. This study strongly suggests that astrology simple doesn't work. https://t.co/UISdkOQKeP
@SpencrGreenberg
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A fantastic post on how AI can—if you don’t slow down and think about your audience—result in generic, soulless, and cold talks that cause your audience to conclude “That speaker doesn’t care about us, how we feel, what we need, or any other human connection.”
There’s a secret trap MANY people fall into when using AI to create their presentations. After years of studying what makes presentations succeed or fail, I'm noticing a concerning pattern as leaders rush to adopt AI for their high-stakes communications. In 1964, media theorist
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I was delighted to be interviewed by @danmcginn, @HarvardBiz editor, for a retrospective on my favorite (and most timeless) HBR piece "How to Be a Good Boss in a Bad Economy" (2009) Evidence-based ideas that apply to all kinds of painful workplace changes https://t.co/cWB6ARMK4U
hbr.org
In today’s uncertain economy, leaders must navigate the delicate task of delivering bad news, such as layoffs or project cancellations, with empathy and transparency. Robert Sutton’s framework,...
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