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.
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Source: Pfeffer, Jeffrey, and Gerald Salancik. "External control of organizations—Resource dependence perspective." Organizational behavior 2. Routledge, 2015. 355-370. Page 40.
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“Interdependence is the reason why nothing comes out quite the way one wants it to.” . I was thinking of this wonderful old line by Jeff Pfeffer and the late Jerry Salancik as I declined an invite to join an interesting group.
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As Hemingway said, "“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector.” This "BS-Meter" is a tool that helps. love the lingo here: Flunkies, Goons, Duct-tapers, Box-tickers, Taskmasters. Thanks Ian!.
Are you interested in learning how to detect bullshit and botshit in communications?. This paper examines the linguistic anatomy of slop and utilizes the Masterman Semantic Detector to measure bullshit in books and GenAI responses.
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Huggy Rao & I call this "sham participation" in "The Friction Project" . Employees (including us) get VERY pissed off when bosses ask for input, critiques, to spend time writing and meeting. But then ignore it. Underlings lose faith in leaders when participation=wasting my time.
Dear managers: If you’re not going to consider feedback, it’s better not to seek it at all. Data: When people in power request input but then disregard it, they’re judged more negatively than if they hadn’t asked. Bad leaders ignore. Good leaders listen. Great leaders act.
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In the words of George Burns, the late great comedian:. “The key to success is sincerity. If you can fake that you've got it made.”.
"Manufacturing Authenticity" cartoon
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RT @Aaron_Glantz: My latest: A flurry of red, white and blue American flags fluttered across the National Mall on Friday as more than 5,000….
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Most amusing take I've seen on the on the tit-for-tat spat between Elon and Trump.
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@ericries I would add, however, that--as research on economic assumptions shows--when people BELIEVE that capitalism requires treating people like dirt, that is how they are prone to behave. See, for example, this old but compelling summary by @AdamMGrant: .
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I love talking with @ericries. We both believe that capitalism and caring about people (rather than acting like a selfish asshole) are compatible and desirable goals.
In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I’m joined by @work_matters, organizational psychologist and New York Times bestselling author of several influential books on leadership, behavior, and workplace culture, including his latest: The Friction Project. We explore insights from
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Excellent thread on how most magical movements in tech/Silicon Valley fail to match the hype. The Internet is an exception. But the “too good to be true”’ effect applies to business movements too. Like businesses process reengineering, agile, (I plead guilty) design thinking.
I’m deeply skeptical of the AI hype because I’ve seen this all before. I’ve watched Silicon Valley chase the dream of easy money from data over and over again, and they always hit a wall. Story time.
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RT @davidburkus: Forgiveness ≠ reconciliation. There’s a dangerous myth in leadership that once trust is broken, you have to repair the re….
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RT @StanfordGSB: “Women play an unfair game,” says Alison Fragale, PhD ’04, “But that doesn’t mean they can’t win.” She explains more in he….
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Indeed. Applies to teaching and speaking too. It is always better leaving your audience wanting more of you than less of you.
Seinfeld talks about how you can watch a comedian perform for 60 minutes and love him. But if he drones on for 90, you're like "ehhh, it was fine." It only takes a small amount of too much to totally change your experience. This principle applies to so much more than comedy.
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Making America Mediocre. As (Republican!) David Packard said about @StanfordEng, even if it adds no other value (which it does!), the school fuels our country's greatness by attracting applicants from all over the world, selecting the best, and the VERY best often stay.
Blowing a $50 billion hole in the budget of every state flagship and top private university in America. Gunshot wound to the head of the best education system in the world and the crown jewel of American soft power. Absolute madness.
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Thanks to the multi-talented @VRFerose for his kind and detailed summary of the gathering that my friends including Sarah Soule and @katydec organized for me @CASBSStanford a few weeks back. I am touched and grateful for all the love.
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RT @sbkaufman: Different types of narcissism. Grandiose narcissism: "I'm the best!".Vulnerable narcissism: "I've suffered the most!".Commun….
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AI as a jargon monoxide generator. "Their greatest strength, but also their greatest danger, is their ability to sound authoritative on nearly any topic irrespective of factual accuracy. their superpower is their superhuman ability to bullshit." .
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RT @BStulberg: The no asshole rule is simple and vital:. Make little to no time for assholes in your real life and also on social media. In….
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