I started this book as an ARC through NetGalley. The ebook itself didn’t hold my attention, but I kept trying because I knew it would have great info.

After it published, I borrowed the audiobook from my local library, and I’m so glad I did. The audiobook was so well done, and it really helped me engage with the content.

I also very much enjoyed the bonus interview with the authors after the fact.

Wow, this is an insightful book! The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder by organizational psychologist Robert I. Sutton and Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Hayagreeva Rao delves into the fascinating world of organizational dynamics. Their mission is to tackle the pervasive issue of friction, which is those forces hindering progress, slowing down processes, and making it downright challenging to get things done within organizations.

The authors start by defining friction as anything that makes tasks harder, more complicated, or slower. But there's a twist: not all friction is bad. Some forms are actually useful, and the key lies in distinguishing between the destructive and constructive types of friction.

Drawing from seven years of hands-on research, Sutton and Rao equip readers with the tools to become "friction fixers." These leaders learn to navigate the delicate balance between eliminating harmful friction and preserving the beneficial kind. For example, the authors explore how skilled friction fixers act as stewards of others' time. They identify areas where bad organizational friction can be averted and repaired, while also maintaining and injecting good friction.

Adam Grant aptly states, "If every leader took the ideas in this book seriously, the world would be a less miserable, more productive place." So, whether you're a seasoned executive or an aspiring leader, The Friction Project offers practical wisdom for making organizations more efficient, effective, and harmonious.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a temporary e-ARC and a physical ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a tough, slow read. It has some good points, but it could have definitely been condensed. I can only hope top level management at my company reads this book. At mid-management level, I have little power to stop the endless meetings and implement other much needed changes outlined in this book.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

I struggled with this one. The book is about knowing when to reduce friction and when to increase friction in business. Unfortunately, it took almost 20% of the book (tremendous friction) trying to explain why I should read the book.

While there is some great information and solid stories of examples through the remainder of the book, it was so hard to get to that I wanted to quit reading at least a half dozen times.

It feels like a book written by professors for professors that are being graded on the number of words they use in n the book. Please simplify the book so that busy entrepreneurs can actually digest the content.

I wish I had THE FRICTION PROJECT by Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao when I was managing huge projects rife with conflict, hidden agendas, and overwhelming pressure. Through clear prose, the authors guide us through the actions successful leaders take to guide their teams and companies through mess and chaos. What works and contributes is streamlined and given resources; what does not is dropped, put on a different track entirely, or simply subordinated to what is most essential. At once compassionate and clear-eyed, THE FRICTION PROJECT offers a tough and simple way to get the right things done right. I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

I was provided both the print and audio ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This was great! I deal with these situations in my day job every day. We have situations where our executive team asks us to eliminate unnecessary processes and stop inviting 100 people to meetings that only need 5 people. It is a very expensive meeting that could have been resolved with a 2 sentence email and resolved in about 5 minutes What do we do instead? We schedule a meeting to figure out how to schedule a meeting to figure out how to cut down the invitee list for the meeting we actually need to have. My greatest hope is that the people causing the friction in companies actually read this. Hopefully future friction fixers will read this and end up in positions of authority and be able to implement more efficient processes and make some of the changes the authors talk about in this book.

The writing was relatable with examples of places where friction was eliminated to make companies more efficient and successful. There were examples where patient care was improved and customer service was improved when friction aka the right stuff was improved and taken into account and the wrong stuff aka the stuff that doesn't add value and takes up time was eliminated. I've experienced many of these types of situations first hand working on projects in my own career. I think this is a great read if you are an up and coming professional or an aspiring leader. As a individual contributor, these are all of the things I wish would change in the companies I've worked at and would like leadership to change.

This book is a presentation of quite a few case studies. There is alot of telling of friction filled situations and how friction fixers saved the day. There isn't really a prescriptive checklist of how to make this work in your own industry or how to apply the examples to what you are doing today. This books isn't going to make you a more effective leader overnight and solve all of your problems after you read it. It will however make you think about places you can potentially look for friction and where you can look for efficiencies. If you are a leader in an organization it will also perhaps give you some suggestions of who to talk to within your organization to get ideas of where the friction lies and how to make things work a little smoother for your employees and customers.

The Friction Project by Robert I. Sutton; Huggy Rao is the perfect kind of advice book: with simple yet amazing advice and stories.
I found this very helpful and actionable, though much of the advice would definitely take effort to implement.
Sutton and Rao give helpful and insightful information here and I believe many readers would enjoy and learn a lot with what’s inside.

Thank You NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

"The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder" by Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao is a insightful and practical guide that delves into the complexities of organizational friction. Drawing from seven years of extensive research, the authors provide valuable insights on how to become effective "friction fixers" and navigate the delicate balance between useful and destructive friction in the workplace.

Sutton and Rao begin by unraveling the mindset of skilled friction fixers, who act as trustees of others' time. The concept of friction forensics is introduced, enabling readers to identify areas where organizational friction needs to be averted and repaired, as well as where good friction should be maintained and injected. The authors present a helpful pyramid outlining the ways friction fixers approach their work, from reframing immediate issues to designing and repairing entire organizations.

The heart of the book focuses on five common and damaging friction troubles: oblivious leaders, addition sickness, broken connections, jargon monoxide, and fast and frenzied people and teams. Sutton and Rao provide in-depth analyses of each issue, offering practical solutions rooted in their extensive research. The clarity and accessibility of their writing make complex organizational concepts easily understandable for readers.

The authors offer a sense of familiarity to readers who may recognize these friction troubles in their own workplaces. The practical lessons provided in the book serve as a valuable toolkit for leaders and individuals seeking to improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness. The emphasis on linking small actions to larger goals, the power of civility and empathy, and the acceptance of the inevitable messiness in the process contribute to the book's real-world applicability.

"The Friction Project" stands out for its blend of academic rigor and practical wisdom. Sutton and Rao not only diagnose the sources of friction but also prescribe actionable strategies for addressing them. The book concludes with valuable lessons for leading one's own friction project, highlighting the importance of embracing complexity while striving to improve organizational dynamics.

In summary, "The Friction Project" is an insightful and well-researched guide that offers practical solutions for leaders and individuals grappling with organizational friction. Sutton and Rao's expertise shines through, providing readers with the tools and knowledge needed to navigate and transform workplace dynamics effectively.

I knew I would love this book because I love everything Sutton writes. But, while I’m not sure this is useful as a “hoe to” it is rich with detailed case studies of unique ways that organizations and their people have created friction—both positive friction and obstructive friction. The amount of source material is voluminous. That alone makes the book a compelling read.
Along with all of the case studies, the book also succeeds at distilling some key principles for identifying, assessing and addressing friction. A key insight is that friction needn’t be problematic. Sometimes it alters performance in positive ways.
I read it twice —and I suspect it will remain an important resource for me in my own work and thinking. Highly recommend.
Thanks to Net Galley for an advanced review copy. It was only my determination to reread that delayed this review.

Anyone who works in an organization will find helpful things from this book! Especially those in leadership. I think we've all been there: reading a too long email that could've been a lot more concise, in a meeting that could've been an email, struggling through red tape to do something that should be fairly simple. So many of our programs and organizations have a lot of this "bad friction." Sutton and Rao have spent 7 years studying friction and this book is there analysis on how to help leaders reduce bad friction and increase good friction. As they say to "focus on what to make easier and faster and what to make harder and slower, [so that] life will be better for workers and the people they serve."

As someone who is both a leader/the head of my organization but also within a much larger framework where I am 3 or 4 rungs down the line of leadership, I got a lot out of this book. I will definitely be taking what I have learned and applying it in my work.

This is the book I never knew I needed to read. For background, I am a family medicine and preventive medicine trained physician who is deeply interested in systems approach to improving healthcare outcomes and equity. This book provides a look at how we can affect systems to engineer structures for growth, efficiency, and improvement in team action. I strongly recommend this book to anyone attempting to make a change in their field or institution.

This book gave many case studies of examples of using friction in the work place with both positive and negative results. My problem with the book was that the authors were tauting their success without showing the reader how to be successful in the same areas. It was merely showing results without giving the steps to achieve the results.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

It's a persuasive book with rich case studies and life lessons.
I'm not a leader, but I feel like my leader should definitely read it.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC!

I enjoyed reading The Friction Project and found it helpful for the most part. Although I haven't worked in a team setting for many, many years, I can still relate to how important the topics are. I especially liked the author's focus on the importance of Friction as a way to grow individuals and teams. I also liked the effective use of detailed stories and case studies to bring home a point. Even if you may not agree with a topic, the specific stories, case study details, and follow-up results makes for persuasive reading. My greatest take away is how "taking out" instead of "adding more" is harder than imagined in the work environment. There is no way you can read this book and not be more empowered to make a difference. There are limits to just how much of a difference can be made in certain work environments and it's refreshing to see the author addresses this as well.

Sutton and Rao are well-known teachers and researchers on how to fix problems. This book shows us how to add the good kind of friction—to make mistakes or slogging through administrative sludge harder to occur—and reduce the bad kind of friction—to streamline getting the desired results. Unfortunately, this is the first paradox: the title and use of the word “friction” as both a good thing and a bad thing. The authors may have wanted to use different words to describe the good form and the bad form. They report on not only their own work but admit that they’ve built this treatise on the research, writings and consulting efforts of others as well. So secondarily, it’s hard to discern where their originality begins and ends.

They define a pyramid of methods for fixing friction, enabling friction, getting the results you want and avoiding the undesirable consequences. They provide a toolbox for discovering those areas that are rife with bad friction. They give a plethora of case studies throughout the book.

For those unfamiliar with how to look at their organization’s efforts with objective lenses, this is a helpful book. It won’t be so helpful for those familiar with evaluative and awareness techniques encompassed by Theory of Constraints (identifying the critically constrained resource and eliminating obstacles for complete utilization and effectiveness and improving the throughput of the whole system), Lean (specifically identifying wastes and value-stream mapping), Six Sigma, Kepner -Tregoe, Kahnemann’s and Tversky’s thinking biases and blind spots (Think Fast, Think Slow), simply experiencing your own systems as your internal and external customers would, simply asking of each procedural step/report request “So what? Who cares? What will we know or do differently based on this?”, and so on.

I’m appreciative of the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to preview this book.

I was so excited to see that I could read an early edition of yet another winner by these fabulous writers. I have followed both people for the past few years and grab their books as often as possible. They have a very interesting view about the nature of work and how to get things done. Humans do not like when things are too easy or too hard. Friction is the thing that helps things flow smoother or completely gum up the works. I really enjoyed the stories from many companies about what worked and what didn't. They had very clear examples of how to take the best ideas and bring them to your workplace to help make things flow better. I will definitely add this to my list of business books to recommend.