How To Be a Friction Fixer with Bob Sutton

04/04/24 • 27 min

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.

This week I have the honor and privilege of welcoming Bob Sutton to the show. We’ve been social media buddies for many, many years and I thought it was about time that Bob would join me on the podcast.

Bob is an organizational psychologist and professor of Management Science and Engineering at the Stanford Engineering School. He has written eight books, including his latest, The Friction Project, which is what we're going to talk about today. He also wrote other bestselling books, including The No Asshole Rule; Good Boss, Bad Boss, and Scaling Up Excellence.

THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR... any leader or individual contributor who wants to become a friction fixer in their sphere of influence.

TODAY’S MAIN MESSAGE... there’s friction in every organization. Some friction is good and fosters creativity and innovation but bad friction can seriously impede progress. Often, areas of friction are unresolved for long periods of time and if they get attention, it’s often by addition, which just piles on layers of complexity. Bob strips things back and describes how anybody at any level can make a difference in reducing inefficiencies.

WHAT I LOVE MOST... Bob’s example of how the DMV has reduced friction through a single person, a greeter, who helps cut down the dreaded time that people spend waiting. As Bob says, “If the DMV can do it, so you can you!”.

Running Time: 27:27

Find Tiffani Online:

Find Bob Online:

Bob’s Book:

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.

THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR... any leader or individual contributor who wants to become a friction fixer in their sphere of influence.

Running Time: 27:27

Find Tiffani Online:

Find Bob Online:

Bob’s Book:

Previous Episode

RELOAD: Getting Back to Lean with Steve Blank

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.

This week, I’m reflecting on a great conversation with Steve Blank, a career entrepreneur and academic.

Steve is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur in eight startups over two decades with four IPOs, and currently, he is an academic teaching at Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia, and NYU. Steve is also the author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany, which is credited with launching the Lean Startup Movement and the best-selling book The Startup Owner's Manual. Steve has been named to Thinkers50 top management thinkers, and recognized by the Harvard Business Review as one of 12 Masters of Innovation. He is also a senior fellow for Entrepreneurship at Columbia University.

THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR... startups or those who want to be more innovative.

TODAY’S MAIN MESSAGE... Steve begins our conversation by reminding us what a startup truly is: a temporary organization designed to search for and find a repeatable and scalable business model or repeatable and scalable sales model.

Many times, startups are pressured to act like big companies, and established companies are encouraged to think like a startup. But the two are very different and deserve to be treated as such. Those caught between those two is what Steve calls “the frozen middle.”

IF YOU WANT TO BE MORE AGILE IN YOUR COMPANY... step back and start by determining if you are an entrepreneur or an innovator. An innovator is the idea person who needs help with the physical work or with the business process. Whereas an entrepreneur is someone who knows how to make things happen. Steve opines that it is rare to have both skills.

IF YOU’RE AN ENTREPRENEUR... get comfortable with chaos and uncertainty. You have to be tenacious and resilient. Steve declares that if you’re an entrepreneur who is succeeding, you’re beating all the odds.

WHAT I LOVE MOST... Steve’s insight around the frozen middle got me thinking about different mental models, business models, and metrics, and how complacency can leave you stranded in a no man’s land of little differentiated value.

Running time: 41:25

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Next Episode

RELOAD: The Nature of Luck with Maria Konnikova

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova.

This week, I’m excited to share a replay of a great conversation with Maria Konnikova.

Maria graduated from Harvard and earned her Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia. She’s written two New York Times bestsellers: The Confidence Game and Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. While she had zero poker experience before her first trip to Las Vegas in the fall of 2016, she has now won multiple tournaments, including the PCA National Championship, and finished second at an Asian Pacific Tour, Macau event.

THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR... those looking to be confident when facing change.

TODAY’S MAIN MESSAGE... you might think that it’s all about luck when it comes to being successful in life, but Maria differs. The old adage that luck is opportunity and preparedness meeting sounds great in theory but is only applied to positive aspects of people’s lives.

Luck just happens. It’s not personal. It’s not about a linear career path that led you to a moment of success. In fact, successful people often come from the outside. They have a true advantage because their mind is more flexible; they are not hemmed in by convention to behave in a certain way. They are free from preconceptions.

IF YOU’RE A BUSINESS LEADER... be willing to make good decisions right now and being willing to change later. Many leaders don’t want to change once they've already invested significant resources into a project, but change will always come.

IF YOU’RE A STUDENT (OR PARENT OF A STUDENT)... Maria encourages you to read fiction and poetry. Get curious about the world, beyond your current interests and skill-sets. Consider what you’ll learn from taking the “outsider” courses that make you more curious.

WHAT I LOVE MOST... the marriage of psychology, game theory and poker that uncovers insights to be a better leader and change agent. Being an outsider may come with challenges, but having a fresh perspective on the established set of wisdom may be the key to unlocking the unmet potential in yourself and your company.

Get uncomfortable - seriously, it makes you (and your business) better.

Running time: 42:17

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