how to make workplaces run better

Professors Huggy Rao and Bob Sutton realised they were on to something when executives in their management and innovation classes at Stanford University began to offer vivid descriptions of the obstacles standing in the way of their work.

“I work in a frustration factory,” said one who had enrolled in their latest course. Another, from a California technology company, was more blunt. “Professor, I’m swimming in a sea of shit. I’ve barely got my head above the water. And you want me to show initiative? How is that possible?”

Once Sutton and Rao had unleashed the exasperation of staff entangled in red tape, worn down by petty rules and procedures, and held back by nitpicking managers and indecisive leaders, it was hard to stop them. Employees talked about “death by meeting,” “the tower of no”, “blowhard bosses” and “leadership by gobbledegook”. The duo, who together have devoted more than 70 years to teaching and studying organisational behaviour, started to collate and categorise the evidence of this frustration. Seven years later, they have distilled it into a new book, The Friction Project, to be published this week.

It is a surprisingly mild title for an issue that provokes such universal irritation. Indeed, for a while, they wanted to call it “The Sh*tfixers”, which was the name of their webinar series on the topic and their initial term for people who work to remove bad friction — or inefficiencies — in companies. “The sad irony was . . . we invited [on to the show] these people who fixed friction and they came and said, ‘we’d love to help you, but can you change the name from Shitfixers to Fixers?’” said Rao in a virtual interview alongside Sutton. The invited guests said they loved the title, but their chief executive would not “want the world to know that our company’s full of shit”.

The two make a jovial double act. Sutton is also the author of the bracing bestsellers The No Asshole Rule and The…