Friction in business isn’t always bad. Timely intervention can help prevent a Boeing-like mistake

But what really makes this book compelling is that, while citing pointless and soul-crushing friction as the biggest problem most companies face, it also recognizes that sometimes friction is good. The authors make an example of Google’s Sergey Brin, who rushed Google Glass to market in 2012, only to have it collapse under the weight of hardware and software problems, bad battery life, unresolved privacy issues, and reviews that called it “the worst product of all times.” Some friction would have helped.

So how do you get rid of the bad friction while protecting the good? Some of my takeaways:

Start with self-awareness. CEOs frequently complain that it’s middle management that mucks up execution. But Sutton and Rao found many leaders whose own habits prolonged meetings, wasted time, and misdirected others in countless ways. “If you wield influence over others, you may become oblivious to the inconveniences that you heap on the people below you, and that your organizations heaps on clients and customers.” Best to think of yourself as a steward of your employees’ time, as well as your clients and your customers.

Champion subtraction projects. “Humans default to asking ‘What can I add here?’, not ‘What can I get rid of?’” Friction-fighters create new rituals to ensure the opposite. Have teams identify wasted effort, pointless practices, and unnecessary impediments to action and systematically remove them.

Beware of ‘coordination neglect.’ People are prone to fixate on their own part of the organization and ignore how the parts need to work together. Sutton and Rao cite Steve Ballmer’s Microsoft as an example: employees throughout the organization were stack ranked, leading to “management by character assassination.” Satya Nadella eliminated the stacked ranking system and encouraged employees to be not “know-it-alls,” but “learn-it-alls.”

Apply ‘good friction’ when needed. The “move fast and break things” approach clearly has its limits — ask anyone at Boeing. Sutton and Rao advise applying friction at key moments, particularly when irreversible and costly decisions are about to be made. One suggestion: take a pause to conduct a “pre-victorem” or a “pre-mortem,” imagining in advance the reasons why your project or product ultimately succeeded or failed.

There’s a lot more in this rich book, and it is presented in an entertaining style. Count it as 2024’s first addition to your canon of business books. More news below.

Alan Murray
@alansmurray
[email protected]

TOP NEWS

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Capital One wants Discover

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The first major CHIPS Act grant

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AROUND THE WATERCOOLER

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Chinese consumers spend big to welcome the year of the dragon—but analysts don’t yet see signs of a ‘meaningful recovery’ by Lionel Lim

A majority of workers are desperate to upskill, but Gen Z is more likely to head back to the classroom by Emma Burleigh

Why a major Wall Street bank is accused of inventing a fake job title and telling its new ‘head of loan trading’ in Germany never to use it by Prarthana Prakash

German companies are pouring a record amount of investments in the U.S. As Germany’s tight economic relationship with China wobbles by Ryan Hogg

Sanofi CEO: AI promises a great era of drug discovery that could fundamentally change medicine–but only if we allow it to deliver by Paul Hudson

This edition of CEO Daily was curated by Nicholas Gordon.