Bob Sutton on The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder

The Burleson Box: A Podcast from Dustin Burleson, DDS, MBA

Every organization is plagued by destructive friction—the forces that make it harder, more complicated, or downright impossible to get anything done. Yet some forms of friction are incredibly useful, and leaders who attempt to improve workplace efficiency often make things even worse. Drawing from seven years of hands-on research, The Friction Project by bestselling authors Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao teaches readers how to become “friction fixers,” so that teams and organizations don’t squander the zeal, damage the health, and throttle the creativity and productivity of good people—or burn through cash and other precious resources.

Sutton and Rao kick off the book by unpacking how skilled friction fixers think and act like trustees of others’ time. They provide friction forensics to help readers identify where to avert and repair bad organizational friction and where to maintain and inject good friction. Then their help pyramid shows how friction fixers do their work, which ranges from reframing friction troubles they can’t fix right now so they feel less threatening to designing and repairing organizations. The heart of book digs into the causes and solutions for five of the most common and damaging friction troubles: oblivious leaders, addition sickness, broken connections, jargon monoxide, and fast and frenzied people and teams.

Sound familiar? Sutton and Rao are here to help. They wrap things up with lessons for leading your own friction project, including linking little things to big things; the power of civility, caring, and love for propelling designs and repairs; and embracing the mess that is an inevitable part of the process (while still trying to clean it up).

***

The Burleson Box is brought to you by Retainer Club:

Realize new revenue in your practice this year with Retainer Club! Upgrading your retainer program has never been more straightforward. Patients want online and easy. You want simple and profitable. Retainer Club gives you both. Built by dental professionals, Retainer Club’s technology platform is built to manage everything about your retainer program including billing, retainer fulfillment, KPI data and more.

Retainer Club's customized Smile Care Plan allows you to offer a flexible membership program that brings 5 new revenue streams to grow your practice. Retainer Club's platform gives patients access to easy, fast, affordable online retainer ordering 24/7, and regular retainer replacement without ever having to call your office.

On average, a Smile Care Plan can increase your practice revenue by $100,000 annually. We have built our program with first-hand industry insights to support the needs of practices and DSOs from the ground up. From on-boarding and client success planning to tech-enabled marketing solutions to support new patient growth, Retainer Club has you covered. Get started today at RetainerClub.com

***

Resources Mentioned in the Episode with Bob Sutton:

• Subtract by Leidy Klotz
• BobSutton.net
• The Friction Project
• Ed Catmull at Pixar
• Andy Grove at Intel
• Ideo
• 'Armeetingeddon' at DropBox
• JAMA 2019 study on doctor time allocation

***

Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, exclusive study guides, special edition books each quarter, powerpoint and keynote presentations and two tickets to Dustin Burleson's Annual Leadership Retreat.

http://www.theburlesonbox.com/sign-up

Stay Up to Date: Sign up for The Burleson Report, our weekly newsletter that is delivered each Sunday with timeless insight for life and private practice. Sign up here:

http://www.theburlesonreport.com

Follow Dustin Burleson, DDS, MBA at:

http://www.burlesonseminars.com