The Friction Project Book

One of the most important books I have read in the recent times is The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder. Written by Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao.

The title itself speaks a lot as there are times when we find the reverse manifest itself. It becomes so obvious that it is easy to do the wrong things while immensely difficult, exhausting and frustrating to do the right things. This needs to be fixed within any organization.

The book talks to us about identifying friction fixers where a skilled friction fixer will think and act like trustees of others’ time. When we act as trustees of other people’s time, we tend to collaborate better. Think about the recent meetings you have attended or called for. Were we a trustee of other people’s time ?

Now there are also good friction and bad friction and so prioritizing the friction becomes important. How do we repair the bad friction while maintain and even at times injecting good friction into the mix.

The book takes us through how friction fixers work through a cone of friction and reframe frictions so they appear less intimidating and in that process prioritize the fixing strategy.

Bob and Huggy introduce us to the 5 destructive traps that are extremely damaging to any organization. Oblivious leaders, Addition sickness, Broken connections, Jargon monoxide, and Fast & frenzied people and teams.

The books will give the readers a roller coaster reading experience. Honestly it made me chuckle at times and touched several emotional chords at other times. I am sure you also will have similar experiences.

The book was not just a better way of understanding work environments and interactions but also reflecting on myself as a professional. How I have been at times part of the friction machinery while at other times part of a fixer community.

Some books reveal ourselves to us. I read the book in March this year but did not write about it. Recently the book started appearing in my mind over and over. So planning to re-read it and picked it from the library again.

A Must Read for professionals today. Highly recommended !

I will leave you with some statements I gathered from the book. Each of them will open opportunities for us to think more.
– It is easier to say smart things than do smart things 😁
– Only Pessimism sounds profound; Optimism sounds superficial 😂

And finally! The mindset shift that is so important…
“There is a problem let us fix it” vs. “someone is screwing up, lets go beat them up” 😉

This is my YouTube channel review on the same.