The Art of Friction

“Friction for us has to do with obstacles,” says Hayagreeva “Huggy” Rao, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “Obstacles can disable you. Obstacles can enable you.”Rao compares friction to cholesterol: Some is good, but some is bad. “Good friction actually slows you down, gets you to pause, and most of all, gets you to reflect,” he explains. “But there’s also friction that overwhelms you, exhausts you, confuses you.”  On this episode of If/Then, Rao explores how to cultivate the productive kind of friction, reduce the unhelpful kind, and manage your team’s most precious resource. “Great leaders are people who think of themselves as trustees of other people's time,” he says. Do you have any favorite examples of good or bad friction? Share one with us at ifthenpod@stanford.edu.Related Content:Huggy Rao faculty profile How to use Friction to your AdvantageHow to become a friction fixerChapters:00:00:00 Airport baggage claim, waiting, & good friction00:03:20 Introduction00:03:48 What friction means in organizations00:05:42 Where friction comes from00:07:52 Scaling through smart subtraction00:08:24 DropBox’s approach to meetings00:10:45 The problem with meetings00:13:53 What good friction looks like00:16:56 Friction, trust, & institutional legitimacy00:19:31 Why Huggy Rao started studying friction00:22:20 ConclusionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.