Designing Organizational Change

Our Mission: To help leaders and teams change their organizations for the better.

Designing Organizational Change develops solutions that spur constructive beliefs and actions (and that squelch destructive ones). We bring together students, faculty, and leaders from a host of for-profit and non-profit organizations — we work with people bent on learning why and how effective change happens despite the inevitable countervailing forces. We uncover, tinker with, and test promising solutions in our classes, studies, and projects with organizations; we do basic and applied research to understand why and when approaches are (and are not) useful; and we capture and communicate these lessons in academic and applied reports, case studies, and change tools.
Stanford Engineering Management Science and Engineering STVP

Designing Organizational Change is an initiative of the department of Management Science & Engineering and the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), – the Stanford Engineering Entrepreneurship Center, in collaboration with the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford.

Building organizations that make the right things easy to do and don’t drive people crazy

Through the Friction Project, we are seeking to understand the causes of and cures for dysfunctional organizational friction—and when it is wise to make things harder to do.

Beleaguered executives, front-line employees and even customers have been sending us stories often with disturbing details of frustrating and fatiguing experiences. Their stories illustrate how getting smart and necessary things done requires convoluted, time-consuming and soul-crushing gyrations—which get worse as organizations grow, age and become more complex.

Philosophy

  1. We consider both rational and emotional elements of organizational friction — solutions include redesigning organizations, changing leaders’ deeds and words, and, at times, providing therapy to overwhelmed, frustrated, and exhausted people.
  2. We’ve designed our journey to encourage suggestions and critiques. We are sharing our unfinished ideas — hunches, explanations and solutions—with all kinds of people. That way, we hope our ideas about friction will keep getting better.
Learn more at bobsutton.net

Articles About Friction

The FRICTION Podcast

Work is packed with wicked and messy problems. Listen up for a double dose of therapy and leadership coaching as Stanford Engineering Professor Bob Sutton and guests laugh in the face of petty office tyrants, challenge worst practices and share helpful tactics to make smart work easier to do and organizations less infuriating.

Team

Robert Sutton

Project Co-Director

Bio
Bob Sutton

Hayagreeva Rao

Project Co-Director

Bio
Huggy Rao

Alana Conner

Executive Director, Stanford SPARQ

Bio
Alana Conner

Chuck Eesley

Associate Professor, MS&E and Associate Faculty Director, STVP

Bio
Headshot of Chuck Eesley

Peter Glynn

Professor, MS&E

Bio
Peter Glynn

Chip Heath

Professor, Graduate School of Business

Bio
Chip Heath

Pamela Hinds

Professor, MS&E

Bio
Pam Hinds

Ramesh Johari

Associate Professor, MS&E

Bio
Ramesh Johari, photo by Joel Simon Images

David Kelley

Founder, Stanford d.school

Bio
David Kelley

Perry Klebahn

Consulting Associate Professor and Director of Executive Education, Stanford d.school

Bio
Perry Klebahn

Hazel Markus

Professor, Psychology

Bio
Hazel Markus

Amin Saberi

Associate Professor, MS&E

Bio
Amin Saberi

Sarah Soule

Professor, Graduate School of Business

Bio
Sarah Soule

Jeremy Utley

Lecturer and Director of Executive Education, Stanford d.school

Bio
jeremy utley

Melissa Valentine

Assistant Professor, MS&E

Bio
Melissa Valentine
Those interested in learning more about Designing Organizational Change may contact Professor Robert Sutton.

The Kitchen Cabinet

Smart people we like to talk to about organizational change

Shona Brown
Independent Advisor
Anthony S. Bryk
President, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Jack Chorowsky
President, KIPP
Michael Dearing
Founder, Harrison Metal
Kaye Foster
Senior Advisor, The Boston Consulting Group
Chris Fry
Angel Investor
Elizabeth Gerber
Associate Professor, Northwestern University
Adam Grant
Professor, Wharton Business School
Rebecca Hinds
Inc. Columnist and Organizational Researcher
Jacob Jaber
CEO, Philz Coffee
Bob Johansen
Distinguished Fellow, Institute for the Future
John Lilly
Partner, Greylock Partners
Becky Kanis Margiotta
Co-Founder, Billions Institute
Joe McCannon
Co-Founder, Billions Institute
Patty McCord
Principal, Patty McCord Consulting
Lenny Mendonca
Director Emeritus, McKinsey & Company
Donna Morris
Executive Vice President, Customer and Employee Experience, Adobe
Dan Pink
Author
Joe Porac
Professor, New York University
Diego Rodriguez
Executive Vice President, Chief Product and Design Officer, Intuit
Prasad Setty
Vice President, People Analytics & Compensation, Google
Bonny Simi
President, JetBlue Technology Ventures

Affiliated Courses

  • MS&E 280
    Instructor(s): Robert Sutton, Rosanne Siino
  • MS&E 284
    Instructor(s): Melissa Valentine
  • ME 368
    Instructor(s): Perry Klebahn, Kathryn Segovia, Jeremy Utley
  • MS&E 487
    Instructor(s): Perry Klebahn, Kathryn Segovia, Bob Sutton, Jeremy Utley
  • MS&E 488
    Instructor(s): Pamela Hinds, Julie Stanford
  • STRAMGT 544
    Instructor(s): Huggy Rao, Shantanu Narayen

Case Studies

  • Rebecca Hinds, Huggy Rao, Bob Sutton, 2014
  • Hayagreeva Rao, Julie Makinen, 2018
  • Dave Hoyt, Huggy Rao, 2008
  • Huggy Rao, Bob Sutton, Isaac Waisberg, 2009
  • Dave Hoyt, Charles O’Reilly, Huggy Rao, Bob Sutton, 2010
  • Davina Drabkin, Jon Jamieson, Huggy Rao, Sarah Soule, Bob Sutton, 2016
  • Ryan Kissick, Huggy Rao, Bob Sutton, 2015

Connect with Bob