Robert Sutton

Robert Sutton is a Professor of Management Science and Engineering and a Professor of Organizational Behavior (by courtesy) at Stanford University. He co-founded the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (widely known as “the d.school”). Sutton received his Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan and has served on the Stanford faculty since 1983.

He is a Senior Scientist at Gallup, and Academic Director of two executive education programs: Customer-Focused Innovation and the Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurship Certificate. He has also served as:

  • Professor at the Haas School of Business
  • Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
  • Fellow at IDEO
  • Advisor to McKinsey & Company
  • Faculty member at the World Economic Forum in Davos

Sutton studies organizational change, leadership, innovation, and workplace dynamics. He has published over 150 articles and chapters in:

  • Academic journals
  • Harvard Business Review
  • McKinsey Quarterly
  • The New York Times, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal

Books by Robert Sutton

  • Weird Ideas That Work
  • The Knowing-Doing Gap (with Jeffrey Pfeffer)
  • Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense (with Jeffrey Pfeffer) – The Globe and Mail’s Best Business Book of 2006
  • The No Asshole Rule – New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller
  • Good Boss, Bad Boss – New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller
  • Scaling-Up Excellence (with Huggy Rao) – Wall Street Journal bestseller and named Best Business Book of the Year by Amazon, Financial Times, Inc., The Globe and Mail, and Library Journal
  • The Asshole Survival Guide: How to Deal With People Who Treat You Like Dirt – Featured in Financial Times (Book of the Month), The Washington Post, The Guardian, New York Magazine, INC, Vox

Sutton and Huggy Rao are currently leading The Friction Project, a multi-pronged initiative focused on understanding and solving destructive organizational friction — and exploring when it’s wise to make things harder. As part of this work, Sutton hosted two seasons of the Friction Podcast via the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.

Awards and Recognition

  • Best Paper, Academy of Management Journal (1989)
  • Eugene L. Grant Award for Excellence in Teaching
  • Named a “Management Guru” by Business 2.0 (2002)
  • Best Article, Academy of Management Review (2005)
  • Sumantra Ghoshal Award from London Business School (2014)
  • Named one of the Top 30 Business Leaders by the American Management Association (Ranked #10 in 2014)
  • Selected as one of 10 “B-School All-Stars” by BusinessWeek — described as “professors who are influencing contemporary business thinking far beyond academia”

Speaking, Media, and Podcasts

Sutton has delivered keynote speeches to over 200 organizations in 20+ countries. His work and opinions have been featured in:

  • The New York Times, The Atlantic, Financial Times, Esquire, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, Wired, TechCrunch, Vanity Fair, Washington Post

Media appearances include:

  • ABC, Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, Fox, NBC’s Today Show, KGO, PBS, NPR, Marketplace, CNN

Podcasts:

  • WorkLife with Adam Grant
  • How To! with Charles Duhigg
  • Goop with Elise Loehnen
  • That’s What She Said with ESPN’s Sarah Spain
  • The Art of Charm
  • Sloan Management Review
  • Harvard Business Review

Online & Social