Broken silos and jargon monoxide with Dr Bob Sutton and Dr Huggy Rao | Experts Unleashed | Atlassian
We have a special episode this week with not one, but TWO guests!
Dr. Bob Sutton is an organizational psychologist at Stanford University and best-selling author of eight books. He studies leadership, innovation, organizational change, and workplace dynamics. Bob’s main focus over the past decade has been scaling and leading at scale - how to grow organizations, spread good things (and remove bad things) in teams and organizations, and enhance performance, innovation, and well-being given the distinct challenges in big organizations.
Dr. Huggy Rao is the Atholl McBean professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University and a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Science, the Sociological Research Association, and the Academy of Management. He has written for Harvard Business Review, Business Week, and the Wall Street Journal. He is the co-author of the bestselling book “Scaling Up Excellence” and author of “Market Rebels.”
In episode five of "Experts Unleashed," Atlassian's Dom Price chats with Bob and Huggy (the Odd Couple) about addition bias, broken silos and connections, and jargon monoxide. They discuss tips for avoiding these pitfalls, including the creation of Ridicu-lists, the Subtraction Game, and many more. Along the way, Bob and Huggy share some hilarious stories and the genuine insights they learned over the decades studying how organizations and leaders work.
They also discuss the "My User Manual" Play from Atlassian's Team Playbook. It's an exercise designed to help leaders share with their teams, and teammates to share with other teammates HOW they work. Think of it like this: when you buy a TV, it comes with a User Manual. But when you hire a human, there's no such helpful guidance. Bob and Huggy take us through their User Manuals and what annoys them the most!
More about Experts Unleashed
The world feels full of thought leadership and frameworks, when we’re actually hungry for lived experience, science, and pragmatic insights. Experts Unleashed seeks out amazing minds from their specialty fields and brings them to you, to unleash their wisdom in a way that will help you put it in action. Each episode aims to educate, provoke, inspire, and then activate… to give you the confidence to try someone new.
In this episode:
Atlassian Team Playbook: https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/my-user-manual
More about Bob Sutton: https://www.bobsutton.net/
More about Huggy Rao: https://huggyrao.com/
Charity: https://www.paduadiningroom.com/
00:00 – Introduction
02:55 – Let’s meet the Odd Couple
04:09 – My user manual…what annoys you?
09:04 – What is addition bias?
12:22 – No time for growth with addition bias!
17:31 – What’s the antidote to addition bias? Subtraction!
18:20 – The Subtraction Game
21:03 – The “Ridicu-List” and the need for play
25:20 – Remove the negative friction and add the positive friction
27:15 – Speed vs Time Poverty
29:10 – Broken silos and connections
35:59 – Building shared norms through a shared story
42:05 – Handoffs + subtraction = easier to maintain!
43:50 – Jargon Monoxide and the four flavors
47:30 – Atlassian and the value “don’t F*&$ the customer”
51:30 – Think of yourself as an Editor and Chief
54:47 – One thing a leader can experiment with right now
58:15 – St. Anthony Dining Room Donation