Robert Sutton has an innovative approach to looking at common problems. From the challenges of being creative in a corporate environment to the challenges of being a good boss, Sutton combines his findings from research in psychology and management with life stories to help audiences see the way to master common challenges.

Robert Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering in the Stanford Engineering School, where he is Codirector of the Center for Work, Technology, and Organization, an active researcher and cofounder in the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, and a cofounder and active member of the new “d.school,” a multi-disciplinary program that teaches and spreads “design thinking.” He is also an IDEO Fellow and a Professor of Organizational Behavior, by courtesy, at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Sutton received his PhD in Organizational Psychology from The University of Michigan and has served on the Stanford faculty since 1983. He also taught at the Haas Business School and was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences during the 1986-87, 1994-95, and 2002-03 academic years. He has served on the editorial boards of numerous scholarly publications, and as an editor for the Administrative Science Quarterly and Research in Organizational Behavior. His honors include the award for the best paper published in the Academy of Management Journal in 1989, the best paper published in the Academy of Management Review in 2005, induction into the Academy of Management Journal's Hall of Fame, the Eugene L. Grant Award for Excellence in Teaching, the McGraw-Hill Innovation in Entrepreneurship Pedagogy Award, the McCullough Faculty Scholar Chair from Stanford, and selection by Business 2.0 as a leading “management guru” in 2002.

Sutton studies the links between managerial knowledge and organizational action, evidence-based management, and innovation, and organizational performance. He has published over 100 articles and chapters in scholarly and applied publications. He has also published 8 books and edited volumes. He (and Jeffrey Pfeffer) wrote The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Firms Turn Knowledge Into Action (Harvard Business School Press, 2000), which was selected as Best Management Book of 2000 by Management General. His most recent book is Weird Ideas That Work: 11 ½ Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation (The Free Press, 2002), which was selected by the Harvard Business Review as one of the 10 best business books of the year and as a breakthrough business idea. He (and Jeffrey Pfeffer) just published Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management (Harvard Business School Press, 2006). His next book will be The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t, to be published by Warner in early 2007.

Sutton’s research and opinions are often described in the press, including the New York Times, The Times (of London) , BusinessWeek, Financial Times, Fortune, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Business 2.0, Wired, Strategy & Leadership, San Francisco Chronicle, and San Jose Mercury. He has also been columnist for CIO Insight and a guest on numerous radio and television shows, including Bloomberg, BBC, PBS, NPR, Tech Nation, and CNN.

Good Boss, Bad Boss

Sutton weaves together the best psychological and management research with true stories to reveal the mindset and moves of the best bosses – which he bolsters by contrasting them with evidence on how the worst bosses think of themselves and treat their people. Sutton shows how bosses can master essentials including:

-Striking just the right balance between being too assertive and not assertive enough convincing followers and superiors they are in charge and in control

-Leavening their self-confidence with just enough humility,

-Bringing aboard the right stars and reforming (or expelling) bad apples

-Closing the smart-talk trap -- linking what they say to what their people do

-Shielding their charges from unnecessary intrusions and idiots of every stripe

-Doing dirty work like disciplining and firing employees in timely and humane ways, And, of course, keeping their inner jerk in check.

Building an Innovative Workplace

Combining ideas from HBR top book of the year Weird Ideas That Work, his experience as an IDEO fellow, academic research on innovation, and his experience in the new Stanford Institute of Design – where the focus is on teaching and coaching student teams that are doing real creative for real companies like Mozilla, Fidelity, WalMart, SAP, Timbuk2, Google, and others – Sutton talks about and leads workshops with organizations about the challenges of managing and doing creative work.

Design Thinking Workshops with Robert Sutton and Perry Klebahn

Stanford Professor Robert Sutton and Stanford Associate Consulting Professor Perry Klebahn often work together to lead workshops that combine Sutton’s knowledge of theory and research about innovation with Klebahn’s real-world experience and hands-on approach. Sutton and Klebahn started using this approach (along with other Stanford faculty) in a Stanford Executive Program on Customer-focused Innovation (CFI), and more recently, have applied this blend of academic and experiential learning in design thinking workshops. In doing so they have worked with groups including Arco gas stations, Tesla Motors, Del Monte Foods, the Ministry of Manpower in Singapore, and the Higher Colleges of Technology in Abu Dhabi. Sutton and Klebahn’s workshops typically run three hours and highly interactive, resulting in lessons about key elements of innovation and design thinking including leadership, group dynamics, human resource management and, especially, the fundamentals of the design process and hands on learning about how to apply it to a host of business problems. In addition, they work with clients to develop and deliver workshops that are customized to the client’s needs and interests.