**Slow Down to Speed Up: The Power of Constructive Friction**
We often rush to solve problems—whether planning a trip, fixing a Lego model, or leading a company. But sometimes, slowing down is the smarter move. Think of a race car: winners don’t go full throttle the entire time; they brake at corners, stop for pit stops, and pull over when the car is on fire.
In organizations, obstacles can be frustrating, but they can also be useful. Good friction makes the right things easier and the wrong things harder. For example, Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes tried to bypass regulations to get faulty blood-testing devices into military helicopters. Thankfully, a rule requiring FDA approval blocked her. Meanwhile, Sequel, a company reinventing the tampon, embraced the long, rigorous process of obtaining FDA approval, ensuring a quality product.
The best leaders act as "friction fixers," trustees of others' time. They eliminate pointless delays—like the DMV employee who turned a dreaded experience into a smooth, efficient process. They also ask two key questions:
1. **Do I know what I'm doing?** Sergey Brin rushed Google Glass to market despite warnings that it wasn’t ready. The result? A high-profile flop.
2. **Is this decision reversible?** When IDEO grew too big, founder David Kelly proposed a reorganization, comparing it to shaving his mustache—something reversible. Had he cut off his finger instead, there’d be no going back.
Smart leaders embrace friction where it matters and remove it where it doesn’t. So before racing ahead, ask yourself: Should I hit the gas—or the brakes?
The ability to create and destroy friction in different circumstances is what defines an organizational genius.
When a customer, an employee, or a senior leader has set their sights on a certain course of action and then runs into obstacles that make it slower, harder, more frustrating, we call this organizational friction. Many times, that can be a bad thing, but best-selling author and organizational psychologist Bob Sutton argues that we can actually harness it to benefit us. One thing that Sutton emphasizes in his book The Friction Project is that you should first ask yourself if your course of action is the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ thing to do. If it's the right thing to do, it should happen fast and be relatively frictionless. The ‘wrong’ thing to do is often full of friction, but the right thing, although it may have some ‘constructive friction,’ is often able to push forward and make progress without harsh obstacles. Here are 2 easy tricks to solve any problem and make friction your secret weapon
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