How Great Leaders Fix Things

Friction makes things slower, but that isn’t always a bad thing. Friction can get people to slow down and take time to think. 

Using the theory of false constraints (time, money, resources) creates tension that leads to creative problem-solving. For example, in a given scenario pretend we don’t get a budget increase for the project — how do we still solve the problem effectively? 

At Google, the hiring process was lengthy, often requiring 10-15 rounds of interviews. This was bad friction that was affecting both candidates and employees. It worked for the early employees but was not scalable.

The head of HR created a rule (good friction) that for any interview more than 4 rounds for a single candidate, the hiring manager had to get written permission from the head of HR.

This imposed friction to require written approval, but removed friction by shortening and streamlining the hiring process.

According to Bob, greatness comes from the nuts and bolts of organizational design.

Friction can be both a good thing and a bad thing, all dependent on the situation. However, if you’re not intentional about your processes and evaluation, friction will be bad more often than good.

One-time changes can make a long-term impact on your organization, but it’s important to have follow-through on the change to continue to improve, listen, and iterate upon the process to ensure it’s effective for everyone. Empowering managers to fix things on their specific teams will lead to greater overall team productivity and less bad friction.