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The Unmeasured Cost
of Human Friction
In our experience working with organizations large and small, even well-designed processes underperform when human friction is present.
Human friction introduces execution variability that standard process tools don’t always surface, however, it directly impacts flow, quality, and execution:
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assumptions replace shared understanding
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conversations are avoided or delayed
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cognitive load and fatigue reduce reliability
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workarounds emerge to compensate for people, not process
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decisions are forced upward
Human friction represents an often unmeasured loss between designed process performance and actual execution.
Human friction creates hidden problems in how work gets done, even when the process looks fine. A process can look good on paper and still break down because of how people carry it out.
Human friction causes loss through miscommunication, hesitation, resistance, and poor follow-through. Some of the biggest problems are not in the process itself, but in how people work within it.
You can choose to do nothing about friction, however, you are still paying the price.
Before you can reduce it, you need to see where it shows up and understand its impact.
How much is friction is costing your organization?