Friction: the force that resists relative motion between two bodies in contact
- Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary
Friction is the force that resists all action.
It makes the simple difficult and the difficult seemingly impossible.
- Warfighting: The US Marine Corps Book of Strategy
Both my sons have spent varying lengths of time in scouting. My older son moved on to pursue sports and music rather than Boy Scouts. My youngest son stayed with scouting and recently achieved the rank of First Class Scout. They do have one scouting experience in common, however, and that is the annual making and racing of Pinewood Derby cars.
Now, if you aren't familiar with the Pinewood Derby you need to know two things: every boy wants to win and few boys want to spend time building the car. Most of us know that this means we have a car to build with some involvement form the boy. If you like this kind of thing, bully for you. I found it significantly beyond my woodworking and creative skills. Oh yeah, and I didn't want to. But I did it anyway because my lovely wife made it a requirement for my continued care and feeding.
Yet On We Fight
Regardless of initial interest, much time is spent developing cool, aerodynamic body shapes and making sure the wheels get on straight - wobbling is bad for speed and hard to watch when it's your car. I also required that my sons each rub sandpaper on some part of the car at some point during the construction phase so that we could rightly say they had worked on the car. Through all of my grousing and labor - and getting spray paint on stuff it wasn't supposed to go on - we somehow had a functioning car every year.
But we just couldn't win. Each year I would try to get the weight a little closer to the limit hoping gravity played a role.
But we just couldn't win. I'd get better and better at sanding and painting a smooth car so that air wooshing past wouldn't hold the car's progress up unnecessarily.
But we just couldn't win. I even noticed that the wheels each had a little knot in it from where it was cut from it's mold. I would sand those until you couldn't tell it had ever been there.
But we just couldn't win - not even one heat! I added dry graphite to the nails that served as the mountings for the tires. All legal, and one more step toward victory, or so I thought.
Nothing.
How In The World...
Then one year I witnessed something magical...mystical. I watched a dad and son enter a car that seemed, well, a waste of time. It was no more than the original block of wood, cut down to weight, with the wheels attached. Sorry looking. Now, I knew I was bad at building cars, but this guy must have been feeling pretty silly sitting his son's car next to all the shiny, sleek designs of his buddies. Poor guy.
Just one problem with my view of things. You see, that plain block-of-wood car won every race. I am not talking about the whole derby, which they did win. But every single heat, round, semi-final and final. I also think it's important in this little scene for your mind to see it: it's not just that they won, but how they won. You have to envision all the other cars were moving in slow motion while this car raced ahead as if it had a small jet on board. No one finished within 3 car lengths - utterly ridiculous. Unbelievable. Ridiculous. But How?
The Secret Exposed - Friction Kills
I got up my courage - and humility - to speak with the dad, asking him how they had done such a thing. His son interrupted saying, "Oh it's not that hard, it's all in the nails that hold the wheels on. There are one or two little burrs on every nail. If you don't get them completely smooth they rub on the wheels causing friction and slowing the car down. You can't win with those burrs. We spent about an two hours one each nail getting rid of all the burrs and making them as smooth as possible."
So, where is friction robbing your business of progress? There are many kinds of friction in organizations that keep us from getting things done. Some of it starts in our own minds with indecision and a lack of commitment to a course of action. Maybe we haven't clearly defined our goals or how we are going to get there.
Some friction is external to us such as the failure of alignment of resources from key groups. Some is very clear and out in the open, and some is hidden like burrs on a nail.
Minimize and Resolve
Whether you are trying to improve the results of a specific team or person, building new technology or ramping up a multi-year growth strategy, friction is present. Whether in skills limitations, technology schedules, scarce resources or simply in the battle for people's minds and imaginations, we as leaders have to be ready to deal with friction.
While it's helpful to try to minimize friction up front, it is also necessary to be ready to spot and resolve those things on the fly. Here are three steps to effectively dealing with friction in your efforts:
1. See Friction For What It Is : Inevitable. If you are responsible for getting things done you must be alert for signs that progress is being impeded by something. Is there a key metric you watch for that is drifting or is stalled? Is there certain language people use that sets you on edge? If the project manager says in three straight status meetings that "we are working through some issues with (put department name here)", then friction exists and you must help resolve it. Don't forget to look at yourself. If your attention is waining or other things are getting in your way, you may be the source of the slowdown. Organizations are made up of well intentioned, hardworking people and they aren't trying to make things difficult. Circumstances and crisis can also get in the way ... no, will get in the way. Acknowledge them. Expect them.
2. Think Through The Friction's Source. I have often seen large technology efforts fall behind schedule because specific skills and resources are not available. I've also experienced long-term strategy execution struggle as the calendar turns: people become interested in other things; new challenges and opportunities appear. Each of these and others can exert friction on efforts to get things done that are to benefit the long term needs of the business. It is critical that leadership maintain focus and resolute commitment to getting these things done. In fact, our will is really all we have to combat friction. Try not to react to symptoms, but get to the source of the friction. Be prepared to ask a lot of questions before you get to this.
3. Act To Persevere and Achieve Within The Friction. By staying in the friction and working through it's attendant challenges we develop the patience and perseverance needed to overcome current and future obstacles. I've seen executives become so frustrated with friction that they throw their arms up in surrender and proclaim, "this place is too hard to get things done in." This defeats not only the current effort but is an attempt to throw responsibility over the wall to others. By taking the reins and responsibility to resolve these issues, we learn to minimize issues along the way so that future efforts will travel a smoother road.
So what about our Pinewood Derby car the next year? Second place! Whether in Pinewood Derby cars or in your business' goals, much works against success. Like the burs on the nails of my son's derby car, much of it is unseen and requires some good detective work to get to the bottom of it.
3. Act To Persevere and Achieve Within The Friction. By staying in the friction and working through it's attendant challenges we develop the patience and perseverance needed to overcome current and future obstacles. I've seen executives become so frustrated with friction that they throw their arms up in surrender and proclaim, "this place is too hard to get things done in." This defeats not only the current effort but is an attempt to throw responsibility over the wall to others. By taking the reins and responsibility to resolve these issues, we learn to minimize issues along the way so that future efforts will travel a smoother road.
So what about our Pinewood Derby car the next year? Second place! Whether in Pinewood Derby cars or in your business' goals, much works against success. Like the burs on the nails of my son's derby car, much of it is unseen and requires some good detective work to get to the bottom of it.
