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A surprisingly large proportion of what we do each day does not directly add value to the final product or outcome; estimations of the exact percentage varies depending on the type of work. Some of this activity is actually necessary as it provides structure, control, and reliability and includes things like maintaining records, confirming compliance with regulations, and reporting performance.
However, mixed in with this necessary work is something else, activity that genuinely does not help the work move forward at all - and in fact, probably slows things down and makes life more difficult. While there may be some major process issues in here, there are also many small inefficiencies, minor frustrations, or repeated workarounds.
The difficulty is that these issues rarely appear as major visible or graspable problems. They are infused through everyday work and absorb a few seconds here, and a few minutes there:
Each individual irritation seems too small to justify significant attention and yet together they create drag on both performance and morale.
The encouraging part is that, as most of these irritations are individually small, they can often be tackled one at a time, and the positive impact of each may be surprising.
Most organisations do not struggle because of one dramatic failure or issue. More often, performance is gradually and persistently eroded by the accumulation of small frictions embedded in everyday work. These frictions arise from a variety of sources such as:
Process irritations
Physical or environmental irritations
Interpersonal or cultural irritations
Each instance may appear minor and so not justify a major initiative on its own. But because these frictions occur repeatedly, and they interact with each other and across many people, they accumulate into a meaningful loss of productive capacity.
Friction in a machine converts useful energy into heat - and usually some sort of damage; organisational friction has a similar effect. Effort is expended, but less progress is achieved. Over time, this affects not only how much work gets done, but how work feels.
These small irritations don't only consume our time, they also consume our attention. Whenever a process is unclear, when an environment is distracting, or when we anticipate a recurring difficulty, part of our mental capacity becomes occupied with tracking and managing the issue. This particular aspect of our increased 'cognitive load' can result in reduced focus, increased fatigue, reduced patience, increased likelihood of small errors, and a gradual reduction in discretionary effort.
In order to get on with our work, our brains try very hard to ignore or filter out irritations, but the brain continues to register them. A flickering light draws intermittent attention, background tension in a meeting causes people to monitor reactions more carefully, or unclear expectations create low-level uncertainty. Each requires a small adjustment of attention, and while individually these effects are minor, collectively, they compound:
People just want to get on with their jobs and don't want to make waves, so they rarely raise these issues because each one seems trivial. Yet the cumulative effect is often expressed as 'everything feels slightly harder than it should be'. When work consistently feels harder than necessary, engagement is affected, progress feels slower, effort feels higher, and motivation is reduced.
However, the reverse is also true. Even small reductions in friction can create a noticeable sense of progress. When work flows more smoothly, people often experience greater clarity, momentum, and satisfaction. Small improvements can have an effect that is disproportionate to the effort required to make them.
Persistent irritations do more than reduce efficiency. They also send cultural signals about what the organisation is willing to accept. Over time, people adapt to the environment in which they work and if small problems remain unresolved:
New employees quickly learn what is considered 'normal' simply by observing what continues without being addressed and so these small irritations become part of the ambient culture.
There are many reasons why people may not raise observations: not worth it, the issue is too small, nothing will get done, or sometimes the environment just doesn't feel safe enough to highlight problems that might appear trivial. Over time, this reluctance to speak up, and the effort required to decide whether it is acceptable to mention an issue at all, creates an additional layer of friction.
Do you ever wonder why people don't speak up? Where psychological safety feels higher, small irritations tend to surface earlier and are easier to address, where perceived psychological safety is lower, irritations accumulate silently and become normalised.
Leaders often focus on major initiatives or strategic decisions. Yet culture is shaped just as much by everyday experience. When small frictions are consistently addressed, the organisation is communicating its:
Culture forms not only through stated values, but through what is consistently noticed and acted upon.
Small irritations rarely appear in formal reports; they tend to reveal themselves indirectly, so listen for phrases such as:
And look for behaviours such as:
As a leader, curiosity is an important behaviour, so observe, question, listen, look for patterns:
While small frustrations can compound, so do small improvements. Organisations rarely improve through one large change alone. More often, performance improves through the steady reduction of friction.
Leaders don't need to solve every irritation personally. However, they can create conditions where irritations are surfaced and addressed early. Small improvements often require modest effort. They improve performance and reduce cognitive load. They demonstrate responsiveness which in turn builds trust. Trust increases willingness to highlight further opportunities to improve. And this creates a virtuous reinforcing cycle in which both performance and engagement benefit.
Reducing small irritations rarely feels dramatic or appears strategic. Yet over time, the compounding effects are significant as each small improvement can increase, clarity, confidence, speed of execution, consistency of performance, and willingness to take initiative. Removing friction also improves the experience of work. When visible progress feels easier, motivation tends to increase. When systems support rather than hinder, people are more likely to contribute ideas and take ownership and the overall momentum builds. These are all attributes of a healthy functional organisation.
Addressing everyday irritations sends a powerful cultural signal: that details matter, that people’s effort matters, and that improving the way work happens is part of the work itself.
Over time, this creates an environment in which progress feels easier; and where people are more inclined to make things better still. A self-improving organisation - how good is that!
Ad Futurum
Graham