In The Friction Project, authors Robert Sutton (an organizational psychologist) and Huggy Rao (a behavioral scientist) study friction within organizations. Sutton’s premise is as follows: “If we focus on what to make easier and faster and what to make harder and slower, life will be better for workers and the people they serve.” His suggestion for business owners: “…put ‘grease people’ in places where friction ought to be low and ‘gunk people’ in places where friction ought to be high.” Sutton outlines a variety of relevant principles, including: (1) leaders are trustees of other people’s time; (2) we all have responsibility for confronting unnecessary friction; and (3) organizational design is the highest form of friction fixing.
For more on the subject, check out Dahlia Lithwick’s classic article on Chaos Muppets vs. Order Muppets. Which are you?