Every business has friction. The question is whether you’re managing it or just living inside it.
Friction is anything that slows the work down without adding value. The approval process that takes longer than the actual work. The meeting that existed because it was on the calendar, not because it needed to happen. The tool that requires six steps to do one thing. The team structure that makes a simple decision require four people.
I’ve seen founders spend years building fast while their systems moved slow. The ambition was real. The velocity was imaginary. Because everything took longer than it should have — not because the problems were hard, but because the friction had been allowed to accumulate without anyone deciding to address it.
Friction doesn’t announce itself. It normalizes. You stop noticing it because it’s always been there. The six-step process becomes the process. The slow approval becomes the expectation.
This week: pick one thing. Not everything — one thing. The single point of friction that slows down what matters most. Identify it specifically. Not “communication is bad” — where, between whom, at what point in the process?
Then remove it or reduce it. One move. Make it smaller friction if you can’t eliminate it entirely.
Businesses accelerate not when people work harder but when the system stops fighting them.
The Takeaway
Friction doesn’t disappear on its own — name the specific thing that slows you most and remove it this week.
Keep Moving Forward!
Not-So-Guru
If this one landed — The Not-So-Guru Manifesto is waiting.