Organisational Friction – The Hidden Weight Slowing Your Progress

Even well-led, capable teams can feel heavy. Progress slows, decisions drag, and everyone’s busy without clear momentum. That isn’t a failure of effort – it’s friction.

Organisational Friction builds up quietly through unclear communication, overlapping roles, or cumbersome processes. Like Parasitic Drag in aerodynamics, it resists forward movement and drains energy from the system.

You’ll often see it in the gap between how people describe the business and how it actually operates. Teams do their best, but invisible resistance stops things running smoothly. Meetings repeat, feedback loops break, and leadership ends up compensating through sheer effort.

In the LIFT Model, friction connects most directly to the Purpose and Process Pillars.
• Purpose requires focus and direction (Responsibilities, Core Imperative, Discipline, Team-Sense).
• Process demands clarity and consistency (Approach, Alignment, Attitude, Awareness).

When these weaken, delivery becomes harder than it should be. Strategy may be sound, but the environment isn’t built to support it.

Reducing friction starts with visibility. Map your processes, not from an operational chart but from lived experience. Ask where work stalls or where ownership blurs. Focus on three levers:
• Clarity of purpose – is everyone aligned on what matters most?
• Consistency of process – are routines helping or hindering progress?
• Confidence in people – do teams trust the system enough to move faster?

When these align, the business starts to feel lighter. People stop duplicating work, decisions happen at the right level, and communication reinforces rather than confuses.

Ask yourself:

Where does effort feel harder than it should – and what would happen if you removed the friction, not just pushed harder?

Call to action:

Wingman helps leaders uncover the hidden sources of drag through the LIFT Scoping and Evaluation Programme. If progress feels heavy, we’ll show you where resistance lives – and how to turn it into lift.