Here’s a word you never thought you’d need to know: TRIBOLOGY.
A tribologist studies the friction between interacting surfaces and, surprisingly, it’s quite a broad field. Tribology is needed for maintaining machinery, replacing human joints, designing basketball shoes and many more dissimilar fields. Too much friction and the machine / artificial joint / shoes will stick; too little friction and the machine / artificial joint / shoes will slip.
My interest in tribology stems from my belief that leaders need to master friction to get the most out of their people. Sometimes the friction needs to be dialled down through conflict management, sometimes it needs to be dialled up to pursue alignment from different perspectives ,and sometimes, in complex negotiations, we dance with friction to keep it at the right level for the circumstances.
Positive Friction is about knowing when and how leaders should use friction.
And it’s powerful when done well – if leaders could negotiate better, resolve conflict better and be better at harnessing the contributions of their teams, it would fix profit, retention, productivity, alignment, and so much more!