Driver 3 · Rhythm Intelligence

Friction

Where work slows long before anyone notices.

Friction is the silent tax on execution. It rarely appears in dashboards, yet it slows movement early through delays, rework, decision churn and tool drag. Driver 3 shows where momentum leaks and how to restore clean flow.

Why this driver matters

Friction is the silent tax on execution. It rarely appears in dashboards, yet it slows movement long before metrics shift. Teams feel it as delays, rework, decision churn and tools that add cognitive load instead of removing it.

Driver 3 matters because friction compounds over time. A small delay today becomes a stalled cycle next week. When friction rises, momentum weakens even when people are working hard.

How friction behaves inside a team

There are five recurring forms:

Process drag. Steps that exist without purpose.
Decision friction. Decisions that bounce, stall or need to be reopened.
Tool friction. Systems that create extra work instead of reducing it.
Coordination friction. Unclear handoffs that require repeated clarification.
Parallel work friction. Multiple streams colliding for attention.

None of these issues are dramatic alone. Together they drain energy from every cycle.

Business impact when friction grows

When Driver 3 weakens, the effects show up long before performance drops. The slowdown is subtle at first but entirely predictable.

Cycle time increases. Work takes longer than expected to complete.
Decisions slow down. Teams wait for alignment that never arrives.
Rework rises. Work moves, but not in the right direction.
Workload feels heavier. Not because of volume, but because flow breaks.
Momentum drops. Progress becomes inconsistent across weeks.

When friction is reduced, execution sharpens within a single 30-day cycle. Work moves in larger, cleaner chunks, and teams regain forward motion.

Where friction actually comes from

The sources usually sit upstream, not inside the team:

Old constraints. Processes built for previous priorities.
Unclear ownership. No one drives work across handoffs.
Tools chosen for reporting. Systems optimised for oversight, not flow.
Leadership uncertainty. Decisions pushed down without clarity.

Rising friction is a signal that the operating system has fallen out of sync with the current reality.

A quick diagnostic for Driver 3

Use this two week drag test:

What should have moved by now, but hasn’t?
Where did the delay actually come from?
Is it a one off or a repeating pattern?

Patterns reveal true friction. Exceptions rarely matter.

Resetting friction inside a 30-day cycle

When friction becomes the focus of a Reset, the intervention is direct and practical:

Remove one recurring blocker that slows multiple teams.
Stabilise one weekly decision surface so decisions land once.
Fix one broken handoff that causes repeated delays.
Reduce tool switching by tightening where work lives.

The goal is not to optimise everything. It is to remove what slows the system the most.

How this driver interacts with others

When Driver 3 drifts, other parts of the model begin to wobble:

Clarity (1). Friction hides the real priorities in noise.
Focus Fragmentation (2). Slow flow pushes teams into parallel work.
Ownership (5). Ambiguity around who clears the blockers.
Rhythm (7). Cycles feel heavier, longer and less predictable.
Momentum Data (9). Signals scatter when work stalls mid cycle.

Driver 3 gives leaders a practical way to restore flow and reduce cognitive load fast.

Continue exploring the drivers

Driver 3 shows where momentum leaks. Next comes Trust & Safety, the driver that determines how quickly the real picture surfaces.

Drivers (1–9)