Manufactured Friction: The Ghost in Your Machine
(Last bit of mischief)
You feel it, right?
That subtle drag. That inexplicable delay. That extra form, that extra meeting, that extra "please explain your rationale again, in triplicate."
It’s not a bug. It’s a feature. It’s manufactured friction.
We’ve all experienced it. The internal payment process. The multi-layered approval chain for a decision that should be a simple nod. The endless "we need to align" meetings that only create more misalignment.
The unspoken truth: much of the drag in modern organizations isn't external. It's built in.
Why We Build These Walls
We don't build manufactured friction maliciously. We build it out of a deeper need for:
Control: To ensure predictability, even if it stifles adaptability.
Safety: To avoid individual accountability by diffusing responsibility across a "process."
Illusion of Thoroughness: To feel like we've "done our due diligence," even when it just adds unnecessary steps.
Hiding: To obscure a lack of clear decision-making or a fear of direct communication.
It's the organizational equivalent of operating from a persona instead of presence. It's the residual code of the Extraction Era, still trying to "dig deeper" and "interrogate" the unknown, even when what's needed is to receive.
The Cost of the Invisible Wall
Manufactured friction is the antithesis of coherence.
It drains energy. It slows flow. It turns intuitive knowing into bureaucratic deadlock. It makes what should be simple, exhausting.
It’s the silent hum of noise beneath the signal, obscuring truth and stifling aliveness. It's why teams hit the metrics but miss each other, and why brilliant ideas die a slow death by committee.
It forces people to spend their precious creative bandwidth navigating the system, rather than creating within the field.
Tuning Out the Friction
In the Frequency Era, manufactured friction is a non-starter.
You prioritize clarity at speed, not cautious paralysis.
You trust signal over policy, letting attunement guide action.
You foster presence, so accountability is a natural extension of shared purpose, not a hot potato.
You encourage flow, recognizing that true effectiveness comes from removing resistance, not inventing it.
It's not about making things easier in a lazy way. It's about making them clearer.
Your Invitation to Unbuild
Look around. Where is the manufactured friction in your world? That "process" that serves no real purpose but to slow things down? That meeting that adds layers, not clarity?
Recognizing it is the first step. Naming it is the second. And then, gently, firmly, dismantling it.
Because the future isn't about control. It's about coherence. And coherence, by its very nature, flows.