The Real Cost of Friction
Friction in a delivery system bills you three times: in money, in time, and in people. Only the first one shows up in a budget, which is why organizations keep paying the other two.
Why it matters
Most organizations can design value. Far fewer can deliver it consistently, because the delivery system itself leaks. The gap is not strategy, it is operationalization. Naming all three costs makes the invisible two arguable in a room where only money usually counts.
Run these three questions
- Where is our delivery system creating friction that undermines value we have already designed and paid for?
- Which processes exist to protect the organization rather than to serve the customer?
- What is the emotional cost to our people of maintaining this, and who is absorbing it?
Worked example
A programme is behind, so a consultancy is brought in to optimize delivery. Optimization assumes the foundation is sound. The fees are the financial cost, and they are the only one on a slide. The time cost is the redundant approvals and coordination theatre that made the programme late in the first place. The emotional cost is the team that has now rebuilt the same thing three times and has stopped raising problems early. You cannot optimize your way out of structural dysfunction. You can only spend a great deal of money learning that slowly.