"Validation can be the opiate of management. A room full of nods and applause might feel like progress, but beware of moving forward without moving wisely. I've seen moments where team enthusiasm outpaced reality. When the emperor has no clothes, the illusion can tank a business."
"Friction, by contrast, tells you when something's off. It pinpoints where your assumptions are flawed, your plans overreaching or your innovations clashing with reality. After a career in high-stakes, tech-driven environments from live sports arenas to billion-dollar deals, I've found that the most valuable insights are often wrapped in discomfort."
"When a teammate, investor or customer challenges your idea, the instinct can be to double down or simply move on from the issue. Instead, ask: What risk are they seeing that I'm not? Their pushback revealed flaws in authority, information flow and role design that would have cost us even more time and trust had we written it off as mere aversion to change."
Validation and team approval can create a false sense of progress, masking underlying problems that derail businesses. Friction, however, serves as a diagnostic tool that identifies where assumptions are flawed, plans overreach, or innovations clash with reality. Resistance from teammates, investors, or customers should not be dismissed as rejection or change aversion. Instead, it signals untranslated risk that deserves investigation. When administrative staff resisted a new system at a media company, their pushback revealed critical flaws in data access, authority structures, and role design that automation alone could not solve. Treating resistance as valuable feedback rather than obstruction prevents costly mistakes and builds stronger solutions.
Read at Entrepreneur
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