In Chapter 10 of Nobody Designed This, we explore Organisational Friction.

This chapter explains why organisations full of capable and committed people can consume extraordinary effort without producing an equivalent effect. It defines organisational friction as the additional work, delay and human burden created when purpose must cross organisational boundaries, rules, systems, and relationships. It distinguishes protective friction from avoidable obstruction and introduces the Organisational Friction Map and Friction Profile for revealing where effort and time are absorbed, displaced, and normalised.

This chapter explores the concept of organisational friction, which represents the hidden costs and human burdens incurred when work crosses misaligned boundaries, systems, and relationships. It distinguishes between wasteful obstruction, which forces employees to perform unnecessary navigation work, and protective friction, which provides essential safety and quality checks. By introducing the Organisational Friction Map, the author categorises the system sources that drain efficiency and create heavy cognitive and emotional loads for staff. Rather than demanding more effort from individuals, the text argues for intentional design that makes productive tasks easier while ensuring safeguards remain purposeful and proportionate. Ultimately, the source provides a diagnostic framework for leaders to identify where invisible labour compensates for design flaws, enabling them to repair the organisational "joins" that impede progress.

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