Does it seem like your workdays are filled with more meetings, emails, notifications, procedures, and calls? Are there more people working on fewer tasks? Has collaboration become more like suffocation? If the answer is yes, your organization may be suffering from “addition sickness.” In their book, The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder, Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao define addition sickness as, “the unnecessary rules, procedures, communications, tools, and roles that seem to inexorably grow, stifling productivity and creativity.” Addition sickness isn’t new, but recently it seems to have become a pandemic. Speaking of, “the” pandemic could be partly to blame. With respect to the overabundance of meetings, remote or hybrid work could be to blame. Without the ability to connect with their team members in person as often, managers often feel more pressure to build connections digitally through an excess of meetings. It’s also easier to stack meetings back-to-back when employees are simply participating by Zoom without having to actually walk from one office or conference room to another.
Employees also have a natural tendency to ask themselves, “What can I add here?” Employees want to feel like they add value often resulting in too much talking when collaborating or brainstorming, implementing new rules or procedures when solving a workplace issue, hiring more team members when tackling a new project or inviting more “essential” employees to more meetings. There is an actual term for this, “addition bias.” In a Nature publication, University of Virginia researchers explain why people rarely look at a situation, object or idea that needs improving and think to remove something as a solution. Instead, people almost always add some element, even if it isn’t helpful. Researchers Leidy Klotz, Gabrielle Adams, Benjamin Converse, and Andrew Hales found that when problem-solving, additive ideas quickly and easily come to mind, whereas subtractive ideas require more cognitive effort. Converse said, “Because people are often moving fast and working with the first ideas that come to mind, they end up accepting additive solutions without considering subtraction at all.” The effect is self-reinforcing according to the researchers. “The more often people rely on additive strategies, the more cognitively accessible they become,” Adams said. “Over time, the habit of looking for additive ideas may get stronger and stronger, and in the long run, we end up missing out on many opportunities to improve the world by subtraction.”
Good and Bad Friction
What exactly is friction in the workplace? Simply stated, it’s anything that slows down work and prevents employees from moving faster. The remedy to addition sickness isn’t to get rid of all friction as friction can be good or bad according to Sutton and Rao. Not everything in the workplace should easy, quick and without some tension and frustration. Although it feels good to agree and have ideas validated, the absence of conflict rarely produces the best solutions in the workplace. Good friction may result from developing strong, lasting workplace relationships, making difficult, irreversible decisions, and using critical thinking skills. Often, creative work is complicated, full of missteps and mind-numbing exploration. However, that type of workplace activity can produce good, necessary friction.
Alternatively, bad friction can occur when workplace obstacles prevent employees from getting things done, drain their energy, and stifle their creativity. For example, bad friction permeates a room when a garrulous meeting attendee is allowed to talk ad nauseam off topic and outside the agenda. After Zoom meeting number four, bad friction emanates from the computer screen as attendees’ glazed over eyes seek relief. What about the “reply all” offenders who reply all to an email to thank one colleague for help with a project? What can good leaders do to get rid of addition sickness and bad friction in the workplace?
Good-Riddance Review
The first step is to conduct good-riddance review to identify the obstacles preventing employees from getting work done, decreasing productivity, and simply annoying them and leading to disengagement. What is happening in the workplace that is not only bringing no value, but is bringing everyone down? In Robert Sutton’s Friction podcast, guest and venture capitalist, Michael Dearing, aptly describes good leaders as “editors-in-chief” of their organizations. Just as book or film editors relentlessly reduce text and film to the essentials, so too should a good organizational leader. Dearing describes workplace “blockers” that bore, distract, and exhaust people. Blockers may be anything from workplace politics to taxing procedures that drain and cause disdain among employees.
Ways in which to identify blockers include:
- Asking customers and workplace colleagues their thoughts on unnecessary obstacles.
- Reviewing communication tools such as email, recurring phone calls and texts to determine their necessity.
- Observing meetings to determine whether only critical attendees are invited, and if attendees offer value and stay on point. How many meetings are called and for what purposes?
- Auditing the number of employees reporting to each manager/supervisor and how many employees are assigned to a particular task or project.
- Reviewing performance management tools. Is the assessment tool working? Is it burdensome? How many people assess each employee?
- Reviewing hiring procedures. How many interviews are conducted prior to presenting an offer? Does a vacancy really need to be filled?
- Reviewing long-standing customs and rituals. Are they fulfilling their intended and desired purpose?
The next step is to create a plan for eliminated or subtracting those obstacles. One way to subtract is to implement strict constraints to corporate procedures to eliminate unnecessary impediments. For example, some companies conduct endless rounds of interviews with a candidate before extending an offer. Implementing an only four interviews rule with prior supervisory approval for exceptions could save enormous resources and reduce bad friction. Adhering to strict guidelines for exceptions is key. The number and length of meetings could be vastly reduced by implementing strict time limits per agenda discussion topics. A time limit forces participants to be succinct and purposeful with their words.
Another simple subtraction strategy is to impose a “rule of halves” in which employees are asked to reduce workplace burdens by half. For example, employees are tasked with sending half as many emails, having half as many direct reports and conducting half as many meetings. These workplace burdens likely won’t actually be reduced by half, but they will be greatly reduced. The rule of halves also puts employees in the proper mindset of reducing unnecessary burdens. Before long, it becomes part of an organization’s culture.
Just like breathing oxygen depleted air caused by extreme carbon dioxide concentrations can lead to suffocation and eventually death, “jargon monoxide” can leave employees gasping for air and feeling suffocated. Jargon monoxide is the needless, hollow wordiness that plagues so much workplace communication, coordination, and collaboration. A very effective way to subtract obstacles in the workplace is to eliminate unnecessary jargon and complexity. Workplace “editors-in-chief” must take care to use plain language in all communications that is clear, simple, and straightforward and train others to do the same.
Get Smart HR
Coco Chanel is thought to have said, “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and remove one accessory.” Wouldn’t the workplace be so much better if this mindset became ingrained in its culture? Instead of asking, “Who else can I include on this email?” how about, “Do I really need to send this email to that person?” Instead of asking, “Who else needs to interview this candidate?” what about stating, “Four people have interviewed and approved this candidate so I will extend an offer.” The adage “less is more” can vastly reduce bad workplace friction that undermines creativity and productivity and frustrates employees. If your workplace could use a fresh set of eyes to identify workplace obstacles causing bad friction and help implementing some subtraction tools, get Smart HR and call today.
