Pause For Thought
Running an organisation has its challenges, but fundamentally it’s a simple concept: provide something customers want or need, and remove the obstacles that get in the way of them paying you.
Some obstacles are put in our way and should demand more of our attention. The challenge is that we often add to the obstacle pile ourselves with a few own goals along the way. Obstacles typically fall into three categories: behavioural, procedural and cultural.
We’ve run this diagnostic session with a wide range of organisations all over the world, and it consistently uncovers irritations, whether raw or long-established, that make it easier for people not to perform at their best at work.
Working hard in the business is considered the standard, and any time spent away from those efforts is often seen as a cost. People may attend, but their minds are on the work they’re not doing while taking part in sessions that focus on the business rather than in it.
This habitual way of working is misaligned with achieving sustained success. The real costs show up elsewhere: errors caused by speed and miscommunication, hostile behaviour brought on by long hours, silos created through a focus on individual targets rather than the bigger picture, burnout when people reach breaking point, and the ongoing need to recruit replacements when tolerance levels are finally exceeded.
So, you tell me, what is the real cost?
The cost of investing time, effort and money into improving how you run your organisation, or the reactive costs of not doing it?
Insight
I found this article by Roshan Thiran really interesting. In it he argues that organisational culture is shaped less by inspirational messaging and more by how easily people can perform the behaviours leaders want to encourage. He introduces the idea that leaders are “friction managers”: desirable behaviours should have minimal barriers, while undesirable behaviours should face more obstacles. Many workplace initiatives such as recognition programmes, feedback systems, learning platforms, and wellness tools fail not because their goals are flawed, but because the processes surrounding them are cumbersome. When employees encounter excessive steps, approvals, logins, or confusing systems, participation drops, regardless of how strongly leaders promote the initiative.
His article suggests that culture is fundamentally a design challenge. People naturally follow the path of least resistance, so organisations should reduce friction for behaviours like collaboration, recognition, coaching, and learning, while increasing friction for negative behaviours such as blame, gossip, and reactive decision-making. Thiran recommends that leaders personally experience key employee processes, measure every step involved, and identify the most frustrating barriers. By removing these small but significant obstacles, organisations can create systems that make desired behaviours easier and more natural, allowing culture to evolve through everyday actions rather than through vision statements alone.
To read the article in full visit: https://www.leaderonomics.com/articles/leadership/culture-is-built-by-friction-managers
News
Skills England published its first Annual Skills Report on 1st June. The report reinforces what many of us have been observing for some time: the UK’s skills challenge is no longer simply about preparing new entrants for work, but about continuously reskilling and upskilling the existing workforce. As technological change accelerates, particularly through AI and automation, employers are increasingly seeking flexible, practical learning solutions that can be deployed quickly and deliver measurable
business impact. The report’s emphasis on shorter learning pathways, modular training and transferable skills reflects a growing recognition that traditional models of workforce development are no longer sufficient to meet the pace of change facing organisations across every sector.
For learning and development providers like ourselves, the report presents both an opportunity and a responsibility. Employers need partners who can help build not only technical capability, but also the human skills that underpin adaptability, collaboration, critical thinking and effective decision-making in an AI-enabled workplace. The focus on priority sectors, regional skills planning and SME engagement highlights the importance of tailoring learning solutions to specific workforce needs rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach. Success will increasingly depend on providers’ ability to create accessible, relevant and engaging learning experiences that help individuals develop the skills needed to thrive while supporting organisations to close critical capability gaps and drive long-term growth.