Happy Friction

👋Hi! I'm Molly. This is where I share the lessons I’ve learned from building fast-moving, messy, ambitious companies. For more from me, you can also find me on the WorkLife Podcast, on LinkedIn, and in Glue Club, a community for leaders who care about building great companies.

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One of the myths we tell ourselves in startups is that speed is everything. Move fast, make decisions, unblock, unblock, unblock. But sometimes — when the stakes are high or the tradeoffs are invisible — great leadership means slowing things down on purpose.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge believer in minimizing process unless it’s necessary and running as lean and as fast as you can in most cases. But I’ve also learned that there are times when you want to make things a little hard — when you want people to stop and think before they hit that button, spend that money, or hire that person.

That’s what I call happy friction. (Yes, I know “happy friction” sounds a little smutty. We’re rolling with it.)

Happy friction is like a speed bump. It’s something you add on purpose to make people pause. Ideally, not because you’re afraid to delegate, but because the cost of getting it wrong is higher than the cost of going slow. It’s friction that sends a message: this matters.

Here’s a simple example: Hiring.