Friction plays a very important role in the mechanics of life. Nails and screws remain fixed when these are driven by friction, machines operate only in presence of friction and it would just impossible for a person to walk on a friction free surface. Even in our daily lives, we see friction in the form of arguments between people. But friction is really important in knowing the world and learning to act better. This does not mean any shallow argument but a well-defined learning phase.

Friction, or we say conflict, creates logical questions when we speak to the person, be it our friends, colleagues or customers. Rather than considering such conflict as a source of pain, it should be considered as an opportunity to be creative, innovative & transformation, and there are many ways to execute it. When two people are in conflicting phase, they have the tendency to act differently and think creatively than taking routine course of actions. They get the chance to step into others’ shoes and learn from their perspective but unfortunately, they don’t follow.

We consider conflicting situations as battle fields while the alternate case could be thinking of it as a dancing room. In battle fields, there are winners & losers while in dancing room, there are partners who know different art forms but collaborate to win together. They possess unique skills but they complement each other. They enjoy what they do and bring out extraordinary results which no could ever imagine.

Similarly in many corporates, the team leaders are often engaged in solving internal employees’ issues than focusing on business growth, they are mostly trying to compel one person to accept others’ thoughts while the better way is to reframe their minds and create a new solution out of those conflicts. The conflicting situations should be turned into brainstorming sessions for accelerating the results. The outcome should focus on fairness, logics and its future impact. The moment friction changes from conflicting thoughts to complementary ideas, it simply leads to speedy growth, accelerates the whole process and solves the situations in more defined manner.

It’s better to be shown the right way when you are wrong than proving others wrong. It’s useful when clients & business suppliers, employees & employers, and cross functional teams create synergies by integrating thoughts for mutual growth. It’s beneficial when we choose growth & acceleration during friction than choosing to find mistakes.