Friction with others can mean conflict. It can also be a dynamic that helps spark ideas, in which new thoughts and approaches bloom, solutions are found, and loopholes are closed.
But most of us try to avoid friction—especially in the workplace.
We tend to gravitate towards situations and people that look agreeable, rather than stand out with a possible alternate thought or view that could lead to friction, and thus, conflict. Yet disagreement over ideas “is where creativity shines,” says Roni Reiter-Palmon, psychologist and professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and director of its Center for Collaboration Science.
We may believe acquiescing helps move a project along, with everybody agreeing and nodding their head in shared approval. But disagreeing over what to do and how to do something can actually crack that door open to more innovative solutions, Reiter-Palmon says.
Highlighting obstacles doesn’t mean an idea is dead. Instead, it’s an opportunity to look at a situation from another angle without having to spill into relational conflict.
“It’s that conversation when we integrate and think about different perspectives and pieces that helps creativity,” Reiter-Palmon says.
Friction creates ‘aha’ moments
Integrating different perspectives, creating harmony from chaos, is exactly what brains do naturally. While people may think of friction as an arduous process, our brains are often trying to resolve ambiguity and uncertainty—all without us even trying.
Take, for example, the brain teasers we often find online: an image that can resolve into a face or vase, depending on how we see. Scientists call these “bistable illusions,” where both images are stable and able to be seen two different ways, just not at the same time. Our brain shifts back and forth, without much effort, to test a new view and see the alternate illusion.
Dynamic friction, tension that may erupt, for example, as people problem-solve, can also be valuable creatively in a group environment. It’s a state that can lead to brainstorming moments, says Elizabeth “Zab” Johnson, executive director of the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania.
A 2024 study on workplace conflict backs this; 50% of people surveyed said conflict, when managed, can improve their creativity and help create better connections with their coworkers. This kind of dynamic can lead to moments where “breakthroughs happen—‘aha!’ moments on teams,” Johnson says.
Learning to seek discord
We spend a lot of time at and outside work avoiding friction. We order lunch on apps, turn to AI to generate reports, and send hurried catch-up emails to friends rather than meet for coffee. We’ve replaced our social interactions with digital touch points.
But our eagerness to avoid potential conflict can lean towards the mundane. Just ask Kirsten Blakey, who ran a series of studies at the University of Toronto around the topic of disagreement, and focused on something extremely mundane: rocks.
In one study, people looked at two images of rocks; one was orange, the other purple, and participants were asked which was heavier. The answer appears pretty inconsequential. But then they were asked who they wanted to discuss the rocks with in order to learn more: someone who agreed with them or someone who disagreed. Blakey was surprised to see people more likely to want to engage with those who agreed with them. (Plot twist: They were the same kind of rock and weighed the same; they were just different colors.)
“We didn’t think that adults in particular would be so unwilling to engage with disagreement,” says Blakey, now a lecturer in developmental psychology at Liverpool John Moores University in England.
Luckily, we can retrain ourselves to seek out disagreements and embrace a bit of debate back into our lives. Blakey and her coauthor found that people became more willing to seek out someone whose ideas diverged from theirs when they were made to watch a video about how disagreement can be helpful, or were counseled to consider someone else’s action before choosing their own.
Getting comfortable with discomfort
An openness to express or engage in differing opinions is not always an easy task at the office, however. Some workplaces clearly value camaraderie over debate. Others try to set “brainstorming rules” mandating that people can share, but not criticize. Or that people should look at the pros and cons of an idea, even if one side clearly doesn’t work.
Instead, when groups can honestly debate ideas, rather than stick to artificial peacekeeping or brainstorming rules, something interesting happens: You get a 9% boost in ideas overall, according to a study out of the University of California, Berkeley.
Friction is a subject that Gina Dokko has been thinking about for years. A professor at the Graduate School of Management of the University of California, Davis, she looks at how companies bring people into new work cultures, and the friction that can come up at the transition points. Workspaces bear some of the burden of creating a culture where discussions can be rewarded and ideas not shot down, she says.
But while friction can be viewed as both a negative and a positive, it’s when people lean into the positive side that they can help create something new.
“There’s a tension between creativity and productivity,” Dokko says. “Nobody’s creative when they’re too comfortable.”
In many corporate settings, friction is something usually stamped out. But if workers are able to step out of their comfort zones and embrace it, it could be just the creative, innovative solution a company is looking for.