How do you know whether you are fixing the real problem — or simply treating the symptom?

In this episode, Anna Ahrenfelt and Marten Stenfors continue the FIND–FIX–BUILD conversation and move from seeing invisible friction to doing something about it.

Organizations often ask for help because teams work in silos, decisions take too long, conflicts have become stuck or people are not taking enough responsibility. These are real problems, but they are not necessarily the underlying cause.

Through stories from their own experience, Anna and Marten explore why quick fixes, leadership programmes, training, new processes and outside experts can sometimes reduce a symptom without changing what created it. Anna also reflects on the consultant’s role: not to walk in and “fix” a living system, but to ask questions, facilitate conversations and help the organization see its own patterns more clearly.

They also discuss why resistance should be treated as information. Sometimes it expresses fear, uncertainty or loss. Sometimes it reveals something important that the organization has missed. Either way, listening to it can lead to a better and more lasting fix.

This episode focuses on FIX — understanding the system, looking beneath the visible problem and creating solutions the organization itself can carry forward.

Next: BUILD — how do we stop waiting for problems to appear and start building a healthier organization from the beginning?

The episode leaves you with one question:

What have you tried to fix in your organization that didn’t work, or perhaps even created a new problem?

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What has become so normal in your organization that you no longer recognize it as friction?

In this episode, Anna Ahrenfelt and Marten Stenfors explore the first step in working with invisible friction: finding it.

They discuss why friction is rarely as obvious as a bad process or open conflict. Often, it lives in routines, workarounds, assumptions and ways of working that people have simply become used to.

Through stories from their own experience, they explore why outsiders and new employees sometimes see things that insiders no longer notice, why copying solutions from one organization to another rarely works, and why treating symptoms can sometimes create even more friction.

They also introduce the Friction Scorecard as a diagnostic lens and conversation starter — not a truth score. The purpose is not to tell an organization where its friction is, but to help people look together, compare perspectives and begin asking better questions.

This episode focuses on FIND. In the next episode, the conversation moves to FIX: what do you do once the friction has become visible?

The episode leaves you with one question:

What has become so normal in your organization that you no longer recognize it as friction?

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What needs to be in place for people to use more autonomy and still move in the same direction?

This episode continues directly from the conversation in Episode 5. Anna Ahrenfelt and Marten Stenfors move from the shift from control to responsibility to what leaders need to create when people are given more room to think, decide and act.

Using an ice hockey team as an example, Anna explains why autonomy does not mean less structure. People need a clear outcome, boundaries and shared principles – but within that space, those closest to the work need room to use their judgement as reality changes.

They explore how trust and accountability work together, why shared understanding cannot simply be communicated from the top, and how leaders can create conditions where more of the organization’s intelligence is actually used. They also turn the lens back on the leader: autonomy requires the ability to tolerate different solutions, mistakes and not knowing every decision being made.

This is Part 2 of the conversation recorded in the same sitting as Episode 5.

The episode leaves you with one question:

When you look at the way your organization is led and managed today, what behaviours is that system actually teaching people – engagement and responsibility, or waiting for permission?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.