Workplace friction is typically viewed as something leaders should eliminate. A new book from organizational psychologists Maggie Sass, PhD, and Ross Blankenship, PhD, argues that leaders may be missing valuable information when they move too quickly to resolve tension, disagreement and emotional discomfort at work. Friction: How Tension, Emotion and Change Reveal Better Leaders will be published September 22, and explores how leaders can use difficult workplace moments as opportunities to better understand their organizations.
Drawing on findings from the authors’ National Emotions Survey of U.S. working adults, Friction examines three forms of workplace friction: tension within individuals, friction between people and friction created by organizational systems and structures. Instead of seeing all friction as a problem, Sass and Blankenship encourage leaders to ask what the tension may be revealing.
“Friction tells us something,” said Sass. “The challenge for leaders is learning to understand the information within that friction before deciding how to respond.”
The book addresses situations familiar to HR professionals and organizational leaders, including difficult conversations, interpersonal tension, organizational change, misalignment and maintaining performance when circumstances become challenging. For HR and learning leaders, the authors’ approach offers a different way to think about employee resistance and workplace conflict. An employee pushing back on a change initiative, for example, may not simply be demonstrating resistance. The reaction may reveal a lack of clarity, concerns about implementation, previous experiences with unsuccessful change or a problem that leadership has not yet recognized.
Recurring conflict between employees may point beyond the individuals involved to competing priorities or organizational systems that unintentionally create tension. “Leaders don’t need to eliminate every kind of friction,” said Blankenship. “Friction can be a signal that something important is happening. The key is learning to distinguish the friction that wastes people’s time from the friction that helps them grow. When leaders learn to work with friction, rather than simply manage around it, they can turn tension into clearer decisions, stronger relationships and better results.
Friction provides 45 practical strategies, organized as Hacks, Habits and Hard Things, helping readers navigate emotional and organizational challenges. The strategies are intended for leaders at all levels, including newly promoted managers, experienced executives, human resources professionals, executive coaches and others responsible for teams, projects and organizational change. The book also includes a companion website and downloadable worksheets to help readers apply the concepts and experiments in their own workplaces.
Friction will be available September 22 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers. For more information, visit https://www.talentsmarteq.com/friction/.
About the Authors
Maggie Sass, PhD, is an organizational psychologist, executive coach, and Executive Vice President of Content, Research, and Professional Services at TalentSmartEQ. She is a former senior faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership, coauthor of Better Conversations Every Day, and a contributor to the ATD leadership handbook. She lives in San Diego, Calif.
Ross Blankenship, PhD, is an organizational psychologist and executive coach and founder of Tuesday Advisors, a leadership coaching and consulting firm. He is the author of Everyday Leadership: A Guide to Developing Your Mindset as a Leader and Assessing CEOs and Senior Leaders. He also writes Theory of Change, a Substack newsletter focused on how people make sense of their lives through work, identity, and periods of transition. He lives in Birmingham, Ala.
About Friction
Friction: How Tension, Emotion and Change Reveal Better Leaders by Maggie Sass, PhD, and Ross Blankenship, PhD, will be available September 22, 2026, through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers. More information: TalentSmartEQ — Friction