Whenever ONA’s team feels friction — interpersonal, product, customer — they run toward it rather than away. This is both a cultural value and a business strategy. As a Spotify founder put it: “The value of your company is the sum of the complexity of all problems solved.” The biggest problems carry the most friction, and therefore the most value.
The business logic is straightforward: avoiding conflict limits available data points. If product and engineering stop talking to each other, the organization can’t make optimal decisions. If fears go unspoken, critical information stays hidden. Running toward friction is running toward better decisions.
“If you’re avoiding tension, if you’re avoiding your fears, if you’re avoiding conflict in your organization, you’re limiting the amount of data points that can help you make a better decision.”
Trust is both a prerequisite and a product of this approach. When teams go into difficulty together and come out feeling like they’ve made better decisions, trust compounds. The cycle is self-reinforcing: friction → transparency → trust → more willingness to face friction.
Related Concepts
- “Open the drawer” as cultural practice
- Fear as road map, not enemy
- Safety comes from working through conflict