Work that helps you follow through on promises to customers creates value — everything else wastes resources.

As organizations become bigger, their gravity gets stronger. Their size, bureaucracy, and politics distract you from the work that matters. Spend too much time in this gravity vortex, and one day, you'll find yourself irrelevant. Ben Horowitz said,

"Somewhere there is a guy in a garage who is gunning for your business. He knows your weak spots and he is making plans for your destruction."

Let's think about your team or organization as a river. It's a big, wonderful river with clear, cool water. The water flows steadily, not out of control, but with strong inertia in the right direction. Then things get added to the river. At first, a few pebbles don't seem like a big deal, but these minor annoyances require that the water move around them. The inertia slows but keeps going, so you don't pay attention. Then, a handful of sticks meet up at a bend, creating a significant obstacle for the river. Eventually, banks of sediment build up, requiring us to spend energy and resources navigating the river.

What was once clear water is now muddy. We can't see the obstacles in the muddy water, and the river starts to fracture. The big clear river running smoothly in the direction of our vision is now going in different, smaller directions. Some of those directions might be good, and some end in a stagnant pool of wasted resources.

The pebbles are small annoyances, the sticks are process hurdles or egos, the mud is unclear communication, and the rocks are policy barriers enacted to compensate for a lack of judgment (and often, talent). Now your mission is fractured into a tangled mess of creeks and swamps meandering through the reeds. We don't have flow; instead, we have friction. Here are a few ways to think about your flow.

Questions for Organizational Flow:

* Direction: Are you flowing toward your true north, or has gravity pulled you off course? Like a river gradually meandering away from its intended path, teams can drift from their mission through small, seemingly reasonable decisions.

* Clarity: Is your water clear enough to see the bottom? Murky communication, a lack of truth, and confused beliefs don't just slow progress — they make it impossible to spot and navigate the obstacles ahead. You might be headed for rapids no one will survive.

* Friction: What debris has accumulated? Every organization builds up resistance over time. Some obstacles are obvious — rigid policies to prevent past mistakes or approval steps that grew like barnacles. Others lurk beneath the surface — pet projects no one questions, processes justified by tradition rather than value, and unspoken rules that no one understands or dares to change.

* Quicksand Banks: Where are your resources being silently swallowed? These are the most dangerous zones — branches of your organization or initiatives that seem valid on the surface but actually consume endless resources with no real return. Like quicksand, they can appear solid until you're already stuck, constantly pulling in more resources in failed attempts to make them viable.

Nature has ways of clearing obstacles. Whether through storms or floods, catalysts come along to restore flow. Here are some ways you can restore your own flow.

Internal Flow Restorers — Things You Can Control

Clarity

Clarity of vision provides a lens to make decisions. With this clarity, the team can remove obstacles, close off unproductive branches, or avoid quicksand banks. Without clarity, everyone wanders off trying to find the way.

Culture

Culture creates a "riverbed" that guides movement. Culture is the sum of our individual actions each day. Each time you add or remove someone from the team, you change the culture. What behaviors are acceptable and unacceptable? Like vision, you must be clear on your riverbed.

Truth

Truth acts like clear water, revealing both opportunities and dangers beneath the surface. When truth flows freely, everyone can see where they're going and what stands in their way. But the water turns muddy when a culture discourages truth-telling — whether through fear, politics, or simple neglect. In murky waters, teams stumble over hidden obstacles and miss valuable opportunities. And often, it's what you can't see that ultimately sinks you.

External Flow Restorers — Things That Force Change

Crisis & Competitive Threats

These act like flash floods. They can clear debris but can be destructive. What makes them so valuable is they force rapid reassessment of what's truly important. They also break the internal echo chamber by showing the real-world consequences of your situation.

Catalyst Hires

These new team members join with fresh eyes and can see the accumulated debris that the internal team has learned to navigate. They bring experience from other "rivers" and know what "good flow" looks like. When they combine the best of their old rivers with your river, together you can create something special. They also bring no emotional attachment to current obstacles and old decisions.

Environmental Changes

Rivers must adapt to the landscape just as you must adjust to the changing environment. Markets evolve, customers' needs change, and new paths emerge. If you’re too focused on navigating your internal obstacles, you might miss these changes and find yourself in a dry riverbed.

Your Role in the Flow

We each have a responsibility to ensure the river is flowing in the right direction, the water is clear, and we remove obstacles. Just like each pebble changes the course of the river, each person does too. You are either impeding or enhancing flow.

Think about your behavior, the emails you send, the work you ask for, and the things you say. All of these end up in the river. You must fight for a river that is clear and headed in the right direction. It will go off course; do your part to get it back on track. But if you find yourself constantly fighting everyone else, maybe you are in the wrong river.

It's easy to say that it's "above my pay grade" or "it's hopeless." When you start saying that, you should leave. If you stay, focus on what you can control.

Consider your impact:

* Are you a rock that others must navigate around?

* Is your way of behaving stopping the truth from flowing?

* Are you adding sediment that muddies the water?

* Are you doing work that really matters or are you pulled by gravity?

* Are you creating obstacles, clearing them, or just complaining?

* Are you so focused on your small stream that you forgot the river is the main thing?

* Are you so caught up in gravity and echo chambers that you don't see the threats drying up your riverbed?

Flow is a leadership responsibility — and we are all leaders. Whether you are leading a team of 1,000 or just yourself, you have a responsibility to lead and fight for flow. Leadership isn't about position or title — it's about contribution to flow. You are either helping flow or you are debris that is getting in the way of the mission.

Your River

This doesn't just apply to organizations — it applies to life too. How's your river? Has gravity pulled you away from what really matters? What obstacles are in your way? Are they real? What is the truth?

Our thoughts can create obstacles—mental dams that stop our flow. The pebbles we drop in our river don't just affect us. They impact our friends, families, colleagues, and communities. Like water, we naturally follow the path of least resistance unless we consciously choose otherwise. Every choice, every action, and every word we put into our "river" has consequences.

If you are like me, your river needs attention. Don't be overwhelmed. Just work to make it better each day than the last.

Be good and take care, Kelly

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kellyvohs.substack.com

Flow and Friction: How Organizations Lose Focus and How to Find It Again

Powered by Wave AI