How Friction Is Created

Friction is not a personality issue.
And it does not originate in people as a flaw or failing.

It is created by operating model design.

Every organization makes design choices, how work flows, how decisions are made, how risk is absorbed, how success is measured. Those choices define the constraints the system operates within.

Humans, leaders, teams, and customers, execute inside those constraints, absorbing risk, ambiguity, and emotional load the system has not resolved.

Under pressure, people adapt in predictable ways.

Decision-making narrows. Risk tolerance drops. Ownership blurs. People optimize locally when the system is misaligned globally.

Those adaptations are rational.
They are also cumulative.

Over time, they become embedded in how the operating model actually functions, through added approvals, informal workarounds, shadow processes, and slowed execution.

This is why structure-only redesigns fail.
And why leadership or mindset work without system change doesn’t hold.

Sustainable execution emerges only when the operating model is intentionally designed for how humans actually behave under pressure—not how we assume they will behave in theory.

Where Change Begins

We don’t begin with declarations or big redesigns.
We begin with designed, bounded movement, small enough to observe clearly, real enough to expose constraints.

That movement may take different forms depending on where friction is most visible:

  • A focused execution experiment

  • A contained pilot (sometimes involving AI or automation)

  • A redesign of a specific decision or ownership loop

What matters is not the artifact.
What matters is what it reveals.

Early work is used to surface:

  • Where decisions stall

  • Where ownership blurs

  • Where human behavior and system design are misaligned

Pilots are not endpoints.
They are lenses.

They allow us to see what actually needs to change before committing to larger shifts.

What Holds Under Pressure

RebelEdge designs for change adoption, not implementation.

Adoption fails when the operating model assigns accountability without authority, enablement, or access to resources.

Telling someone they are accountable, while forcing them to navigate multiple hierarchies, competing priorities, and permission chains, is not empowerment.


It is friction by design.

That is why RebelEdge starts with operating model architecture, not change management.

From Command and Control to Enabled Teams

Most organizations are still structured around command-and-control hierarchies built for efficiency and risk avoidance, not adaptability.

In those systems:

  • Resources are fragmented across silos

  • Decisions move upward instead of toward the work

  • Teams wait for permission to act or spend

  • Accountability diffuses under pressure

RebelEdge works with leaders to redesign the operating model so teams are aligned around a shared mission, resourced to execute, and trusted to make decisions at the edge, within clear guardrails.

As complexity increases, these structures amplify friction instead of absorbing it.

Designing for Accountability, Enablement, and Empowerment

Adoption becomes durable only when three conditions are designed together:

  • Accountability
    Ownership is explicit, decision rights are clear, and responsibility does not escalate by default.

  • Enablement
    Teams have access to the resources, information, tooling, and funding they need to execute, without navigating multiple layers of approval.

  • Empowerment
    Authority is pushed to where problems are felt, supported by clear boundaries rather than centralized control.

These are not leadership traits.
They are structural outcomes.

The Infinite Business Operating Model

The Infinite Business Operating Model is a way of designing organizations so resources, authority, and decision-making move toward the work—without being trapped in silos or permissioned hierarchies.

This is the logic behind the Infinite Business Operating Model.

Rather than organizing work around rigid hierarchies and siloed functions, the Infinite Business Operating Model is designed to:

Eliminate friction created by disconnected structures

Maximize shared resources instead of duplicating them across hierarchies

Align teams around outcomes rather than titles or reporting lines

Balance stability in core operations with continuous adaptation

In this model, leaders shift from controlling execution to designing the conditions that allow execution to scale.

How Adoption Progresses

Early in the work, RebelEdge may play a more active role in shaping structure, clarifying decision rights, and re-architecting how resources flow.

As the operating model stabilizes:

  • Teams take on greater ownership

  • Leaders move from approval to coaching

  • Partners or internal operators lead execution

  • External involvement intentionally decreases

This progression is not incidental.
It is designed into the system from the start.

Success is not defined by how long RebelEdge stays involved.
It is defined by when teams can execute, adapt, and reallocate resources without asking for permission.

That is what adoption looks like when it’s real.

The Three Motions of Our Work

1. Make Reality Visible

We create shared clarity around how work is actually flowing today, without blame or spin.


This surfaces the real constraints shaping behavior and outcomes.

This includes:

  • Decision paths

  • Ownership boundaries

  • Execution constraints

Clarity is not consensus.
It is accuracy.

2. Redesign for Pressure

We redesign operating conditions so the organization can function when things are hard.


This accounts for fragmented attention, real tradeoffs, and pressure-driven decisions.

This includes:

  • Making ownership and decision rights explicit

  • Designing feedback loops that correct early

  • Aligning execution rhythms so progress doesn’t depend on heroics

Psychological safety isn’t trained.
It’s designed.

3. Build Internal Capacity

We work alongside leaders and teams to strengthen judgment under pressure.


This normalizes learning through motion, not theory.

This includes:

  • Active participation from leadership

  • Candor about what’s working and what isn’t

  • Willingness to test, adjust, and learn in motion

We don’t optimize for comfort.
We optimize for traction that holds.

What This Is Likely to Feel Like

Early on:

  • Clearer

  • Sometimes uncomfortable, not because of confrontation, but because vague explanations stop working

  • Grounded in real work

Over time:

  • A lighter operational load, earned rather than immediate

  • Faster, cleaner decisions

  • Less reliance on escalation and control

If you’re looking for certainty before movement, this may not fit.
If you’re willing to move in order to gain clarity, it often does.

A Conversation

A first conversation is a working session.

We’ll explore:

  • Where friction is showing up now

  • What kind of movement is realistic in your context

  • Whether working together would be useful

You should leave with:

  • A clearer picture of what’s actually in the way

  • Language to describe it accurately

  • A sense of whether this approach fits your leadership style