The Art of Action: How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions, and Results

by Stephen Bungay

Friction is a function of the finitude of the human condition – the fact that our knowledge is limited and the fact that we are independent agents.34 It matters when we work together in organizations because we are then trying to overcome our limitations as individuals by pooling our knowledge in order to achieve a collective purpose. Our limited knowledge is due to things we could know in principle but happen not to – that is, lack of information – and things we could not know even in principle – that is, unpredictable events. And the fact that we are independent agents with wills of our own means that there is further information loss in transmitting and processing information between each other, and we can react differently to that information – even if it is perfectly transferred – because we have independent wills.