Does what you do cause friction or flow?

In a recent blog post from Harvard Business Review, J. Craig Mundy encouraged HR professionals to ask themselves if their activities are helping the organization operate smoothly or if they are creating a rub or friction. That’s a great question for all professionals to ask themselves throughout their workdays and their careers.

Here are a few questions to evaluate your performance in this area:

• Do you write emails that provide clear and concise information to the receiver? Or do you leave out details assuming the reader understands what you mean, has the attachment you are referring to, or remembers what happened in a meeting two months ago?

• When new projects arise, are you always too busy? Do you consider how you might be able to arrange your own work priorities, streamline another task or eliminate unimportant work to attack a project that has a direct impact on the bottom line?

• When someone comes to you with a question, do you consider everything that colleague needs to know to get the job done? Or do you offer the least amount of information and assume that the person will ask the right questions?

People who hoard information, time and resources because of laziness or lack of will to find a solution are causing friction. That doesn’t mean you should put your important goals in jeopardy to attend to every crisis, but you should consider deeply whether you can create flow with your creativity and willingness to help make your organization a success.

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