Friction Audit: Coaching for Effortless Action

We tend to think that if people truly care about their goals, they will act on them. In coaching, we often assume that clarity creates momentum, that once someone knows what to do, they will naturally do it. Yet behavioural economics and cognitive psychology tell a different story. Motivation alone is rarely enough. The missing ingredient is friction.

What is Friction?

In behavioural economics, friction costs are the small, often invisible obstacles that make desired behaviours harder to do. They might seem trivial, such as an extra password prompt, a form that is too long, or a meeting scheduled five minutes after lunch, but these micro-barriers have a disproportionate effect. Each adds a few grains of resistance to the wheel of action.

Over time, friction quietly shapes our behaviour more than our intentions do. We are all cognitive misers: we conserve mental energy by defaulting to the easiest available option. So when friction stands between us and the right choice, we drift toward the easy one instead.

Coaching Through a Behavioural Lens

From a coaching perspective, this insight changes everything. A coachee might leave a session with a strong sense of purpose and a clear action plan, and still fail to act. That is not laziness or lack of commitment; it is often environmental mis-design.

When we pay attention to friction, we start coaching not only the person, but also their context. We help them remove what slows progress and add gentle barriers where impulsive or unhelpful behaviours sneak in. This dual process, reducing friction for helpful habits and increasing it for unhelpful ones, becomes what I call a Friction Audit.

The Friction Audit in Practice

A Friction Audit is a structured coaching conversation that explores three questions.

1. Where does action already feel easy and natural?

2. Where do you experience unnecessary resistance?

3. What could we remove, simplify, or design differently?

Together, coach and coachee trace the journey from intention to execution and notice where things snag. Perhaps the weekly reflection form lives in a hidden folder. Perhaps a team’s meeting structure demands multitasking that drains attention. Perhaps the reminder to prepare for appraisal appears on a Friday evening, a time when energy is lowest.

By spotting these patterns, we shift from "try harder" to "design smarter."

Designing for Effortless Action

Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s work on nudge theory reminds us that behaviour is largely shaped by choice architecture, the way our environments are organised. In coaching, we can apply this by redesigning small features of a person’s context so that the desired behaviour becomes the path of least resistance.

For example:

• A teacher who wants to start weekly reflections might keep the reflection document open on their desktop, pair it with their morning coffee, and use an automated calendar prompt.

• A student trying to revise might store their phone in another room and keep only one tab open per subject.

• A leader wanting deeper one-to-ones might add five minutes of protected reflection time before each meeting to note observations and questions.

Each change lowers the cognitive load of doing the right thing.

At the same time, we can add positive friction to unhelpful habits. Log out of distracting apps between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Make junk food slightly harder to reach. Require an extra step before sending late-night emails. These tiny delays help break automatic loops and create space for more intentional choices.

A Simple Framework

Here is how you can guide a Friction Audit conversation.

1. Define the Target Behaviour: What exactly do you want to make easier or harder?

2. Map the Current Process: List each step from intention to completion.

3. Spot the Friction Points: Where do time, complexity, or emotion get in the way?

4. Design the Smooth Path: Remove, reduce, or automate low-value effort.

5. Add Strategic Resistance: Build small barriers around habits that drain energy or focus.

6. Test and Review: Reflect weekly. What became effortless? What still sticks?

This method works well within CRfD reflections, performance coaching, or student goal-setting sessions. It encourages agency, self-efficacy, and compassionate accountability, helping people design conditions for success rather than berate themselves for inconsistency.

Why It Matters

Coaching through friction invites a subtle but profound shift. Instead of seeing discipline as a matter of character, we see it as a matter of design. We stop judging ourselves for not being motivated enough and start curating environments that make motivation unnecessary.

This approach echoes research from self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 2000): autonomy and competence flourish when obstacles are reduced and actions feel self-initiated. By attending to friction, coaches help coachees experience both. The goal is not to eliminate challenge, but to remove the needless clutter between intention and action so effort is spent on growth, not logistics.

The Hidden Gift

When people run a Friction Audit consistently, they discover something deeper than habit change. They begin to see how small design tweaks ripple into emotional wellbeing: clearer focus, reduced decision fatigue, greater trust in their own follow-through. They experience effortless action, a state where doing the right thing feels natural rather than forced.

And that is the quiet power of coaching through friction. You do not just help someone act differently; you help them design a life that runs smoothly in the direction of their values.

Deci, E.L. and Ryan, R.M. (2000) ‘The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior’, Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), pp. 227–268.