In Denmark, wide, safe bike lanes sit next to the roads.
At IMD, my Swiss business school, the café serves free food.

These might sound like small things—but they’re not. They’re intentional design choices that reinforce what matters most in each context.

Because when something matters, the best way to make it happen is to make it inevitable.

I’ve been traveling in Europe—revisiting places I once called home—and I’m seeing familiar systems with fresh eyes.

Denmark isn’t just a biking culture—it’s a biking system. The infrastructure says: this matters. And because friction is low, participation is high. Even I—a very middling bike rider—zipped around the city with confidence, biking alongside cars and pedestrians in a way I never would in the U.S.

At IMD, yes, you get a world-class education. And the café? That’s part of the value. By removing barriers to connection—no bill, no scheduling, no distance—it makes peer learning not just possible, but inevitable. You’re not only learning from faculty. You’re learning through conversations with people from every industry, country, and walk of life.

Both Denmark and IMD have done something quietly powerful:
​They’ve identified what matters—and removed the friction.

We can do the same—in our lives and in our organizations.

Liminal spaces—between jobs, cities, relationships, or during a reorg or an organizational growth spurt—are prime territory for this kind of redesign. Why? Because the system’s already disrupted. It’s the perfect moment to redesign how things work.

Case in point: when I was looking for a new home city after the pandemic, I knew staying active mattered to me—but it wasn’t going to happen unless I made it easy and inevitable.
So I chose a southern city where the weather would draw me outside, and a home right next to the pickleball courts.

If there’s something you’re trying to do and it’s not happening, ask yourself:
– Am I actually clear on what I want?
– What friction might be getting in the way?
– How could I remove it?

To practice, try this:

Pick something small you want to do—but haven’t.
(Maybe it’s reading more. Maybe it’s going to bed earlier. Maybe it's asking for help at work.)

Now:
– Ask: What’s making it harder than it needs to be?​
– Then: Remove one piece of friction.

For example:
– Want to read more? Put a book where your phone usually lives. Charge your phone in another room. Now when you reach for distraction, your default is different.
– Going to bed earlier? Use smart tech to automate a shift: lights dim at 9, Wi-Fi shuts off at 9:30. The system winds down, so you do too.
– Want to ask for help more quickly at work? Create a team ritual where everyone posts one weekly “stuck point” in a shared channel. Now it’s normal—not vulnerable.

Bonus: ​
​Removing friction is even more effective when you do it with others.​
​Shared systems make follow-through more likely—and more sustainable.

That shared channel at work.
Your whole family following suit on the new bedtime ritual.
Reading a book with a friend and planning a debrief chat.

Don’t just make it easier—make it automatic. ​
Make it hard not to do.
Make it shared.
Make it frictionless.

Because we can't all move to Denmark to make biking a way of life—
but we can all choose what matters and design our systems to support it.

Feeling the friction—in life or at work—but not sure where to start?
​I'm back from vacation next week: book a call and we'll get started.