Fast Company: UNO Expert Highlights the Benefits of Friction in the Workplace
Fast Company features UNO expert Roni Reiter-Palmon, Ph.D., on how addressing obstacles within your team is valuable to group creativity and inspiration.
- published: 2026/09/11
- contact: Jazlynn Sanders - Office of Strategic Marketing and Communications
- email: unonews@unomaha.edu
➡️ What’s new: University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Industrial/Organizational Psychology Professor and Graduate Program Director Roni Reiter-Palmon, Ph.D., provided insight to Fast Company on how when employers step out of their comfort zones and embrace friction, it could increase their team's overall productivity and cohesiveness.
“We may believe acquiescing helps move a project along, with everybody agreeing and nodding their head in shared approval. But disagreeing over what to do and how to do something can actually crack that door open to more innovative solutions,” Reiter-Palmon explained.
💡 Why it matters: Reiter-Palmon emphasizes the idea that friction can be a positive thing in the workplace. She explains that organizations often gravitate toward people and ideas that align with one another, rather than encouraging different perspectives and mindsets that can introduce new ways of thinking. She states that highlighting these differences is important because, “disagreement over ideas is where creativity shines.”
🔎 The big picture: Reiter-Palmon is one of the world’s most highly cited researchers in the field of industrial/organizational psychology, regularly appearing on the prestigious Stanford-Elsevier “Top 2%” list, which ranks 100,000 of the world’s leading researchers who have made a substantial impact on their respective fields through their citation influence.
About the University of Nebraska at Omaha
The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is Nebraska’s premier metropolitan university, committed to innovating for the public good, advancing social mobility, powering workforce development, and serving as a hub for community engagement. Nearly 15,000 Mavericks choose UNO for its hands-on education experiences, nationally ranked online and graduate programs, military-connected student support, and innovative approaches to supporting lifelong learning. UNO holds the Carnegie Research Activity “R2” designation, securing more than $40 million annually in external research funding and counts its faculty among the world’s most cited scholars. Sixteen Omaha Athletics programs compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Summit League and National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC).
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