Beyond Broken: Embracing Friction as the Pathway to Repair

I've been reflecting a lot recently on the twin themes of brokenness and repair.

It started when I ruined my favorite pair of shoes by putting them into the tumble dryer after they had been soaked by a rain storm last summer. This (foolish) act of destruction led me along a path in which I collaborated with a local artist to turn my ruined shoes into a sculpture; which in turn led us to establish an exhibition that included an interactive “Museum of Broken Things”, where guests were invited to contribute something from their own story that was broken.

We all break things: toys, plates, legs, even hearts. Sometimes those things mend. Sometimes they don't. The marks and the memories of these cracks in our humanity are all around us. But, increasingly, I am finding myself convinced that this lens of brokenness and repair is critical, not only for understanding the path to transformation, but also understanding why friction is (contrary to what we can sometimes assume) an inevitable part of the human experience, including the experience of school.

Let's begin with the big idea, that is still an idea in the making. For the time being, I'm calling it The Wheel of Brokenness: A Taxonomy of Human Fragility & Repair and suggesting that it might be a framework for understanding the different kinds of brokenness we encounter and how repair, as a fundamentally creative act, plays a role in creating resilience, meaning, and transformation. A first draft (not yet in the form of a wheel) can be found below.

There's clearly more work to be done on this idea, but there are already a number of implications that we might be able to apply to our understanding of the task that lies ahead of us.

1. Everything is in a state of entropy and decay and everything is connected. When we think about experience, we simply cannot ignore the interconnectedness of the categories outlined above, nor their tendency to descend into chaos without the impulse to repair.

2. Storytelling, art, problem-solving, making, mending and even experience design are all ways of resisting, meaning making, and modes of repair that can transform the human experience. Moreover, repair is not merely an act of fixing but a way of designing stronger, more enduring, transformative experiences.

3. We tend to design experiences to be smooth, frictionless, and predictable. And yet, the moments that truly shape us—whether in business, education, or life itself—are rarely perfect. They are the ones where something goes wrong. So, what if brokenness isn’t the enemy? What if the most powerful experiences aren’t the ones that never falter, but the ones that stumble and find a way forward?

Let's think about this for a moment. A business’s most loyal customers often emerge not from flawless service, but from how the company responded when something broke. The best teachers don’t just deliver content; they create space for students to fail and recover. And the most powerful stories aren’t about effortless success—they are about struggle, transformation, and the act of putting something back together.

So, could it be that the future of business, education, leadership, and schools won’t be defined by seamless efficiency—but by our ability to repair, reinvent, and rebuild?