It is easier for a team to do a hard thing that really matters than to do an easy thing that doesn't really matter.

Meaning matters more than difficulty

There's something counterintuitive here that most people get wrong about motivation. We assume that easier tasks feel better and harder ones feel worse, so we gravitate toward low-friction work. But anyone who's spent a day on busywork knows the real drain isn't difficulty—it's meaninglessness. An easy task that goes nowhere leaves you depleted. A genuinely hard task that matters leaves you tired but satisfied.

Teams especially feel this contrast sharply. When people are unified around something that actually counts, the difficulty becomes almost beside the point. You'll see colleagues stay late, collaborate across departments, and push past obstacles they'd normally complain about. But ask that same team to optimize a process that ultimately doesn't change much, and suddenly efficiency vanishes. People drag their feet. Energy flatlines.

The practical takeaway isn't to make everything harder—it's to get ruthlessly clear about what actually matters to you and your team, then aim there. The challenge itself becomes the glue. You're not grinding through difficulty; you're moving toward something real.