In this drop
The point: Not everyone gets a vote in your head.
Why it matters: Noise drives poor decisions under pressure.
Try next week: Circle, truth sources, then decide.
The point
IT Ops is loud. Even on a good day, you’re surrounded by opinions, escalations, and messages that want your attention right now.
If you react to all of it, you’ll spend your week being pushed around by whoever spoke to you last. That is not leadership. It’s a live poll.
Reality check
If everyone gets a vote, the loudest voice wins.
One proof
External source: Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass Sunstein, Noise (2021). The core idea is simple: judgment gets messy when inputs are inconsistent and everyone “sees” something different.
Field note: In a single incident bridge, you can hear five competing narratives in five minutes. If you don’t anchor to truth, you’ll chase noise.
Where this breaks
This fails when the culture punishes honesty. If people can’t say “I don’t know” or “I disagree” safely, you won’t geta signal. You’ll get theatre.
Try this next week
Pick five people max as your trusted circle.
Pick two truth sources that keep you honest under pressure.
When feedback hits, check truth sources first, then circle, then decide.
Three links I’m watching
Noise (Kahneman, Sibony, Sunstein) for a clean way to think about judgment variability.
A short piece on incident leadership and decision discipline.
A practical guide on turning metrics into decisions, not dashboards.
One question for you
Who currently has the loudest vote in your head, and have they earned it?
Allan
PS: Want the audio version? Listen to the Signal Drop here: [Spotify link]