Lots of fuss is made around distinguishing the noise from the signal and rightfully so. Noise can be incredibly distracting and can set your course in the wrong direction. But, in my experience, that doesn’t mean that noise is to be ignored. If you do, it can move around your org like a runaway train, and those who aren’t able to distinguish will suffer.

What people observe (in other words, their context) matters a lot. Whether you like it or not, that includes both noise and signal, but in reality, mostly noise.

What can not be directed, cannot be controlled.

Over the past few years, as our org grew in size, we split our comms channels into function-based channels (like everyone does). However, as we’ve needed to downside, those various channels don’t serve the function they were intended to; surfacing comms to a select set of people responsible for those specific issues. So, I recently made a slightly controversial decision to direct all internal support-related communications (we have around 50 people) into one Slack channel.

The obvious (and expected) downside of this was an increase in volume/flow though one channel, which can be hard to effectively manage. The upside was that I (and more importantly, the rest of the team) now have a beat on the noise and chatter that revolves around our operations. With that, we can begin to make strides on managing it.

Without letting the noise flow in a controlled direction, it’ll naturally flow into pockets of the org, making it very difficult to manage.

Fixate on the noise.

If your job is to create an environment where progress can thrive, start by making sure you have a pulse on the noise. For only then can you effectively tease out the signal for the team.