By Marianna Randazzo, Training Specialist at Excellence Education
Let us imagine this scene: two managers examine the same résumé. Both have received the same job description, the same requested profile, the same evaluation criteria. And yet, faced with that candidate, they arrive at completely different conclusions. One calls them a promising talent and suggests hiring them immediately, the other considers them unsuitable and discards them without hesitation.
It is not a technical error. It is something more subtle and less visible: it is Noise.
Noise according to Kahneman
Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002, together with Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein, dedicated an entire book to this topic: Noise. A flaw of human reasoning. The concept is simple but revolutionary. If cognitive biases are systematic distortions that influence our judgments, Noise is the unwanted variability that makes different people, or the same person at different times, give inconsistent answers to identical problems.
Think of a judge who assigns very different sentences to similar cases, or of a doctor who prescribes opposite treatments to patients with the same symptoms, or let us imagine a manager who at the beginning of the week evaluates a team member extremely positively, but at the end of the week, aided by accumulated fatigue, drastically scales down that judgment.
Noise is not an occasional anomaly: it is an invisible constant that runs through every human decision-making process.
When Noise enters companies
In organizations, Noise has deep and often underestimated effects. It shows up when different teams interpret the same corporate strategy in opposite ways, or when two sales managers evaluate the same client with criteria that do not match, generating confusion and incoherence in the relationship with the market.
Noise creeps into selection processes, when similar candidates are treated in completely different ways depending on the interviewer. It sneaks into performance evaluations, when the criteria are not clear and judgments depend more on the boss’s mood than on the work done. It is amplified in strategic choices, where variables such as time pressure, personal interests or simple emotional context can weigh more than objective data.
The problem is not only theoretical. Noise costs: it costs in terms of efficiency, because incoherent decisions slow processes; it costs in terms of internal climate, because people lose trust when they perceive arbitrariness in evaluation criteria; and it costs in terms of reputation, because outwardly incoherence means little professionalism.
The temptation of procedures
Many companies, aware of these risks, try to reduce Noise by introducing stricter rules, standardized evaluation models or decision-support software. These are useful tools, but not sufficient. Because decisions are never just mechanical calculations: they are crossed by emotions, perceptions, moods, individual sensitivities.
The risk, indeed, is that an excess of procedures generates another kind of problem: the feeling that the organization is cold, impersonal, unable to grasp nuances. Thus, while trying to eliminate Noise, one ends up suffocating precisely that human dimension that makes companies alive and innovative.
Soft skills as an invisible antidote
Here another lever comes into play, less visible but just as powerful: soft skills.
A manager who knows how to listen attentively reduces the risk of divergent interpretations. A leader who communicates clearly and consistently makes the decision-making process more stable and transparent. Those who know how to manage stress and maintain clarity under pressure limit the influence of momentary mood on judgments.
Soft skills do not erase Noise, because a certain margin of difference between people is inevitable and even useful. What they do is make it less cumbersome and more governable, preventing it from degenerating into confusion or conflict. In this way, decisions are not dictated by the mood of the day, but by clear, shared criteria oriented toward respect for people.
Why Noise is an opportunity for growth
Looking at Noise does not only mean defending oneself against a risk. It also means opening a new perspective on the quality of leadership. Every time an organization asks itself how to reduce unwanted variability in its decisions, it takes a step toward a more aware, more transparent culture, more attentive to people.
Conclusion
Noise cannot be seen, but it can be felt. It is perceived in latent conflicts, in inconsistencies, in the daily frustrations that slow the life of companies. Reducing it means giving back clarity and solidity to decisions, strengthening mutual trust and freeing organizational energy.
Rules alone are not enough. Not even the most advanced technology can replace what truly matters: managers capable of cultivating their relational skills and turning them into a strategic resource. In the end, the solidity of an organization does not depend only on processes, but on the quality of the people who animate them.
Kahneman, D., Sibony, O., Sunstein, C.R., Rumore. Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment 2023.
