A self-reinforcing cycle in which fear of automation causes teams to use it selectively — which makes the automation less reliable — which increases the fear. ## The Spiral Mechanism 1. Team uses automation tools (Ansible, Chef, Puppet) but only selectively — for specific tasks, tweaked each run 2. Because it's run inconsistently, the team isn't confident what it will do if run fully 3. Fear of unintended side effects → manual changes instead of automation 4. Manual changes introduce [[Configuration Drift]] 5. Drift makes the automation less reliable when they do try to run it 6. More fear → more manual changes → more drift → loop ## Observable Signal At DevOpsDays: majority of teams use automation tools; minority run them unattended on schedule. The gap between "use" and "run continuously" is where the spiral lives. ## The Fix Run automation **continuously and unattended** — on a schedule, not on demand. Make automation the system of record. Any deviation (manual change) gets overwritten on the next run. This forces all real changes through code, which prevents drift and builds trust in the automation over time. The counterintuitive insight: you trust automation more by running it more often, not by running it carefully and selectively.