organization
Decision rights design
Clarifying who can make which decisions restructures organizational behavior. Decision rights — the formal and informal authority to commit the organization to a course of action — are the most consequential element of organizational design. When decision rights are clear, decisions are made quickly by the people best positioned to make them. When decision rights are ambiguous, decisions are delayed by confusion, escalated by uncertainty, and duplicated by multiple people who each believe they have the authority (or obligation) to decide. Redesigning decision rights — clarifying who decides what, and moving decisions closer to the relevant information — is one of the highest-leverage systemic interventions available.