What goes wrong when you ignore that decision rights design?

The most common reason fails: Delegating decisions without delegating information and accountability. Pushing decisions down the organization without ensuring that the decision-makers have the information they need produces poor decisions — not because the people are less capable but because they lack the inputs that good decisions require. And delegating without accountability produces decisions that are made but not owned — no one feels responsible for the outcomes. Effective decision rights delegation is a package: the authority to decide, the information to decide well, and the accountability for the decision's consequences.

The fix: Audit the decision rights for your team or function. List the ten most common decisions your team makes. For each decision, identify: (1) Who currently makes this decision? (2) Who should make this decision? (the person closest to the relevant information and most affected by the outcome). (3) What approval is currently required? (4) What approval is actually necessary? (5) How long does the decision currently take from initiation to resolution? For each decision where the current decision-maker is not the optimal decision-maker, or where unnecessary approvals add delay, design a revised decision right that moves the decision closer to the information and reduces unnecessary approval layers. Implement one revision this week.

The underlying principle is straightforward: 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.