Move guide
Decide who decides
Your report suggested a move on at least one of these three practices:
- whether anyone can say who decides the decisions that matter;
- how many standing meetings there are, and whether each one owns a decision;
- how far down a decision can be made without being referred up.
This move guide writes one page on who decides the ten decisions that matter most. It gives every standing meeting a decision, or closes it. Then it takes the empty approval steps out of three routine decisions.
1. When it applies
Use this move guide if your report placed any of these practices in the lowest two stages.
| Practice | Where it may sit today | Where this move guide aims |
|---|---|---|
| Whether anyone can say who decides the decisions that matter | Lagging: "Ask three people who approves a price, a hire or a capital spend and you get three answers." Basic: "A delegations policy exists in a drawer; in practice decisions are re-opened at every level they pass through, and some executives prefer it that way." |
Competent: "For the ten decisions that matter most, one page says who recommends, who decides and who must be asked, and people follow it." |
| How many standing meetings there are, and whether each one owns a decision | Lagging: "Every topic has its own committee, and none of the committees has made a decision anyone can point to." Basic: "Each standing meeting has a name and a slot in the diary; nobody could say what it is allowed to decide." |
Competent: "Each standing meeting has a written purpose that says which decisions it is allowed to make." |
| How far down a decision can be made without being referred up | Lagging: "It takes four signatures to hire a receptionist, and anything of consequence waits for the executive meeting." Basic: "Delegations exist on paper, but managers refer up anyway because they expect to be second-guessed." |
Competent: "Decisions sit with the level that has the information, and middle managers are judged on outcomes rather than on tasks completed." |
If all three already sit at the middle stage or higher, skip this move guide.
It needs the model chosen in choosing the model and the placements from placing each function. Decision rights are cheaper to fix than boxes, so do this before the organisation is drawn.
2. What to do
Five steps, in three to four weeks, then a quarter of holding to it.
- List the ten decisions that matter most. Price, hiring, capital, sourcing and priorities are usually among them.
- For each, write who recommends, who decides and who must be asked. Publish the page, and hold to it for a quarter. The decision-rights worksheet holds the page.
- List every standing meeting, with the decisions it made last quarter. Close or merge the ones with none.
- Give each meeting that survives a one-line purpose. Write the decisions it may make, who sits on it and how often it meets.
- Time three routine decisions from request to answer. Remove each approval step that added only delay. Tell the people below that they now decide.
Table A below holds the decisions and the meetings on one page.
The three free worksheets do the recording:
- /worksheets/operating-model/decision-rights for the decision page;
- /worksheets/operating-model/forums for the meeting list;
- /worksheets/operating-model/delegation-depth for the three timed decisions.
3. What to produce
One table, plus the three worksheets above.
Table A. The decisions and the meetings
| Decision or meeting | Recommends | Decides | Must be asked | Purpose and rhythm (meetings) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decision 1 | ||||
| Decision 2 | ||||
| Decision 3 | ||||
| Meeting 1 | ||||
| Meeting 2 | ||||
| Routine decision timed, and the step removed |
A decision with two people in the "Decides" column has nobody in it.
4. A worked example
Illustrative. Written for this move guide. It describes no client.
An engineering services firm with four hundred staff holds eleven standing meetings a month. Discounts above five per cent wait for the managing director.
The decisions.
- The leadership team listed ten decisions. Three had two people who each thought they decided. The page now names one.
The meetings.
- Four of the eleven meetings had made no decision in the last quarter. Two closed and two merged. The seven that remain each have a purpose and the decisions they may make.
The routine decisions.
- A discount request took six days, through three approvals. The middle approval added nothing, and went. Regional managers now decide discounts up to ten per cent.
One quarter on.
- 10 decisions with one name in the Decides column
- 11 to 7 standing meetings, each with a purpose
- 6 to 2 days for a discount decision
On a retake, all three practices could be answered at the middle stage.
What it looked like in our work
From our own work. Redrawn.
A financial services firm's technology function had four forums whose remits overlapped. One had rarely met. The design replaced them with two, each with one job, and kept the project governance panel as it was.
| Before | Its purpose | After | Its purpose, members and rhythm |
|---|---|---|---|
| A technology forum | Ranked the work outside projects | Sequencing forum | Ranks every technology project and initiative across the business. Technology leaders and representatives of each business unit. Monthly. |
| A prioritisation group | Ranked technology for projects; it rarely met | (merged into the sequencing forum) | |
| A delivery council | Checked whether projects could be done, and their risk | Governance forum | One technical forum that judges whether work can be done and signs off the solution. Technology leaders, with risk and legal when needed. Fortnightly. |
| A governance committee | Signed off technical solutions against policy | (merged into the governance forum) |
Each forum that remained had one question to answer. The ranking and the technical sign-off no longer went to two places each.
5. Effort and dependencies
- Chief executiveOwns the decision page and holds to it.
- Leadership teamAgrees who decides each of the ten decisions.
- Chief of staffKeeps the meeting list, and times the routine decisions.
What you need
- A list of every standing meeting, with its members and its minutes for last quarter.
- Three routine decisions that people complain about.
How long
- Three to four weeks, then a quarter of holding to it.
What gets in the way. We have seen these in our own work:
- Four forums for one function. A financial services firm's technology function had four standing forums whose remits overlapped. Work was ranked in two places and signed off in two more.
- Everything through the top. At a government-owned industrial services business, every tender went through the chief executive.
6. How will you know it worked?
The test is what people do, not what the page says. Retake the check after a quarter of holding to it. Each of these should be true when you answer:
| Practice | You can answer Competent when | A document alone does not count if |
|---|---|---|
| Whether anyone can say who decides the decisions that matter | The page names one decider for each of the ten decisions, and people follow it. | The page exists, and decisions still go to whoever is in the room. |
| How many standing meetings there are, and whether each one owns a decision | Every meeting that remains has a written purpose and the decisions it may make. | The meetings have purposes, but none was closed. |
| How far down a decision can be made without being referred up | Routine decisions are made where the information is, and three have lost a step. | Delegations are written, and the requests still go up. |
The worked example is illustrative.
Think we've used your work without proper credit? Tell us and we'll fix it.