When routine decisions repeatedly return to the owner, the problem is worth examining. It may involve unclear authority, missing information, competing priorities or a genuine need for specialist review. It is not enough to tell people to be more decisive.
This guide uses “decision system” to mean a few shared agreements about who decides, what information is needed and how the team learns afterwards. It is a practical management exercise, not a diagnosis of decision fatigue or a promise of faster results.
Start with a small decision inventory
For a few working days, note the recurring requests that reach you. Choose a manageable sample rather than recording every conversation. For each, ask:
- What decision is actually needed?
- Who currently has authority to make it?
- What information or permission is missing?
- What happens if it is delayed—or if it is wrong?
- Why did it reach you rather than the person closest to the work?
Look for a repeated pattern. If approvals are waiting because nobody knows the budget, the next step may be budget clarity. If people lack the necessary skill, a new approval chart alone will not solve the problem.
Match authority to risk and capability
Reversibility and impact are useful questions, but they are not the only ones. Consider safety, customer commitments, privacy, financial exposure and the rules that apply to your organization. A decision that looks small in monetary terms may still have serious consequences.
Agree which decisions a team member can make independently, which require consultation and which must be escalated. Make the limits explicit. Do not treat silence, an expired response deadline or revenue pressure as automatic permission to proceed.
Use a brief that is short enough to use
For a decision requiring discussion, try these fields:
- Question: what exactly needs to be decided?
- Context: what facts, assumptions and constraints matter?
- Options: what are the realistic alternatives, including waiting where appropriate?
- Trade-offs: what might each option improve, cost or put at risk?
- Recommendation: what does the person preparing the brief suggest, and why?
- Authority and timing: who decides, who must be consulted and when is a decision needed?
- Review: what would cause the team to revisit the decision?
Use the level of detail the situation warrants. A routine scheduling choice should not require the same paperwork as a major commitment.
Keep a record of the decision and next action
A shared record can include the question, decision-maker, decision, reasoning, action owner and review date. Use an existing tool where appropriate, with access suited to the information. Keep sensitive personnel or customer details out of a broadly shared register.
Decide how urgent issues will reach the appropriate person. Do not make a new form the only way someone can raise a safety concern or time-critical problem. A system should support judgement, not hide concerns that arrive through a different channel.
Test one recurring decision type
Illustrative example—not a client case: an owner repeatedly approves routine customer meeting changes. The team agrees that the account lead can reschedule within an agreed service window when the customer accepts. Changes affecting contracted milestones still require the existing approval process.
For a short pilot, record whether requests are handled within the agreed limits and whether customers or colleagues encounter problems. Review exceptions together. The goal is to learn whether the arrangement is useful, not to prove that delegation always saves time.
Review quality as well as speed
Useful questions include:
- How long did comparable decisions take?
- How many required avoidable clarification?
- Were decisions reopened because circumstances changed or because important information was missed?
- Did people understand their authority and feel able to ask for help?
- Did the process add more administrative work than it removed?
Choose your own baseline and review period. There is no universal percentage reduction or number of hours that this exercise will deliver. Adapt or stop a process that does not serve the work.
Where coaching can help
Coaching can provide space to examine your own role in recurring approvals, rehearse a delegation conversation and reflect on a pilot. Explore executive coaching and our guide to team working agreements.
You can book a free 15-minute fit call. Business owners interested in two weeks of free coaching can complete the assessment and application. Applications are manually reviewed and acceptance is not guaranteed.
