decision rights
Also called: who decides
An agreement on who decides a given question, who must be consulted, who has to agree and who can veto. Making it explicit in advance avoids fake consultation and decisions that stall because everyone assumes someone else owns them.
Decision rights answer "who decides this?" before the question comes up. For each kind of decision you agree four roles: who decides, whose advice is sought, who must agree before it goes ahead, and who can veto it, usually on narrow grounds such as the law, safety or the budget. Advice is heard and weighed; agreement is required; a veto stops the decision.
Without them, two failures are common. Decisions stall because everyone assumes someone else owns them. Or a lead asks the team "what do you think?" about something already settled, which is fake consultation, and next time people stop giving input. Two habits prevent both: write the rights down, and name the decision mode before you start (I decide; I decide after consulting you; we decide together; I delegate it to you). Consulting is not voting: the person who decides weighs the input and then explains what they took from it and what they didn't.
Decision rights matter most where work crosses a line: a delegated task (what the person may decide alone), a person who answers to two managers, an acting lead during a vacation, a request from another team. They also change over time. When someone shows they handle a type of decision well, move it to them, and record the change where the team can find it, for example in a short decision log.
Example
July 2027, your seventh month as lead of Klasna's Support team. Four questions land in one week. Writing the rights down takes five minutes and settles who does what:
Two things follow. The shift pattern is reversible, so a week of consultation is enough; a three-week debate for a two-week trial would cost more than a wrong first try. The Sofiia question has a hard date: she must answer another offer by 16 July, so letting that date pass is itself a decision, a "no". Each line then goes into the decision log: what, who, options, why, when to revisit.
Common mistakes
- Asking for input on a decision already made. If it's decided, say so and explain why.
- Treating consulting as a vote. If you mean to follow the majority, the mode is "we decide together"; say that instead.
- Giving a veto without its grounds. Say what a veto can be used for (budget, law, safety), or it turns into a second decider.
- Keeping the rights in your head. Write them on a shared page, so they survive vacations and new hires.
- Quietly overruling a delegated decision. Do it once and people stop deciding; talk first, then change the rule openly.
Learn it in the course
- Who decides? · Sort out who decides, who advises, who agrees and who can veto; name the decision mode before you start; move fast on reversible decisions and keep a decision log.
- Development plans, handover and being away · Write growth plans with people, not for them, lower the bus factor, and leave a handover note so the team runs while you're away.
- Case: ticket ownership, Olha and Taras · One refund ticket, two answers to a family and two rules that both claim it. Find the structural cause, run the conversations and write the rule.
- Case: support for the summer with two people · Use last summer's ticket mix to plan August with two coordinators on shift: forecast the load, choose the structure, decide who decides, and run a pre-mortem.
- Case: a 30-60-90 plan for the Support team · Iryna wants one page before the February one-to-ones. Use your calendar and two months of team data to decide what you stop, what you hand over, what you measure and what you won't conclude.