← Glossary
Org & delivery

Decision Rights

Also known as: decision-making authority

Decision rights define who has the authority to make which decisions, and at what level, without needing to escalate.

Key takeaways
  • Decision rights define who can make which decisions, and at what level, without escalating.
  • Clear rights let a business move quickly; unclear ones send everything back up to the founder.
  • Defining them is about permission as much as control: telling capable people where they are trusted to decide.

Clear decision rights are what let a business move quickly as it grows. When people know which calls are theirs to make, work does not queue up waiting for a founder to weigh in. When rights are unclear, everything escalates, which is a fast route to the founder bottleneck.

Defining them is less about control and more about permission: telling capable people, explicitly, where they are trusted to decide.

When it applies

  • Decisions queue up waiting for one person.
  • People are unsure whether a call is theirs to make.
  • The same decisions get re-litigated because no one owns them.

Commonly confused with

RACI matrix

A RACI is a broad responsibility map. Decision rights zoom in on decision authority specifically.

Frequently asked

How are decision rights different from a RACI?
A RACI maps roles for tasks and decisions broadly. Decision rights focus specifically on who has the authority to decide what, and at what level.
Related terms
Organisational StructureRACI MatrixFounder Bottleneck

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