Who decides?

It happens when a project gets stuck, or when an executive wants "clarity on governance," or when something went wrong and everyone needs to document who was supposed to do what to prevent it from happening again. Someone calls for a RACI—Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed—to sort out who does what.

The RACI is not the only project management tool that gives me the heebie jeebies. But it is the one project management tool that non-project-management people attempt to deploy more often than any other.

The conversation always goes the same way. Circular. What's the difference between Responsible and Accountable? If you're Accountable, aren't you also Responsible? Who gets final say? The discussion drags. People, frustrated, leave with less clarity than they had when they arrived. The work stays stuck.

That's where I empathize. Stuck work. And when people feel stuck they reach for what they think will work. But the RACI doesn't. It can't. Because the real problem isn't "who's responsible?" The real problem is: nobody knows what they can decide.

You're trying to move something forward—a process change, a workflow adjustment, a solution to a problem you see clearly. You're not sure if you can just do it or if you need approval. So you ask around. The work sits.

Or you're leading an enterprise-wide, cross-functional, multi-disciplinary initiative—IT, ops, and finance all need to weigh in. Nobody agrees on the go/no-go criteria. Everyone has opinions. The launch date slides because there's no way to resolve it.

Or you don't wait. You think you have authority to decide, so you do. Then you find out you overstepped. Someone's frustrated. Next time you're more cautious. More waiting. Like this:

I was a couple of months into a new role. Eager to make a contribution. And a request came in that I thought I could handle on my own: send a survey to a large group of associates for feedback on recent workflow improvements.

So I got to work figuring it out: How do we send internal surveys?, how do I get access to the survey platform?, writing the survey questions, circulating those questions for approval … hit send …

And then told my boss what I was up to in our 1:1.

"You can't do that. You need approval from HR to send an internal survey."

Oh the shame. I had crossed a line I shouldn't have. The midwest people pleaser in me wanted to hide. But I couldn't. Instead I wrote a CYA email to HR asking for approval.

And you know what happened? Nothing.

I followed up and set up a meeting. And guess what? No one cared. It wasn't a problem. The survey helped the business. The world kept turning. But I still didn't know what I could decide. And probably neither do you.

That's what this creates. Stuck work. Eroded confidence. Overly cautious people. Slowed-down problem solving.

Organizations inherited this from scientific management: thinkers at the top, doers at the bottom. Henry Ford designed it on purpose—everyone else has copied it. But it creates stuck work because the people closest to the problem can't decide, and the people who can decide are too far away to know what matters.

We don't talk about who gets to make which decisions in our organizations. So people wait, or guess, and the work stays stuck.

That's frustrating for everyone. Even the people at the top. And especially for us doing the work.

Here's something that can help: ​​getting clear on who decides what.

Decision rights means knowing who decides what—and what input they need to make a good decision. In any piece of work, someone has final say and someone executes. Sometimes that's the same person. Sometimes people need to weigh in. The point isn't getting everyone to agree—it's knowing who gets to say yes.

It's about developing shared understanding by asking out loud: whose call is this?

When work is stuck, figure out what decision is blocking it. Not "this needs leadership support"—what decision needs to be made? Then ask directly: "Who decides this?" If nobody knows, escalate the question, not the decision. Your job isn't to make the call if it's not yours—it's to surface that nobody knows whose it is.

Try this: "I need a decision on X by Friday to keep this moving. I think it's yours, but if it's not, can you point me to who owns it?" You're not asking permission to decide, you're asking who has the authority.

By doing that, you're making the ambiguity visible so it can be addressed. Because once you know whose decision it is, you can go get it. And the work can move.

Thanks for reading. Hit reply and let me know your thoughts.

How To Work is healthcare-focused work design inspiration (from the experts!) to nudge your perspectives and practices into better alignment with the world of work as it is, and away from what it was. Here’s my take on what we’re working through.