Coordinate and act
Move authority to where the information is
Put each decision at the level that holds the context, rather than the level that holds the title.
Borrowed from former US Navy submarine captain David Marquet, in his book Turn the Ship Around! Read the original source.
Changes a rule or role · An hour or more to set up · Needs senior backing
Try this first
Take one decision that escalates today and ask who already has the information to make it. Move it there.
Use it when
Decisions are made far from where the knowledge lives.
Skip it when
Whoever holds the information also needs the judgment and the accountability. Pushing authority onto someone unready sets them up to fail. Some decisions sit high for reasons beyond information, like cross-team trade-offs, and should stay there.
How to introduce it
Compare where decisions get made with where the relevant information sits, then move the authority to match. Instead of one senior person deciding for everyone, push each call down to the level that already holds the context. You want many good decision-makers close to the facts, not a few far from them.
How to show up
Map the decisions against where the information lives and move authority there, including when that means senior people giving calls up. Support whoever is newly holding authority, because they may not be used to it.
How long it takes
A session to map decisions to where information sits. The shift itself takes longer.
What makes it hard
Senior people resist giving decisions up and junior people are nervous taking them, so both need support. Accountability has to travel with the authority, or you get people deciding without owning the result.
What it looks like when it's working
Decisions get made fast and well near the information, and senior people stop handling calls they were never better placed to make. Bottlenecks at the top while the facts sit below means nothing moved.
How long until it sticks
Several weeks before relocated authority settles and people trust the new decision-makers.
How you know it stuck
The team asks who has the information to decide, and puts the authority there.
The idea behind it
The best decisions get made where the information is, which is rarely where the title is.
Where it comes from
David Marquet's work on submarine command. Locate each decision at the level that holds the context, not the level that holds the title. Rather than one captain deciding for 135 people, Marquet created 135 decision-makers by pushing authority down to where the information already was.
Why it matters for senior teams
Only a senior team can install it