Coordinate and act
The Decision Box
Define for each role what they can decide and act on without asking, so authority is explicit instead of guessed.
Borrowed from military mission command, where leaders state their intent and give subordinates bounded freedom to act on it.
Changes a rule or role · An hour or more to set up · Needs senior backing · Start here for this problem
Try this first
For one role, name two edges. The biggest call they can make alone, and the line where they escalate.
Use it when
Escalations pile up on one person, or people overstep an unstated line and cause rework.
Skip it when
Boxes need revisiting as people grow, or they become cages. Never use one to keep a capable person small, or to avoid the harder work of building their judgment.
How to introduce it
For each role, draw the box. Inside it, decide and act without checking. Outside it, escalate. Make the edges explicit. For AI-influenced work, the box says what the human owner can approve alone and where they have to go up.
How to show up
Draw each role's box with the team, then resolve the overlaps and gaps that surface. The specifics carry the value, so push past use your judgment to a boundary someone can point at.
How long it takes
A session to map roles and boxes. Periodic revisiting as people and work change.
What makes it hard
The overlaps and gaps between boxes are where the conflict lives, so surfacing them is the work. People will argue for boxes bigger or smaller than their judgment supports. Calibrate to what they have demonstrated, and widen it as that grows.
What it looks like when it's working
People decide inside their box without over-checking and escalate what crosses the line. Constant questions about decisions they own, or action beyond the line, means the boundaries are unclear or wrong.
How long until it sticks
A few weeks of operating against the boxes before they feel clear and get calibrated right.
How you know it stuck
People know their box, act inside it, and the team revisits the edges as people grow.
The idea behind it
People act with confidence when they know where their authority ends. Vague bounds produce both failures at once: over-checking things they could decide, and reaching past what they own.
Where it comes from
Military mission command. Define, per role, what a person (or an agent's human owner) may decide without escalating. Everyone knows the bounds within which they can decide and act toward the commander's intent without asking.
Why it matters for senior teams
Only a senior team can install it
Evidence
No reference link has been found for this move yet.