The Decision Jam

Ever found yourself frustrated by how slow decisions move through your organisation? Maybe it feels like the same conversations happen over and over, or that every decision needs multiple approvals before anything gets done. You’re not alone. The culprit? A lack of clarity in how decisions are actually made.

I once worked with a leadership team convinced they had a strong decision-making process. On paper, everything seemed fine. But when we mapped it out, something became painfully obvious – bottlenecks everywhere. Some decisions that should have taken hours were stretching into weeks. Worse still, team members weren’t even clear on who was making the final call.

This is where decision process mapping becomes a game changer. It’s not a sexy exercise, but it’s an essential one. By visually mapping how decisions flow, you expose hidden inefficiencies, redundant approval steps, and unclear accountability. You get to see, in black and white, where things are getting stuck – and fix them.

When teams go through this exercise, they often uncover one of three things:

• Decisions are being escalated unnecessarily – team members are seeking approval for things they should own.
• There’s no shared understanding of process – different people believe decisions are made in different ways.
• Important decisions lack structure – people lack good guidelines and clear criteria.

Fixing this doesn’t require a massive overhaul. It starts with asking three simple questions:

• Who owns this type of decision?
• What steps need to happen before it’s made?
• How do we ensure consistency across teams?

Once those are answered, you can refine and streamline. The goal isn’t just faster decisions – it’s better ones that stick. Because in the end, the biggest risk to execution isn’t making the wrong decision, it’s not making one at all.

For C-Suite Leaders: Set the expectation that decisions shouldn’t sit idle due to unclear ownership. If it’s happening, process map and analyse. Decision-making speed is a competitive advantage -use it.

For Risk Leaders: Use decision maps to identify where you need to create guidance on risk taking . Work with teams to identify where risk assessments should play a role in key decisions and ensure risk appetite guides, rather than delays, decision-making.