Delegate decisions that are routine, fall within someone else’s expertise, or can be corrected cheaply; hold decisions that threaten the group’s safety, set one senior member against another, commit scarce critical goods, or speak for the community to outsiders. State out loud which kind each decision is, because a decision that was delegated by habit and held by habit produces confusion about who may act.
Part of Leadership Psychology in Crisis
Sorting decisions into those given to others and those retained is the working core of delegation.
The Parent’s Lists, And The Tests Behind Them
The parent article lists what to delegate: routine operational decisions, tasks within another person’s expertise, information gathering and analysis, and carrying out decided strategies. It lists what to hold: community safety decisions, conflicts between senior members, allocation of scarce critical resources, and external relations. The lists are sound. They are easier to apply if you know the questions underneath.
Ask of each decision:
- How bad is a wrong call, and can it be undone? The more severe and permanent, the more it belongs at a higher level, with more people consulted.
- Who knows most? If a skilled person has better information than the leader, deciding it above them wastes the skill. A midwife decides a birth; a leader who overrides her on medical grounds has made a mistake.
- Does it bind the whole community? A decision that sets policy or commits shared stores affects everyone and should be visible and accountable.
- Does it involve a conflict of interest? Decisions about a leader’s own family, friends or workload are best handled by others.
Sorting Method
Step 1: List the decisions you made in the past week. Include the small ones; that is where the volume is.
Step 2: Mark each by the four questions above. Most will turn out to be routine, expert or cheaply reversible.
Step 3: Assign an owner to each routine type. Name a person, not a committee, and write down what they may decide and what must come to you.
Step 4: Define the report. A weekly summary, or “tell me if it exceeds X”, is enough for most areas.
Step 5: Review after a few weeks of use. Anything that kept returning to you needs either a clearer rule or a different owner.
Holding Does Not Mean Deciding Alone
A held decision may still be taken with the council. The governance articles Decision Making and Resource Allocation describe how communities make the decisions that stay at the top. The point of holding is accountability: one clearly named level answers for it.
Gray Areas
- A delegated decision with larger effects than expected. The owner brings it back. Make this an expected behaviour, not a failure.
- A held decision that has become routine. Hand it down. A scarce-resource decision that is now a simple rule, such as the weekly ration, can be run by the rationing group.
- A decision that is delegated but strongly disliked. The leader stands behind the owner unless the decision was beyond their limits. Overturning it without cause teaches people that delegation is empty.
Common Mistakes
- Holding what you enjoy. Leaders often keep the interesting decisions and delegate the dull ones, which is reversed.
- Delegating something and then asking to approve every case. That is holding it with extra steps.
- Failing to tell the group. If people do not know the owner, they bring the question to the leader, and the delegation is ignored.
- Delegating a decision that needs several parties. Disputes between senior people rarely resolve if one of them is handed the judgment.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Building Capable Deputies — who will take what is delegated
- Combine with: Community Roles — formal naming of responsibilities