Valuable and Effective Decision-Making: Part One: Delegating Decisions

The goal of effective project management is to coordinate the actions of a group so that the intended outcomes of the project are achieved effectively and efficiently. For projects of any complexity, this will entail a host of decisions, most of which will be delegated by the overall project manager to others on the team.

Delegation is often poorly understood, and is confused on the one hand with abdication and on the other with pseudo-delegation. Abdication occurs when a manager hands off decision-making authority without also building in accountability for the decision. Pseudo-delegation is when there is a pretense of handing off decision-making, but the person to whom the decision is apparently delegated cannot actually make the decision – the authority to make the decision stays with the delegator. Both of these false delegations cost the project in efficiency and effectiveness.

True delegation means handing off the decision-making power to a person who is willing and able to be accountable for the decision and who can coordinate the decision for which they are accountable with the project as a whole. True delegation requires that the delegator and the delegatee be aligned on three areas:

• Clear decision CRITERIA
• Clear decision METHOD
• Clear decision ROLES

Criteria are a basis for comparing various decision options. By providing clear criteria and obtaining the delegatee’s commitment to those criteria, the delegator ensures that the decisions that are made will meet his or her requirements and the needs of the project as a whole. The foundation of decision making is a simple, actionable statement of the overarching strategy for the project, for example “we are committed to being better, not bigger” or “we are out to be the lowest cost provider in our industry.”

Once the strategy is clear, decision criteria fall into three main areas:

• Principles – what rules are we committed to following in executing on the strategy? For example, maintaining the integrity of the brand or excellent customer service
• Measures – what are the key metrics that will tell us if this decision succeeded?
• Constituents – whose interests must be considered in making the decision? For example, customers, investors, suppliers.

Once these criteria are known and agreed-upon, the delegate can compare how different decision options (including the option of not making a decision) will impact on each of the areas identified, confident that he or she and the delegator are on the same page.