Decision-Making Frameworks for Teams
Poor decision-making processes slow teams down, create conflict, and produce outcomes that lack team buy-in. Clear decision-making frameworks reduce ambiguity, accelerate decisions, and ensure the right people are involved in the right decisions.
RACI
Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed — a simple framework for clarifying who does what in a decision or process. One Accountable owner per decision. Multiple Responsible parties can do the work. Consulted parties must be heard before the decision. Informed parties are notified after.
DACI
Driver (owns the process), Approver (makes the final call), Contributors (provide input), Informed (notified). Particularly good for product and technology decisions.
Disagree and Commit
Team members may disagree with a decision but commit to executing it fully. Everyone must have been genuinely heard before committing. Disagree and commit is not suppression of dissent — it is resolution of dissent through commitment.
Decision Documents
For significant decisions, write a decision document: context, options considered, trade-offs, decision, and rationale. Invaluable for onboarding, decision audit trails, and preventing the same decisions being relitigated when people change.