Decision Clarity Drives Agility

Years ago, I was working with colleagues on an enterprise leadership program that would eventually reach nearly 100,000 people. We were doing a lot of cross-functional alignment, and I suggested we clarify roles and responsibilities with a RACI.

One of my colleagues suggested RAPID instead. His point was that we’d already done a pretty good job defining who would responsible for doing the work. The ambiguity we were running into was underneath that: How would decisions get made? Who should provide input? Who could recommend a direction? Who actually had the authority to decide?

RAPID gave us a way to make that explicit so we could be more agile in complex work. It also fit one of our operating principles: alignment didn’t need to require consensus between those consulted on every decision before we could move forward. The decision stakes weren’t all equal among every partner group.

I’ve been thinking about that lesson again as AI becomes increasingly part of everyday work. We can produce plans, analyses, charters, and learning experiences much faster now, but that speed can make clarity about decisions behind the work more important.

Sometimes a RACI is exactly what we need. Sometimes the more useful question is under that: Who owns the decision needed to move to the next step?

#DecisionDiscipline #OrganizationalChange #DecisionMaking #ChangeManagement #LeadershipDevelopment #RAPID #RACI 

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