The Decision Rights Map
Four–ten people · 25 minutes · one name per decision
Most team friction is not disagreement about the answer — it is two people who each thought the decision was theirs.
WorkshopSkill · The Decision Rights Map — Slide Deck · CC BY 4.0Who actually decides this —
and who has been waiting for permission nobody knew they needed?
WorkshopSkill · The Decision Rights Map — Slide Deck · CC BY 4.0Three columns per decision
- Decides — exactly one name. The person who holds the pen and lives with the consequence. “We” is a red flag.
- Consulted — who must be heard before it is made. A voice, not a veto.
- Informed — who just needs to be told after. Not in the room, but kept in the loop.
How the 25 minutes run
| Time | Phase | The room does |
|---|---|---|
| 0–5 | List | Name the recurring decisions this team actually makes — not one-offs |
| 5–13 | Assign | One name under Decides, a consulted list, an informed list |
| 13–19 | Spot | Circle the rows where the decider was contested, blank, absent, or written as a group |
| 19–25 | Reassign | Take one unclear decision, name its single owner out loud, say what changes now |
| — | After | The reassigned row goes on the wall with its owner and date |
Two rules hold the map
- Exactly one decider per decision. “We both decide” is not an answer — it is the finding.
- Consulted is not a veto. Being heard before a decision is not the same as holding a say over it.
- Name the person who will live with the consequence, not the person closest to the work.
A decision with no owner
gets decided by whoever is loudest.
A decision with two owners gets relitigated every time.
WorkshopSkill · The Decision Rights Map — Slide Deck · CC BY 4.0Three ways it stalls, three rescues
- Nobody will claim a decision → do not assign it in the room; ask “who will live with the consequence of this?” The answer names the owner.
- Everyone wants the important one → wanting it usually means they do not want the downside. Ask what they would give to not own it.
- It collapses into a committee → force a single name. The team can still be consulted; ownership is not dictatorship.
What leaves the room
- A wall of the team’s real decisions, each with one named decider, its consulted circle, its informed list.
- One previously-ambiguous decision now owned out loud, with what changes written down.
- A shared vocabulary for the next argument: “is that a consult or a decide?”
Three questions before you close
Which decisions have the same person on every row? That is a bottleneck wearing the mask of clarity.
Where does the person who actually decides differ from the person the org chart says decides?
For the decision you reassigned: was the ambiguity about who decides, or about whether it should be a decision at all?
WorkshopSkill · The Decision Rights Map — Slide Deck · CC BY 4.0What carries into real work
- New manager, first week: map the team’s decisions before you inherit the invisible ones.
- After a collision: run only the row that caused the clash — the map usually shows two people who each believed they owned it.
- Re-run it quarterly; ownership quietly drifts back to whoever is loudest unless you redraw it.
.
One name · consulted before · informed after
The moment you cannot name one decider, you have found the real problem.
WorkshopSkill · The Decision Rights Map — Slide Deck · CC BY 4.0Take this folder with you
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