A decision that has no deadline is not postponed. It is abandoned slowly, in public. Meanwhile the people who need it keep working around the gap, and each of them makes a slightly different assumption.
Jim Marsh, author of Culture OS and Managing Principal of JEM Premier Coaching, has publicly described the second of his 4 C's, Choices, as clear decision rights, decision deadlines, and escalation paths. This article looks at the last two, deadlines and escalation, and how to design them in advance. The steps and examples are practical suggestions written for this article, not excerpts from the book.
Three questions every significant decision should answer
Before a meaningful decision enters discussion, answer three questions in writing:
- Who decides?
- By when?
- If that person cannot decide by then, where does it go?
The first is decision rights. The second is the deadline. The third is the escalation path. Teams that answer only the first still stall, because a named owner with no date can wait indefinitely, and a named owner with no escalation route has nowhere to send a conflict.
Setting deadlines that mean something
A useful deadline is tied to a consequence. Instead of "decide next week," write down what the delay costs: the vendor quote expires Friday, the engineering team starts the next phase on the 12th, the customer commitment is due at month end. When the deadline is linked to something real, people take it seriously and the owner can explain it to others.
Work backward from the date the decision is needed, not forward from when it was raised. Then leave time for the input the owner needs. A decision due on the 20th with a consultation round needed on the 15th really has a deadline of the 15th for everyone who is consulted.
Designing the escalation path
Escalation often carries a stigma. People hear it as a sign that someone failed. A well-designed route treats it as ordinary: some decisions need a higher level of authority or a tiebreaker. Define it so it feels routine.
- Trigger: What causes the escalation? Examples include a missed deadline, a disagreement between two owners, or a decision that affects another team's commitment.
- Destination: The specific role that hears it. Name a role, not "leadership."
- Format: A short written summary: the question, the options, the owner's recommendation, the cost of delay.
- Response time: How quickly the destination commits to answering. Without this, the stall just moves up one level.
An illustrative example
This scenario is hypothetical.
Two directors disagree about whether to staff a customer onboarding project from the support team or the implementation team. Each has a reasonable argument. Without a defined route, the disagreement circulates through emails and side conversations for a month. With one, the directors have already agreed that disagreements about shared staffing go to the COO within two business days, using a half-page summary of options. The COO commits to a decision within two more days. The cost of the disagreement is four days, not a month.
Common failure points
- Committee ownership. A decision owned by a group is usually owned by nobody. Assign one person, even if many give input.
- Silent overrides. If a senior leader reverses a decision in a hallway conversation, the written route stops working. When overriding is necessary, do it through the path and tell the owner.
- Decisions made twice. This happens when a team moves on after a meeting but the decision was never recorded. Capture each decision and its owner in one visible place.
Start with the three most expensive open decisions
You do not need a policy for every choice. List the three open decisions that cost the most delay right now. For each, write the owner, the date, and the escalation route, and share the list with the people affected. Review it in your regular leadership meeting until each decision is closed.
If your team wants help building these routes around one live priority, the Culture-to-Execution Sprint includes work on decision rights and handoffs as part of its 12-week structure.