Decision Debt

Decision Debt is the time and money a team loses while waiting for one person to decide. It builds when decisions queue up behind a leader: work pauses, people make safe guesses, and deadlines slip. Like financial debt, a little is normal. It becomes a problem when it grows faster than you pay it down.

Drafted with AI for Jay Sampat, Chief Mirror Holder · coach review pending

In practice

The slowest part of most teams is the wait for a yes.

The Friday someone finally asked, “Are we still waiting on you for that?”

Decision Debt

How do you estimate your Decision Debt?

Count the hours people spend waiting on you, then put a value on them. An illustration, not research: say 6 people each lose 2 hours a week waiting for your approval. That’s 12 hours a week, or 552 hours over a 46-week year. Multiply by what an hour of their time costs your organisation, in any currency, and you have a rough annual figure.

How do you pay it down?

  • Write down how your common decisions get made, so others can make them without you.
  • Give people a threshold: below a certain size or risk, they decide and tell you afterwards.
  • Set a decision day: clear the queue at a fixed time each week, so nothing waits more than a few days.
  • Let a different call stand when it’s good enough. See Why do new managers give answers too fast?

The free Decision Debt calculator does the arithmetic for you, in your own currency, and names the most expensive kind of decision to hand down first.

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Drafted with AI · coach review pending