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Who is responsible for making a decision in your company or organization?

It can be helpful to consider who it is that makes decisions in a meeting: do all colleagues or only some colleagues make the decisions?

The acronym RACI can be used in this discussion.

▪ R those who are Responsible: the colleagues who will be actually doing the task.

▪ A those who are Accountable: those with ultimate authority for the decision, and who could be blamed if it goes wrong.

▪ C those who are Consulted: those colleagues, e.g. consultants, who can give expert advice or others affected by the decision – for instance, those involved in a project or certain stakeholders, such as suppliers or trade unions. Such colleagues are consulted about decisions but do not actually make the decisions themselves.

▪ I those who are Informed: colleagues who only need to be informed about the decisions that have already been made, but need not be consulted and are not responsible for making the actual decision.

Some authorities also add O for Omit for those colleagues who do not need to be informed or consulted about the decision and are not responsible for it, to make the acronym CAIRO (Consulted, Accountable, Informed, Responsible, Omit).

one minute wonder You should support a decision that has been agreed, even if you don’t agree with it.

The significance of this is that time can be wasted and roles confused unless it is clear who it is that actually makes the decision.

You should also consider how decisions are made in your company or organization:

▪ Are decisions made by the leader? This can often be quick and efficient but could be considered harsh as colleagues may not have been involved and may not feel valued as their views are not sought.

▪ Are decisions made by a majority? This can be considered fair but the minority may be reluctant to put the decision into action.

▪ Are decisions made by general agreement (consensus)? This has the disadvantage that it may take a long time to win over each colleague but it has the advantage that colleagues will feel committed to putting them into action as they have been part of the decision-making process.

It is important to be clear about who makes the decision. If you are not clear on this, roles may become confused and time will be wasted.