Operations consulting · Problems we solve

Decisions take too long, and they land on my desk.

Approvals pile up. Problems climb the ladder to people who can’t fix them faster, while the people who could are waiting for permission.

Slow decisions and execution cost companies up to 5% of annual revenue. West Monroe survey of more than 1,200 US leaders, 2025

Book a 30-minute conversation How we fix it
What usually gets tried

Why the usual fixes don’t hold

Another meeting

A weekly review clears today’s pile, and the next one forms behind it.

Telling people to decide faster

They still need sign-off, so the work waits anyway. Or they decide without the information, and the decision comes back.

The leader works longer hours

The leader becomes the bottleneck. Everything waits for one calendar.

The cause is where authority sits, not how hard anyone works.

When the authority to decide sits far from the people who know the work, every decision has to climb, and everyone waits for it. The fix is deciding who decides what: moving the right decisions closer to the work, with clear limits, and keeping the hard ones at the top.

How we fix it

We map where decisions wait, and who should make them.

Step 1

Trace the decisions

For one workflow, we follow which decisions get made, by whom, how long they wait, and how often they come back changed.

Step 2

Find the misplaced ones

Decisions usually approved unchanged mean authority sits too high. Decisions often reversed mean the gap is know-how. Each needs a different fix.

Step 3

Move them, safely

A plan for who decides what, with limits and checks, tested on the workflow before you change it.

What you get

Where decisions wait, and who should make them

2–3
weeks
8–12
hours of your people’s time, in total
Fixed
fee, agreed in a one-page scope before anything starts

We call this a Snapshot: one problem, one workflow, a few weeks.

  • A map of where decisions wait and climb
  • Which decisions can move closer to the work, and which can’t
  • A who-decides-what plan with clear limits
  • The reasoning, in plain language your team can follow

For the leadership team as a whole, an Operating Model diagnostic (about 4 to 6 weeks) maps meetings and decision rights as a flow of decisions. You decide.

Example

“I’m qualified to sign those. I just don’t have the authority.”

Illustrative example: composite, synthetic data

Large-loss claims at a regional property insurer

Every large claim waited for one of two senior adjusters to sign off. Files waited about 13 days. Several experienced adjusters were qualified to approve claims within their competence but had no authority to.

What changed: Sign-off authority moved to an adjuster who was already qualified, with clear limits, and a checklist at intake caught missing documents. Together, they cut the wait for a review from about 13 days to under an hour, and adjusters went from asking what to do to acting and reporting back.

The idea underneath

The problem usually sits below the level that can fix it, and above the level that can see it.

The person at the bottleneck usually knows. Their manager can see it but lacks the authority to change the structure. Leadership has the authority but can’t see how the work actually flows. Matrix makes the problem visible to the people who can act on it, without blaming the people who have been carrying it.

How we know: the methods behind the answer

Start with 30 minutes

Tell us where the work gets stuck.

A short, honest conversation. Here’s how the 30 minutes go:

  • 0–5We agree what we’re here for. Either of us can decide it isn’t a fit, and that’s fine.
  • 5–20You tell us what’s going wrong, in your words. Where does work get stuck? Who does everything go through?
  • 20–25We tell you honestly whether we can help, and recommend one step if we can.
  • 25–30You hear exactly what that step would ask of your people and what it costs. Then you decide whether to take it.

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