Summary

Clarifying how decisions will be made, who will make them, and how others in the organization will be involved (e.g. RAPID, RACI, etc.)


Decision-making tools help organizations identify all the activities that must take place for a decision to be made and executed well. Using these tools, organizations determine and define the roles that individuals will play in decisions of different types.

There are several decision-making tools nonprofit leaders can use, usually with acronyms for the roles that individuals can take on during the decision-making process. For example, RAPID:

  • "R" stands for "recommender" – the person who drives the process.
  • "A" is for an individual who needs to "approve" a recommendation (or can veto it).
  • "P" stands for "perform" – the person who carries out the decision once it has been made.
  • "I" stands for "input". An "I" must be consulted, but does not have a vote or veto.
  • "D" means "decide". The "D" has final authority to commit the organization to action.

Other decision-rights tools include:

  • ASICK (Accountable, Support, Inform, Consult, Okay)
  • CAIRO (Consulted, Approves, Informed, Responsible, Out of loop)
  • IMRN (Input, Make, Ratify, Notify)
  • LACTI (Lead, Accountable, Consult, Tasked, Informed)
  • RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed)
  • REDI (Responsibility, Execution, Decision-Making, Influence)


How it's used

A clear understanding of decision roles and structures, or "decision rights," is an important component of an effective organization. Organizations are often faced with critical decisions, of both the major-and-infrequent variety (e.g., establishing a five-year strategy, developing or closing major programs or services, launching or exiting partnerships) and the smaller-but-more-frequent type (e.g., budgeting, hiring, and staffing). Unstructured decision-making processes and roles can create bottlenecks. Whether applied to the entire organization or just to specific programs, departments, or decisions, clear decision rights help organizations to:

  • Make more effective decisions by giving authority and accountability to a single decision-maker
  • Make more efficient decisions by including only necessary participants in the process and assigning clear responsibility to the driver of the process
  • Increase transparency about staff roles in the process
  • Reduce conflict by increasing role clarity


Methodology

Introducing a decision-rights tool is a multistep process:

  1. Introduce the concept and tool: Ensure everyone in the organization understands the goal of clarifying decision-making roles, the specific tool that will be used (e.g. RAPID), and the process for rolling it out.
  2. Identify key decisions and diagnose problems: Select a handful of key decisions causing the organization pain and identify what is currently holding these decisions back.
  3. Apply the tool to a few key decisions: Clarify how these key decisions should be made in the future, using the decision-rights tool to redesign the process. Assign clear roles ("R," "I," and so forth) to each person involved in the decision-making process. Begin making these decisions in the new way. Assess the improvements and modify roles as necessary.
  4. Roll it out more broadly: After piloting the tool on a few key decisions, use the same process to clarify all other critical decisions within the organization.
  5. Step back and review the whole: Continue to assess whether decisions are being made in an efficient and effective manner. As the organization evolves or grows, the roles may need to be reassigned.

Source: The Bridgespan Group, https://www.bridgespan.org/insights/library/nonprofit-management-tools-and-trends/decision-making-tools
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Last modified: Wednesday, 15 March 2023, 12:51 PM